Adjustment Disorder

About Adjustment Disorder

Adjustment disorder describes emotional or behavioral symptoms that develop in response to an identifiable stressor, beginning within three months of the stressor, and that are out of proportion to its severity or cause significant impairment. Stressors can be single events, such as the end of a relationship or a job loss, or multiple and ongoing, such as illness, financial difficulties or moving to a new country. Symptoms are not better explained by another mental disorder and are not normal bereavement, and once the stressor and its consequences have ended, symptoms do not persist for more than an additional six months. DSM-5 places adjustment disorders in the trauma and stressor related disorders chapter and specifies subtypes with depressed mood, with anxiety, with mixed anxiety and depressed mood, with disturbance of conduct, and with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct. It is one of the diagnoses most frequently made in general hospital and primary care settings and is common in people facing serious medical illness. Although usually time limited, it is associated with increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, particularly in adolescents. Treatment is usually brief and psychological, including supportive therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and problem solving approaches that help people cope with the stressor, and medication is sometimes used for specific symptoms.