Clinical Reasoning Cycle

Running head: CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE
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Clinical Reasoning Cycle
Student’s Name
University

CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE
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Clinical Reasoning Cycle
Introduction
Gummesson, Sundén, & Fex (2018) suggest that the clinical reasoning cycle is the
process of understanding the situation of the patient and developing interventions that reflect the
needs that the patient presents. In this case, the professional goes through eight stages that lead to
the development of clinical knowledge about the patient and developing an action to address the
problem.
Patient’s situation
The first step of the clinical reasoning cycle is the review of the patient situation to
understand the issues that need to be considered. This paper reviews the case of Alison, a single
mother aged 38 with two children who seems to be suffering from clinical depression. From the
current situation where she is financially unstable and struggling to meet her daily needs which
makes it difficult for her to cope well. From the analysis, there are significant stressors like low
mood, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping and even poor relationship with her kids which all
point to signs of depression (Siu, 2016). However, there are protective factors of very limited
history of the psychiatric history from the fact that she has had such a situation in the past but
managed to overcome.
Collect cues and information
In the collecting information phase, the focus is to probe the patient through mental state
examination with a focus on the issues that Alison was presenting in the clinical environment.
From the examination her behavior was seen in speaking in a soft torn that showed someone who
was low, she avoided eye contacted and she showed signs of retardation through hand wringing.

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Her cognition was good with a moderate level of consciousness, attention, concentration and
good memory of the different accounts that she had gone through (Driessen & Hollon, 2010).
Her thought process is normally based on the way she was explaining herself and the information
that she was presenting was flowing and connected. Her thought content showed no signs of
illusionary or preoccupation content but seems to show no signs of hope. Her effect can be
described as dysphoric since she shows signs of depression and irritation due to the challenges
that she is facing. Lastly, her mood state can be characterized as affecting her eating, sleeping,
social and sexual life which shows that she is disturbed and depressed from the low mood.
Process the information
The next step is processing information using the DSM-5 to determine the risk that she is
facing. From this tool, I can firmly conclude that Alison is depressed because of the specific
features that she displays. Tolentino & Schmidt (2018) suggest tat one of the requirements for
concluding that the patient is depressed is having five or more symptoms in the same period
within two weeks and at least one of the symptoms of depressed mood or loss of pressure. For
Alison I have noted that she is having a depressed mood most of her days, she is having
diminishing interest and pleasure in things like social relationships where she is no longer
meeting the demands of her relationship with Dave her boyfriend. Simms, Prisciandaro, Kruege
& Goldberg (2012) adds that characteristics of depression are seen in significant weight loss due
to poor eating and loss of appetite, feeling of worthlessness where she is full of guilt for not
being there for her two kids lately and her diminished ability to concentrate recently. These
features indicate that she is suffering from melancholic depression that is characterized by low
mood, lack of response to pleasure situations, changes in appetite, the feeling of guilt and
agitation.