Assignment: Assessing and Treating Pediatric Patients with Mood Disorders
Manvir Pannu
Walden University
NURS 6630: Psychopharmalogical Approaches to Treat Psychopathology
Aaron Weiner
December 28, 2020
2
Assignm
...
Assignment: Assessing and Treating Pediatric Patients with Mood Disorders
Manvir Pannu
Walden University
NURS 6630: Psychopharmalogical Approaches to Treat Psychopathology
Aaron Weiner
December 28, 2020
2
Assignment : Assessing and Treating Pediatric Patients With Mood Disorders
In the given scenario, the client is an 8-year-old African American male who
arrives at the ER with his mother. He is exhibiting signs of depression. The patient complained of
feeling "sad", the mother reports that the teacher said the child is withdrawn from peers in class,
decreased appetite, and occasional irritation periods. The client reached all developmental
landmarks at appropriate ages. Laboratory studies are within the normal range. The child was
referred to psychiatry for evaluation.
The patient is alert, oriented x 3, clear, coherent, goal-directed, spontaneous. The selfreported mood was "sad." Affect was somewhat blunted but smiled appropriately at various
points throughout the clinical interview. He denies visual and auditory hallucinations. No
delusional or paranoid thought processes were noted. Judgment and insight appear to be ageappropriate. He is not endorsing active suicidal ideation but does admit that he often thinks about
himself being dead and what it would be like to be dead.
Which decision did you select?
The first selected treatment option is Zoloft 25 mg orally daily for depression.
Why did you select this decision? Be specific and support your response with clinically
relevant and patient-specific resources, including the primary literature
Major depressive disorder occurs in adults and children and adolescents (Gershon et al.,
1987). According to researchers, it is appropriate for clinicians to prescribe an SSRI for children
and adolescents experiencing persistent moderate to severe depression or anxiety symptoms with
clear evidence of functional impairment in addition to supportive treatment or a course of
psychotherapy (Garland et al., 2016). In the given scenario, the patient is exhibiting functional
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impairment, such as a child is withdrawn from peers in class, decreased appetite, and occasional
irritation periods. In addition to psychopharmacology, child or adolescent with mild depression
or anxiety symptoms, the most appropriate initial step should be supportive treatment including
psychoeducation, sleep hygiene, practical problem-solving including self-help materials, as well
as family and school interventions if indicated, while conducting an extended baseline evaluation
for the persistence of depressive symptoms and functional assessment over several weeks.
Why did you not select the other two options provided in the exercise? Be specific and
support your response with clinically relevant and patient-specific resources, including the
primary literature
The reason for not prescribed Paxil 10 mg because the Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has advised that the antidepressant paroxetine (marketed
as Seroxat) should not be prescribed for children or adolescents (Waechter, 2003). FDA warned
that children younger than 18 should not take the antidepressant Paxil because of a possible
increased risk of suicidal thinking and suicide attempts associated with the drug(Kweon & Kim,
2019). Testing bupropion in research studies of children and adolescents has been limited(Kweon
& Kim, 2019). However, the effectiveness and safety of bupropion have rarely been studied in
the pediatric population. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence regarding bupropion in
pediatrics (Kweon & Kim, 2019).
What were you hoping to achieve by making this decision? Support your response with
evidence and references to the Learning Resources (including the primary literature).
The hope was to a reduction in symptoms of depression and improvement in performance
until the next visit. Researchers did a study on thirty-six children with epilepsy who had a
depressive disorder. All patients had an improvement in their d
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