1. Case Study Help for MISS DEANNA
Ms. SeekerMs. Seeker is a 23 year old medical assistant who was hospitalized after she
recently attempted to slash her wrists with a tin can. She told the staff on admission, “I
don’t really need to be here.” Three months before admission she learned her mother was
pregnant and she began drinking heavily in order to “sleep at night.” During her heavy
drinking she began sleeping around in a variety of 1 night stands. Before admission she
reported feeling panicky and having the feeling like she was removed from her body and in
a trance. At one point she claims she heard a voice telling her to jump off a bridge.At
admission to the hospital, Ms. Seeker appeared disheveled and frail. She was cooperative
and coherent and looked forward to being free of her anxiety. She reported feelings of
loneliness and inadequacy and brief periods of depression and anxiety since
adolescence. She claimed that she was “just an empty shell that is transparent to
everyone.”Ms. Seeker’s parents divorced when she was three and she was raised by her
grandmother who was an alcoholic. She had night terrors and had to sleep with her
grandmother. She was sent to a boarding school when she was 6 years old when she
reports she was sexually abused by a teacher. As an adolescent she had an active but
unsatisfying sex life but her relationships with men would end abruptly after she became
angry with them for disappointing her in some way. She could not establish a stable living
arrangement with roommates with whom she would often become quite jealous and
angry. She was living alone at the time of admission.Questions:What is her diagnosis?What
are the symptoms that helped you make this diagnosis? What diagnostic criteria do they
relate to?What are two other possible diagnoses and why did you not choose them?What is
her prognosis?