According to our textbook, mood disorder is defined as “group of disorders involving severe and enduring disturbances in emotionality ranging from elation to severe depression” and suicide is defined as “efforts made to kill oneself”. If I had to design a screening program with five questions to detect mood disorder and suicidal tendencies among patients the first question I would ask would be whether or not they have had thoughts of harming themselves. Although this is very blunt and straightforward, it is a question that definitely needs to be asked. Some people with these disorders will be straightforward and answer the question honestly. This could save time in the long run. The second question I would as is whether any mental or physical ailments have prevented normal daily functions. I would ask this question because it is a common symptom of mood disorders. I would then ask if anyone in their family has any kind of mood disorder because genetics is a huge factor. Next, I would show pictures of different weather. For example, one picture would be a sunny day, another would be a clear day, and a third would be a stormy day. I would then ask them to point to the picture that best represent how they feel most of the time. The last question I would ask is if they are on any kind of medication including birth control. This is because sometimes this medication causes a chemical imbalance in their brain. Simply getting off a medication would be an easy fix.
The screening questionnaire to determine whether a person exhibits mood disorder or suicudality must work on people with a variety of different characteristics including gender, age, race, and personality type. Finding questions that will determine mood disorder and suicudality that applies to all age groups was probably the most difficult. The study “Identifying Children and Adolescents With Depression: Review of the Stimulus Drawing Task and Draw A Story Research” published in the Journal of the American Art Therapy
