The depression may stem from a sense of grief around the loss of her mother. Her recurrent thoughts of the loss of her mother seems to have a major impact in her life. The lack of contact with her father since her mother passed away may compound this, as she lacks another parental figure for support. Whilst the loss of her mother is clearly a significant factor in Aneeka’s depression, reactive depression was considered an appropriate diagnosis. Reactive depression is a state of depression that individuals experience in response to a major stressor, for instance for Aneeka the passing of her mother (DSM-V, 2013). Chronic Grief was considered, however her symptoms are not yet considered severe enough for this to be an appropriate diagnosis. The DSM-V (2013) stipulates symptoms must be “unduly severe or prolonged” (p.213) to be considered as Chronic Grief. Whilst her symptoms are undeniably long-term (the DSM-V states a period of greater than 2 months as long-term for grief), they are not able to be considered unduly severe on the basis of her case history. This may be reassessed during treatment.
Supplementary information which could have been useful when diagnosing Aneeka include: a) her family situation, conflicts between her
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Findings by Hranov (2007) have shown the existence of an anxiety disorder being the strongest risk factor for the progression of depression. Therefore, this diagnosis is logical and commonplace. NICE guidance states that the frontline treatment for anxiety, in this case panic disorder, and depression is cognitive behavioural therapy (National Institute for Health & Care Excellence, 2011). Additionally, findings have shown that CBT can produce enduring treatment effects even with comorbid diagnosis, for instance depression and anxiety (Craske et al., 2007; Tsao, Mystkowski, Zucker, & Craske,