Depression Essay example -- Health, Depressed Individuals

Certain practical issues need to be considered by the clinician during the assessment of MDD, (Dozois & Dobson, 2009). Depressed individuals tend to express their problems in a detailed manner when they are aware of what is expected from them during initial phase of assessment. Warning depressed clients about the possible interruptions at the initial phase along with providing them rationale helps to improve the effectiveness of the assessment (Dozois & Dobson, 2009). As depressed individuals tend to commit cognitive bias (Dozois & Beck, 2008), it is necessary to determine the actual impairment by evaluating patient’s daily routine in terms of different areas of functioning. Each diagnostic criteria needs to be addressed in number of ways (Shea, 1988). Sometimes, the patient describe their symptoms in more idiosyncratic way. So, the clinician needs to translate those concerns in to the nosological system (Dozois & Dobson, 2009). Bolland & Keller (2009) emphasize the need to assess the number of previous episodes and their duration because this information is one the predictor for risk of subsequent relapse (Solomon et al, 2000). Dozois & Dobson (2009) have reported to rely upon information related to previous episode carefully as the client may commit the reporting bias. The reporting bias can be reduced by ensuring that the patient understands the time frame to which he or she refers (Dozois & Dobson, 2009) and providing contextual cues to the patient’s memory (Shea, 1988). The information related to previous treatments, medical history, patient’s motivation for change, etc. may help in identifying resources for change (Dozois & Dobson, 2009). It is also helpful to assess client’s strengths which will help in formulating... ...owever, if Medical conditions worsens the symptoms of depression, then mood disorder is diagnosed as MDD and medical condition is listed on Axis III of the DSM-IV-TR( APA, 2000a). It is difficult to differentiate between depression and dementia (Gualtieri and Johnson, 2008), but certain differences can be noted among two (Dozois and Dobson, 2009). For example, recent memory is more effected in depression than remote memory; such symptoms are not prominent in dementia (Dozois and Dobson, 2009). Conclusion: For the accurate assessment of MDD, the clinician should not rely upon results obtained from one psychometric instrument. Rather, he or she should try to integrate information obtained from multiple sources to get the holistic picture of patient. The clinicians also needs to consider above mentioned practical issues while making assessment related to MDD.