During assessment, the patient tells the nurse that he can no longer work because he spends most of his day aligning and realigning all the items in his apartment. The nurse identifies this behavior as indicative of:

Explanation

•Obsessive compulsive disorder is diagnosed only when these thoughts, images, and impulses consume the person or interfere with personal, social, and occupational function.

•Panic disorder is composed of discrete episodes of panic attacks, that is 15 to 30 minutes of rapid, intense, escalating anxiety in which the person experiences great emotional fear, as well as physiologic discomfort.

•Acute stress disorder is the development of anxiety, dissociation, and other symptoms within 1 month of exposure to an extremely traumatic stressor. This is also called mental shock.

•Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by at least 6 months of persistent and excessive worry and anxiety.

Visit our website for other NCLEX topics now!