Diagnosis
Andrea’s diagnosis is Alcohol use disorder (F10.20). This is a condition that can be termed to be a combination of alcohol-related medical issues (Moehring, et al., 2019).
List of Alcohol Use Disorder Features
From Andrea’s medical history, vital features can be used to identify and diagnose her with alcohol use disorder. As such, they include:
- Andrea often drinks more than she intends.
- Despite the intention to cut down her drinking, she has failed to do so.
- At times she always needs the drink desperately, especially before sleeping.
- Her drinking habit has compromised her ability to be responsible and even has led to her losing her job. She cannot observe her work schedule accurately, leading to losing her position at a local breakfast restaurant.
- Andrea’s drinking habit has led to the worsening of her relationship with her co-habiting girlfriend, Ashleigh. Although she knows Ashleigh is uncomfortable with her drinking behavior, she still cannot control her drinking.
- Andrea has continued to drink for a long time, even though drinking makes her depressed.
Other Mental Health and Counseling Concerns Present in The Case
In Andrea’s case, there are other mental health and counseling concerns. She has a major depressive disorder that is affecting her esteem and thinking. She scores her depression levels at 7/10 on a 0 to 10 scale. She has a strong feeling of sadness and fear (Tolentino et al., 2018). Her drinking behavior and the thoughts of losing her co-habiting girlfriend is the primary cause of the problem. Andrea also has disturbed sleep which is a health and counseling concern. In her history, she describes that falling asleep without drinking is hard. Such an issue can lead to problems such as fatigue and altered cognitive focus.
Reference
Moehring, A., Rumpf, H. J., Hapke, U., Bischof, G., John, U., & Meyer, C. (2019). Diagnostic performance of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) in detecting DSM-5 alcohol use disorders in the general population. Drug and alcohol dependence, 204, 107530.
Tolentino, J. C., & Schmidt, S. L. (2018). DSM-5 criteria and depression severity: implications for clinical practice. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 450.