Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

Diagnosis and Treatment

Treatment of Susanna Kaysen from the film "Girl, Interrupted."

The central people focused on in the movie to bring out the disorders here are Susanna and Lisa. Susanna brings out the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in this movie and this is evidenced by the behavioral displays that she shows while in the facility for the mentally challenged.

Diagnosis

According to the Medicine Net, (2012) the manifestations of BPD is seen when the patient displays the following symptoms;

The patient has emotional swings such that at one point the person may be confident and happy on one day and suddenly gets into a feeling of despair on the next day. They also display feelings of emptiness and anger during such times. This was evident in Susanna as she would interact very well with the Nurse Valerie on one day and relapse on the next day such that the nurse had to force her to even wake up.

The patient is also observed to having problems in maintaining relationships as was with Susanna as she does not consider sleeping with several men promiscuity but a normal issue that the society frowns at for no reason. She indeed slept with a husband of her parents' friend.

The person will also think differently of herself depending on the person or people around them and will have generally a very unstable sense of identity. This happened to Susanna in several occasions as she could think that she does not belong to the institution when she was with the psychiatrists and the nurses, but feel that she belonged to the institution when with the boyfriend.

The individual is also said to be prone to taking risks and doing things without necessarily thinking of the consequences. Susanna could be lured into going into the administration office and looting the documents and even sneaking out of the hospital to the clubs and to Daisy's place without thinking of the administration punishments or even extension of her time in the hospital.

The BPD patients are also prone to intentionally engaging themselves in self-harming activities like cutting themselves or overdosing. Susanna once took a whole bottle of aspirin with vodka which was more of suicide than a dosage.

The patient also fears being abandoned or being rejected, a feeling that Susanna had when she was being sent to the psychiatric hospital and had to be dropped at the facility by a cab not the parents. These people also believe in things that are not in existence (delusions) like Susanna believed there was something in her head, she also had a skewed definition of words that she believed were true. These people often see things that are not present (hallucinations) as Susanna did as she severally saw the lifestyle she used to live and scenes that had already happened many days or years in the past yet she was in the hospital.

It is apparent that these people are also prone to other mental health related problems like anxiety, depression, eating disorders and even substance abuse.

B. Objective of the treatment

The treatment that Susanna undergoes for BPD is aimed at reorienting her to the normal way of perception of the world and the environment around her.

The treatment is also aimed at ensuring she gets to react to people in a normal way as would any other individual.

The treatment also aims at curbing the violent behavioral displays that Susanna at times displays against people.

The self destroying traits are target of the treatment to ensure she does not end her life or harm herself.

C. Assessments need

There will be both neurological assessment and the personality assessment in order to sully understand the extent of the BPD that the patient is suffering from. There will be semi-structured interviews that will be conducted as well as keen observations done of the patient. Hypomania will also need to be diagnosed since this will be an indicator of bipolar II disorder.

D. Clinician characteristics

The clinician in this case must be first a qualified person in psychiatry and also must have patience and honesty in handling the patients. He must be one who is slow to anger and accommodative of diverse outbursts of traits since such patients are prone to being stubborn, have outburst and display inconsistent behaviors.

E. Location of treatment

The treatment will be carried out within a hospital setting and not as an out patient since there is need for all round monitoring and training in order to instil consistent behavior into the patient and this can be done by professionals.

F. Interventions to be used

The interventions will include group psychological therapy, personal encounters with the psychiatrist, tutoring and assigning of roles as well as subjecting the patient to a schedule that would guide the behavior.

G. Emphasis of treatment

In the treatment process there will be emphasis on high levels of supportiveness so that the patient knows what is right and what is not, the cognitive approach will also be highly considered and the behavioral patterns and responses to people will also be emphasized on since the patient displayed violent and repulsive behaviors in many cases.

H. Nature of treatment

The treatment in this case will be highly group treatment since the problem that the patient has is inability to cope with groups, especially where diverse personalities are displayed.

I. Timing (frequency, pacing, duration)

The duration that the patient will have to undergo treatment will be not less than six months and since it will be within the hospital setting, the therapy will be done daily with variations in the type of treatment for each day to help the patient cope with all angles of life.