Acute Mental Illness : Case Study Assignment.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Name:

MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT1
Acute mental illness is predominantly characterised by disturbing and distressing
signs that require immediate care. According to Mötteli et al. (2018), the diversity of mental
illness has made it challenging to identify the situation; thus, delaying the treatment quickly.
As per the given case study, Joseph is 19 years old first-year Geography student at the
university. He had exhibited severe symptoms of acute mental health conditions that involve
having bizarre and unusual experiences that include hearing of strange and unknown voices
for the past few weeks. From the signs and symptoms, it can be stated that Joseph is suffering
from Psychosis, a mental condition that leads to disconnection from reality and
schizophrenia, where feeling and hearing of things occur that do not exist in reality. The
diagnosis of the case includes DSM that involves criteria such as the persistence of symptoms
for more than two to three weeks and acute onset of the signs that include delusional feelings,
disorganisation in speech and hallucinations. The core diagnostic criteria for psychotic
disorder is the persistence of symptoms for more than two to three weeks and acute onset of
the signs that include delusional feelings, disorganisation in speech and hallucinations. From
the case study of Joseph, the symptoms of delusion are deepening that require prompt
treatment.
It can be seen that Joseph’s symptom aligned with the diagnostic criteria as the signs
were at an elevated rate and persist for more than two to three days that had to worsen the
scenario. Moreover, initially, he heard voices; however, after some time, he can see people
that demonstrate a higher level of delusional effect and hallucinations. He was isolating him
in either the library or his room in fear of being misjudged; however, this was limiting his
chance of recognition of his condition. The two most prevalent symptoms of acute mental
illness are delusion and hallucination, which are thought to be similar; however, does the
patient who has psychosis exhibits distinctive symptoms. As opined by Li et al. (2019),
delusion is a false impression or belief that is firmly ascertain held even though it is

MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT2
contradictory to reality. There are different types of delusions such as delusions of paranoia,
somatic delusions and grandiose delusions that affect due to different kinds of reasons and,
thus, have different impacts on the brain functioning. The individual having delusion of
paranoia may think that someone follows them regularly, or secret messages are sent to them.
In the case of grandiose delusion, there is an exaggerated sense of importance, whereas a
person thinks that he or she might have a terminal disease in case of somatic delusion. On the
other hand, Laloyaux et al. (2019) stated that the hallucination is stated to be a sensory
perception that occurs in the absence of any kind of stimulus such as hearing, seeing, feeling,
or other sensory insights. The possible diagnosis of the condition, psychosis can be done
through a psychiatric evaluation where the doctor observes the behaviour of the patient and
interrogates about the situation, feelings and experiences (Stocks et al. 2017). In addition to
this, medical tests and X-rays can be conducted that would help in determining the presence
of any underlying illness that can be responsible for causing the symptoms. Therefore, the
assessment tool that can be used for diagnosing mental illness in consultation with a
psychiatrist who is responsible for eliciting and recognising the early clinical manifestation of
the disorder, thus, deciding upon the need for referral to specialist service or clinicians. The
severity of the illness can be determined using scales. As per the opinion of Ly and DeLisi
(2017), each case of psychosis is different in nature and thus, the exact cause of the issue is
not clear. Certain diseases may be responsible for causing psychosis such as triggers like the
use of the drug, lack of adequate amount of sleep and environmental factors. In addition to
these, other situations can lead to types of psychosis that include illnesses such as brain
diseases like Huntington’s disease, Parkinson's disease, brain tumour, or chromosomal
disorders. Therefore, it can be stated that in the current context, there is no precise way that
can be used for the identification of the likely cause of the development of psychosis. White
et al. (2019) opined that in recent studies, it was shown that genetics play a vital role in the