1.

In this case, describe the symptoms that Betty displays that are
consistent with Major Depressive Disorder.
    Symptoms that Betty experiences that are consistent with
Major Depressive Disorder are having sad emotions constantly,
diminished interest in pleasurable activities, excessive worries
about her finances, feelings of insecurity when interacting with
others and difficulties in concentration and word finding. In
addition, she started losing weight, and was lacking sleep from
insomnia with agonizing ruminations. 

2. Describe the cognitive and memory tests that were administered to

determine the extent and type of memory loss.
    Betty had a very difficult time responding to the many questions of
the tests that were given to her. She would take a very long time
answering the questions and looked very drained and depressed while
forgetting many things. She was only able to recall two out of the four
objects in 3 minutes and reorganized a third when given several
choices. In addition, in one minute she could think of 14 items
available in the supermarket and failed to cluster similar items
together. Betty could also not put a list together of vegetables she was
mistaking clothes for the vegetables. Her mini mental state
examination was a 24 and gave 22 correct responses over 1 minute in
the Stroop test which measures “response inhibition”. The results of all
these examinations clearly showed she struggled with a mental
illness. 

3. What conclusions can be drawn about her diagnosis with a comobid

condition? Mild Neurocognitive Disorder is listed as a new diagnosis
on the DSM 5. What results support her diagnosis with both
disorders?
`    Betty appears to mostly be struggling with major depressive
disorder and mild neurocognitive disorder with disturbances in both
memory and executive function. Her vascular risk factors like
hypertension and hyperlipidemia, history of coronary artery disease,
and CT scan findings contribute to both her depressive and cognitive
symptoms. As stated in the case study, psychomotor retardation and
executive dysfunction further support this possibility because both
symptoms can be caused by compromise of medical frontal and
subcortical structures due to small vessel disease. Later in life it is
possible for Betty to develop the disease Alzheimer’s along with other
diseases like vascular dementia so the clinical examinations should
focus on the cause of late-life depression and mild cognitive
impairment.