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The automatic nervous system has two branches: the sympathetic division, which controls fight/flight response and plays a prominent role in the physical symptoms of anxiety like heart racing, and the parasympathetic nervous system which mediates functions the body performs in times of calm, like digesting food. 

A 22-year-old male client who works as a short-order cook is being evaluated for dysthymic disorder (also known as persistent depressive disorder).  Which of the following characteristics is most attributed to this disorder?

A 32-year-old woman with a history of depres sion as a teenager, now 6 days postpartum, is brought into the emergency room by her hus band. She has not slept for the past several days, even while the newborn is napping. She has been irritable, and has been pacing in the middle of the night and weeping, while talking to no one in particular. Yesterday she began to ignore the infant, but today she vol unteered that the child “is the Antichrist and must be destroyed.” She admits to you that she wants to smother the infant in a “humane way to prevent the apocalypse.” Which of the following diagnoses is the most likely?

Which of the following statements is false regarding the diagnosis of major depression?  

A 42-year-old business executive presents for his first contact with a mental health provider. He reports that for the last 4 months he has been feeling depressed. His low-energy level and poor motivation are affecting his job performance and the CEO of his company advised him to “take a couple of weeks off.” The patient reports that he started feeling down when his wife discovered that he was involved in his third extramarital affair. Since then he has moved into a small apartment by himself. He is sleeping almost 12 hours every night, has a poor appetite, and is experiencing financial difficulty due to indiscriminate purchases. He laments the loss of his former self. He reports that he used to have several periods of time per year, lasting for up to 1 week, when he only needed 4 to 5 hours of sleep, had large amounts of energy, spoke quickly, and could “party all night and work all day.” Which of the following diagnoses is most likely in this case?

A patient enters your office. She is agitated, acts seductively askign if she can take her clothes off for you, wears colorful clothes that are bizarre in appearance, has an excessive amount of makeup on, and vacillates between being entertaining, hyperexcited, and threatening. Based on this information, her most likely diagnosis is:

A 26-year-old male who works in a factory describes intense anxiety and excessive worry, this occurs anytime he speaks to his boss. He has a difficult time approaching coworkers due to feeling self-conscious. He reports racing heart rate, shallow breathing, and chest tightness. The client’s symptoms are most consistent with which of the following disorders?

The rapid-cycling specifier in bipolar I disorder applies to patients who have had _____ mood disturbance episodes over the previous _____

Characteristic signs of conversion disorder include all of the following except

Which of the following history elements should trigger suspicion of a factitious disorder? Choose four correct answers.