Case Study 10: A 36-year-old man and his young son were driving through an intersection when another car ran through a red traffic light and struck them. The two were trapped in the car until a fire department rescue team freed them. The patient was bruised but not seriously hurt. His son had a broken leg. The first few days after the accident the patient was preoccupied with arranging care for his son and getting the car repaired. A few days later he began having recurrent distressing thoughts and images of the accident. Theses symptoms lasted for several weeks. The memory of his son’s screams after the car was struck seemed particularly vivid. The patient became irritable, had difficulty concentrating, and avoided talking about the accident. He went out of his way to avoid driving down the street where the accident occurred. As time went on he could no longer remember whether the traffic light was red or green when he approached it.


From what i have noticed, this patient has a Post traumatic stress disorder. He has "vivid memories of the accident" he is irritable, has difficulty concentrating, and avoids anything to do with the accident.

To treat this patient i would recommend giving him antidepressants such as Imipramine and Phenelzine. I would also recommend a therapist as well.

the manic depression of Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven, a brilliant composer, played music that was amazingly breathtaking, all while beethoven was deaf. It was torture for him to not be able to hear the songs he played and so he became manicly depressed, he would drink himself to death and when he got angry he would throw things at people and become like an "enraged animal". As time went on he withdrew from the world and only kept to himself. Still it was his depression that help enspired some of his songs, he would compose according to how he felt, making his music have so much emotion. still the depression got worse and so did his songs, the had less of the flare the worse he got, he wasn't able compose such good music as before because of his depresssion worsening. Before he could finish his tenth symphony he died of liver failure at the age of 56.