Rahim has been a moderately successful engineer for the last 20 years. In that t
ID: 3503514 • Letter: R
Question
Rahim has been a moderately successful engineer for the last 20 years. In that time (in fact, ever since he was a young child) Rahim does not remember a period where he has been truly happy—he has always felt a sense of sadness about himself even though he has a loving family.
Although intelligent, he suffers from low self-esteem and has always been plagued by poor sleep and low levels of energy. Rahim is functional at work, however, he definitely feels that he has not excelled in his career the way he could have, which he attributes largely to a crippling talent for procrastination about making important decisions, as well as his difficulty concentrating.
Although Rahim feels that he certainly isn’t a miserable as he could be, he feels burdened by a nagging sense of hopeless about his situation and worries that he might get even worse one day.
Using the DSM-V , what is your diagnosis/classification (based only on the information given above):
Explanation / Answer
Answer.
Rahim meets the criteria for the diagnosis of persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia) as his depressive condition is characterized by a chronic course and an early and inisidious onset (i.e., in childhood. His persistent feelings of hopelessness, low self esteem accompanied by inability to concentrate at work, low levels of energy and poor sleep match the criteria for major depression symptoms along with dysthymia.
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