by Claire Ellerbrock, DNP, PMHNP | Oct 23, 2025 | Diagnosis/Assessment tips for treating mental disorders
Why Bipolar Disorder Is Often Misunderstood Bipolar disorder is often misunderstood, both by the general public and even by some patients themselves. It’s common for people to casually use the term “bipolar” to describe mood swings, but the actual bipolar disorder...
by Claire Ellerbrock, DNP, PMHNP | Oct 21, 2025 | Diagnosis/Assessment tips for treating mental disorders
Imagine a patient presents to you with: depressed mood, low energy, disrupted sleep, and a loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. What’s your next move? A. Start an antidepressantB. Reassess in 4 weeksC. Start a mood stabilizerD. Consider bipolar as a...
by Claire Ellerbrock, DNP, PMHNP | Oct 2, 2025 | Diagnosis/Assessment tips for treating mental disorders
Complex PTSD is increasingly recognized as distinct from traditional PTSD, especially in the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 diagnostic criteria. While both disorders share many symptoms, complex PTSD ICD-11 includes additional disturbances in self-organization...
by Claire Ellerbrock, DNP, PMHNP | Sep 30, 2025 | Diagnosis/Assessment tips for treating mental disorders
Did you know that up to 60% of patients with bipolar disorder are initially misdiagnosed with unipolar depression? Distinguishing bipolar vs unipolar depression is one of the toughest diagnostic challenges because their symptoms can overlap, especially early in the...
by Claire Ellerbrock, DNP, PMHNP | Sep 18, 2025 | Diagnosis/Assessment tips for treating mental disorders
Post acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) refers to a group of lingering psychological and mood-related symptoms that may continue for months—or even years—after the acute withdrawal phase ends. Although it’s not recognized as an official diagnosis in the DSM-5, PAWS is...
by Claire Ellerbrock, DNP, PMHNP | Sep 2, 2025 | Diagnosis/Assessment tips for treating mental disorders
In school as an NP student and later in clinical practice, I learned that prescribing benztropine (Cogentin) for extrapyramidal side effects was appropriate. What I didn’t realize was that there are times when prescribing benztropine—or any anticholinergic—can...