Adjustment Disorder

[ddm39142002navy]

what is an adjustment disorder and how is it rated is it considered dperession or is it a seperate entiity

[carlie]

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-....73&idno=38

Chronic Adjustment Disorder

9440 Chronic adjustment disorder

General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders:

Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name100

Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as:

suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a worklike setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships70

Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as:

flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships50

Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as:

depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events)30

Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or; symptoms controlled by continuous medication10

A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication

Edited April 14, 2009 by carlie

[john999]

Why are VA raters encouraged to diagnose adjustment disorder instead of PTSD? Adjustment disorder seems to me to suggest that the disorder is temporary while PTSD is more permanent and more serious.

[purple]

You just answered your own question john....i have no doubt they are still being instructed to dx anything they can other than PTSD.

[The Corpsman]

Adjustment disorders and mood disorders are easier for VA to claim they existed prior to entry into the military. That your family relationship was not what it should have been as you grew older. Just another way to avoid PTSD.

[LarryJ]

................and all this time I thought that an "adjustment disorder" was when I have trouble getting my Sleep Comfort bed dialed in to my favorite setting.

[cowgirl]

Ddm3914, here is some reading material for your question, I don't have answers but I do have sc mdd with other factors. Smrs show clincal treatment for depression, ptsd, mst, and few other things. First va psych c&p suggested adjustment disorder and possible dysthimia, took me years to correct that to mdd, now in for increase.

Best to ya,

Cg'up20009!

http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUN08/nf060508-1.htm

Fuel for your quest

http://www.athealth.com/Consumer/disorders/Adjustment.html

There are six major adjustment disorders DSM IV:

DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic Codes: 309.0 With Depressed Mood

309.24 With Anxiety

309.28 With Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood

309.3 With Disturbance of Conduct

309.4 With Mixed Disturbance of Emotion & Conduct

309.9 Unspecified

http://psyweb.com/Mdisord/jsp/adjd.jsp

adjustment disorders defined with DSM IV

http://www.mental-health-today.com/ptsd/dsm.htm

ptsd diagnosis and criteria 309.81 DSM IV

Edited April 15, 2009 by cowgirl