Case Study Paper

Here is the assignment from the syllabus:

This will require you to create a detailedcase description for an individual that needs treatment for mental illness. Your case should describe the history, symptoms, treatments and outcomes (both good and bad) for the person. As this is a psycho-pharmacology class, the treatment MUST include the use of medications in some way (even if it is not an optimal or final treatment) and your description of the case should demonstrate your knowledge of the use of the medications. The case may be fictional or may be based on a real case, but, in either case, it should be as realistic as possible. If you base your case on a real one, be sure that your telling of the story is original and not taken from (or directly based on) another written case. I want to see how well YOU understand the ideas! (Also – if based on a real case, be sure to account for the confidentiality of all people involved.) Cite references to support the validity of the information in your report. Be sure that your case covers and demonstrates that you understand ALL of the following elements:

• Critical signs and symptoms for differentiating diagnoses and ideal treatments
• Different treatment options (including medications) and decision process in determining treatments
• Expected benefits and adverse effects of treatment
• Ways to deal with non-response (or sub-optimal response) to initial treatment
• Ways to integrate medical and non-medical treatments
• Role of the counselor in dealing with medical treatments.

If you are basing your paper on a real case, you may need to add some fictional pieces to make sure that all of these elements are addressed. For example, you might invent information about a side effect or preliminary non-response to illustrate potential problems or you might need to imagine a future for this person (if you are currently working with a case) to show the longer-term outcome of the case.

The paper should be written in APA format and sources should be cited and of professional quality (written by professionals in the field and, preferably, peer-reviewed). If you are not well-versed on APA format, you might want to check the APA manual or look at these sites:

a. You can find a good overview of this style here:

b. Or you can go to the APA site which has FAQs as well as a nifty tutorial:

The paper should be proof-read carefully! While a mistake or two may creep into anyones report, poorly written paperswill NOT be accepted. If you have concerns on this, you are welcome to submit a draft for review before the due date.

*The report will be due through SafeAssign on Blackboard by the end of week 7. This will count as 20% of your final grade.

One final word on the project: I take plagiarism very seriously. (See policy on Academic Dishonesty above.) Please note that you may not use other peoples words without clearly marking AND citing the source of those words. A number of students have problems with this sometimes unintentionally. You must distinguish between words that you write and words that you borrow from other sources. If you take words from another source, you must use quotation marks to show what is copied. If the quote is long (a paragraph), then introduce that paragraph by clearly noting that it comes from another source and then indent that paragraph. In both cases, you must have a citation that tells your source. A citation alone is not sufficient to indicate that something is a quote. You should have citations both for quoted passages AND for material that you have written (in your own words) that is based on information from other sources. One more thing quotes should be rare! APA style, in general, discourages quoting. Only use a quote when it is critical to deal with the original wording (for example, when you are talking about the diagnostic criteria for a disorder then the wording of the DSM would be important.) Otherwise, you should do your own writing, summarizing the main points from the articles that you cite. Summarizing or paraphrasing does NOT mean changing a few words in the original sentence. Your writing should not use the same basic sentence with slightly different wording. Let me know if you have questions on this! One final addition: Use of generative AI (ChatGPT, etc.) is not allowed without specific permission from me.