Mental Health Quiz #9

A client comes to a mental health center with severe anxiety evidenced by crying, wringing the hands, and pacing. What should be the first nursing intervention 1. Stay physically close to the client 2. Gently ask what is bothering the client 3. Tell the client to try to relax by sitting quiet 4. Involve the client in a nonthreatening activity

1. Stay physically close to the client

A client believes that doorknobs are contaminated and refuses to touch them, except with a paper tissue. What nursing intervention is most therapeutic for this client? 1. Supply the client with paper tissues to help functioning until anxiety is reduced 2. Have the client scrub the doorknobs with a strong antiseptic so that tissues are no longer needed 3. Encourage the client to touch doorknobs by removing all available paper tissue until learning how to manage the situation 4. Explain to the client that the idea about doorknobs being contaminated is part of the illness, so precautions are not necessary

1. Supply the client with paper tissues to help functioning until anxiety is reduced

A nurse is caring for a client diagnosed with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. What is the basis for the obsessions and compulsions? 1. Unconscious control of unacceptable feelings 2. Conscious use of this method to punish themselves 3. Acceptance of voices that tell them the doorknobs are unclean 4. Fulfillment of a need to punish others by carrying out an annoying procedure

1. Unconscious control of unacceptable feelings

What characteristic of anxiety is associated with a diagnosis of conversion disorder? 1. Free floating 2. Relieved by the symptom 3. Consciously felt by the client 4. Projected onto the environment

2. Relieved by the symptom

An anxious client reports experiencing pain in the abdomen and feeling empty and hollow. A diagnostic workup reveals no physical cause of these clinical findings. What term best reflects what the client is experiencing? 1. Dissociation 2. Somatization 3. Stress response 4. Anxiety response

2. Somatization

What is an appropriate way a nurse can help a client to decrease anxiety? 1. Avoid unpleasant events 2. Prolong exposure to fearful situations 3. Acquire skills with which to face stressful events 4. Introduce an element of pleasure into fearful situations

3. Acquire skills with which to face stressful events

A nurse is caring for a client who has a diagnosis of conversion disorder with paralysis of the lower extremities. Which is the most therapeutic nursing intervention? 1. Encouraging the client to try to walk 2. Explaining to the client that there is nothing wrong 3. Avoiding focusing on the client's physical symptoms 4. Helping the client follow through with the physical therapy plan

3. Avoiding focusing on the client's physical symptoms

A nurse considers that in a conversion disorder pseudoneurologic symptoms such as paralysis or blindness: 1. are unconscious methods for getting attention 2. will subside if the client is helped to focus on getting healthy 3. are generally necessary for the client to cope with a stressful situation 4. will usually resolve when the client learns to cope with ongoing family conflicts

3. are generally necessary for the client to cope with a stressful situation

A client newly diagnosed with a conversion disorder is manifesting paralysis of a leg. The nurse can expect this client to: 1. demonstrate a spread of paralysis to other body parts. 2. require continuous psychiatric treatment to maintain independent functioning 3. recover the use of the affected leg but, under stress, again develop similar symptoms 4. follow an unpredictable emotional course in the future, depending on exposure to stress

3. recover the use of the affected leg but, under stress, again develop similar symptoms

What characteristic uniquely associated with psychophysiological disorders differentiates them from somatoform disorders? 1. Emotional cause 2. Feeling of illness 3. Restriction of activities 4. Underlying pathophysiology

4. Underlying pathophysiology