Understanding Adjustment Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, and Management

What is it?

Adjustment disorder describes the difficulty of a patient to cope with a stressful life event. Stressful life events include anything from a loved one’s death, job change, and relationship problems. There are different types of adjustment disorders, depending on the primary symptoms (for example, adjustment disorder with depressed mood, adjustment disorder with anxiety, etc.).

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Additional names

This group contains additional names:
- Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety
- Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood
- Separation Anxiety
- Adjustment Disorder with Disturbance of Conduct
- Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood

Signs & symptoms

Signes and symptoms of adjustment disorder vary between the different types and may include:
- Lack of energy.
- Difficulty to concentrate.
- A feeling of anxiousness or worry.
- A feeling of deep sadness.
- Loss of self-esteem.
- Suicidal thoughts.
- Sleep disturbance.
- Physical symptoms such as stomach ache, indigestion, muscle pain, etc.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is made via a psychiatric assessment, conducted by a psychiatrist – a medical doctor specializing in psychiatry. This assessment includes questioning, physical exams, cognitive exams, and other tests that might exclude other diseases or conditions.

Treatment

Adjustment disorder usually improves significantly with treatment, and patients return to their normal feeling and function in a few months. Psychotherapy is the primary treatment, such as crisis intervention, group therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy. Therapy’s purpose is to cope with the stressful life event that caused the disorder. Adding medication such as antidepressant medications and sedative medications for a short time treatment can help the patients.

☝️ This is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult with your physician before making any medical decision.

Learn more about our editorial process for content accuracy.

Source of Information - We analyze big data of more than 23 million patients de-identified medical records from the following sources:

National Institution of Health ∙ World Health Organization ∙ University of Illinois hospital