This paper provides the research of the issues of adjustment disorder, the description of it, the symptoms, treatment and so on.
Adjustment disorder is a reaction to some stressful even or situation, when a person feels exhausted, lasting less then six months. This is considered to by a nonpsychotic type of disturbance. This disorder usually doesn’t last for a long period of time, the symptoms become not so evident as soon as the stressor is removed and adaptation grows. This disorder belongs to subthreshold disorders, which are not so strictly defined and have the characteristic features of some other disorders. “Subthreshold disorders allow for the “classification of early or temporary states when the clinical picture is vague and indiscreet and yet the morbid state is more than expected in a normal reaction” (3). It is not easy to determine this disorder, as there are not enough behavioral criteria. There are six main types of adjustment disorders:
- with depressed mood
- with anxiety
- with both: depressed mood and anxiety
- with problems in behavior
- with both: emotions and behavior
- not specified

Thus a person who has this disorder is under the influence of depressive moods and anxiety, because of that he can act against some common rules communicating with his family members or colleagues at work. The examples of such behavior are: fighting, recklessness, and even legal problems. There are as well cases when people do not have such great problems with their behavior change, but then they can experience physical illnesses. If a person was already ill it is possible that the state of his health will get worse during adjustment disorder. Usually if a person is suffering from adjustment disorder he can not be a success at studies or at work. Personal relationships are also put at risk in this situation.
There is a list of main characteristics connected with adjustment disorder:
- as it was already mentioned a person with this type of disorder has a depressed mood and thus he often experiences hopeless feelings and crying spells.
- Such people are constantly worried and nervous
- Often people have the mixture of depressing feelings and anxious feelings.
- The conduct of the person is influenced negatively, which might sometimes lead even to problems with police
- The emotional and conduct problems soon are mixed up together.
- It is connected with “occupational or social impairment”
- The risk of suicides or attempts of suicide increases
- At the beginning this might be just an episode, but later can turn into a serious mental disorder
The researches state that males and females have some different kinds of adjustment disorders.
This type of disorder might happen at any age. Mostly vulnerable are individuals during their common transitional periods like for example adolescence or mid-life crisis. Adjustment disorder is rather common, about 5 % of all people who are at mental health settings have some type of the adjustment disorder.
There are emotional and behavioral symptoms of the adjustment disorder, they appear as results of some stressful factors, which is called a stressor. Not only negative events such as death of a close person or serious problems at work place could be stressors, but positive moments as well for example wedding or taking up another job. The results are “Marked distress that is in excess of what would be expected from exposure to the stressor and significant impairment in social, occupational or educational functioning” (4).
As soon as the stressor is removed a person could feel the symptoms for another six months, in case the feelings last longer, this can not be called an adjustment disorder any more.
The adjustment disorder is diagnosed by mental health professionals according to specific diagnostic criteria:
- symptoms of behavior and emotions are to develop within the 3 months after the stressor appeared
- “These behaviors or symptoms must be clinically significant as evidenced by at least one of the following: After exposure to the event(s) / stressor(s), the behavioral or emotional symptoms seem in excess of what would be normally expected; Significant social, functioning, or occupational impairment” (3).
- The disturbance doesn’t not correspond to other disorder symptoms
- Both types of symptoms do not represent Bereavement
- As soon as the stressor is removed the symptoms do not last for more than six months.
The name of the disorder comes from the ability of a person to adjust to some changing environment either to positively or negatively. If the process of adaptation is not calm and mild, then this disorder appears. Thus stress is considered to be the antecedent of this disorder. It is known that “acute and chronic stress differ in psychological and physiologic terms and that the meaning of stress is influenced by ecologic modifiers (eg, support systems, resilience)” (1).
As the adjustment disorder is a quite usual reaction to the surrounding events, psychotherapy is one of the treatment means for adjustment disorder. The type of the psychotherapy used depends upon the clinician, but usually it should include a friendly, not judging atmosphere, that could support the person. The therapist is to play the role of a partner in looking for the ways to cope with the appeared problems and new situations. After the six months period the lingering feelings are still possible, but they are not serious enough for the therapist to interfere. In order to make the treatment process more effective it is advised to start with concrete individual treatment plan as the patient himself should see the short-term goals he has to achieve during treatment. People with this kind of disorder should be given advices from the clinicians. There is a great number of different variants if therapy for this disorder. At any rate the patient should feel the social support and care, should be bale to find some alternatives to get busy with, look for better ways of coping with stressors. Relaxation training is as well a good technique for people who have stress problems.
For some people family therapy is used. “This type of therapy also is appropriate when the family is “scapegoating” a particular family member, or there is a clear “identified patient,” when the actual problem is family-systems related” (1). It is important that family members are aware of the nature of the disorder and of the possible development and results of it. Couples therapy is used is case the disorder affects the romantic relations in a negative way as well.
Therapists should always make sure that their patient is suffering only from adjustment disorder and not from any other kind of more serious mental problems.
Usually doctors do not use medications in case of adjustment disorder, only in case it is complicated by some other kind of clinical diagnosis. Physicians when prescribing medications should pay great attention to diagnosis.
There are numbers of self-help methods of treatment for adjustment disorder. As medical professionals are not involved in them, they pay little attention to them as well. People with this kind of disorder can attend special group trainings related to their problems. As the stressors are varied the theme of group work also varies. It is not really difficult usually to find such groups are there are thousands of them. People at these groups are able to share not only their problems but their experience of overcoming them as well. The basis of such treatment is social support which is so important for a person with adjustment disorder.
Overall, the adjustment disorder is a kind of mental disorder, which usually doesn’t last for more than six months and is the result of some stressful event or situation. It doesn’t depend upon the race, age of a person and is usually treated through psychological techniques or social support groups or self-help methods; the adjustment disorder is met in 5 % of all cases of mental disorders; the light form of this disorder could be easily overcome, but some serious cases could lead even to attempts of suicide and so on.
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