Risk Factors
Various factors have been found to be more associated with a diagnosis of AD than other Axis I disorders, including:
- younger age
- more identified psychosocial and environmental problems
- increased suicidal behaviour, more likely to be rated as improved by the time of discharge from mental healthcare
- less frequent previous psychiatric history
- shorter length of treatment
Those exposed to repeated trauma are at greater risk, even if that trauma is in the distant past. Age can be a factor due to young children having fewer coping resources; however, children are also less likely to assess the consequences of a potential stressor.
A stressor is generally an event of a serious, unusual nature that an individual or group of individuals experience. The stressors that cause adjustment disorders may be grossly traumatic or relatively minor, like loss of a girlfriend/boyfriend, a poor report card, or moving to a new neighborhood. It is thought that the more chronic or recurrent the stressor, the more likely it is to produce a disorder. The objective nature of the stressor, however, is of secondary importance. Stressors' most crucial link to their pathogenic potential is their perception by the patient as stressful. The presence of a causal stressor is essential before a diagnosis of adjustment disorder can be made p. 279.
There are certain stressors that are more common in different age groups:
Adulthood:
- Marital conflict
- Financial conflict
Adolescence and childhood:
- Family conflict/parental separation
- School problems/changing schools
- sexuality issues
- death/illness in the family
In a study conducted from 1990 till 1994 on 89 psychiatric outpatient adolescent, 25% had attempted suicide in which 37.5% had misused alcohol, 87.5% displayed aggressive behaviour, 12.5% had learning difficulties, and 87.5% had anxiety symptoms.
Read more about this topic: Adjustment Disorder
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