Assessing and Treating Pediatric Clients With Mood Disorders Essay

Clinical Scenario

This assignment involves a client who is 8 years old who is an African American male who presents at the Emergency Room with his mother. The client was exhibiting signs of depression and had complaints of feeling sad. The mother reportedly informed that the teacher had examined that the child was withdrawn from peers in class. The mother had also noted that the child had a decreased appetite with occasional irritation periods despite reports that he had reached all landmarks of development at the appropriate ages. The physical examination was unremarkable while the laboratory studies WNL. Assessing and Treating Pediatric Clients With Mood Disorders Essay.

The mental status exam revealed that the client was alert and oriented X3, his speech was clear, coherent spontaneous and goal oriented. The client self-reported a sad mood and had an affect which was somewhat blunted. The client denied visual and auditory hallucinations and no delusional or paranoid processes of thought were noted. The client also appeared to have an appropriate, did not endorse active suicidal ideation but admitted that he often thought about being dead and what it would feel like to be dead. In administering the Children’s Depression Rating Scale, a score of 30 was obtained, indicating the client had significant depression

Decision Point One

            The primary mental nurse practitioner should begin Zoloft 25 mg orally daily. Zoloft is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that is used as a first line drug for the management of major depressive disorder and other mental health disorders. It works by increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain to improve symptoms of anxiety and depression (Cummings, Caporino & Kendall, 2014).  Similarly, the client, in this case, had been diagnosed with major depression which required relevant medications.