| Course | PA 505 Behavioral Medicine I |
|---|---|
| Week | 4 |
| Paper type | Criteria application exercise |
| Length | About 870 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PA 505 Week 4
Criteria Application Exercise: Testing Duration, Symptom Count and Lost Function Against a Major Depressive Episode for a Widowed 68-Year-Old, With the Exclusions Left Open
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 505: Behavioral Medicine I
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Criteria Application Exercise: Testing Duration, Symptom Count and Lost Function Against a Major Depressive Episode for a Widowed 68-Year-Old, With the Exclusions Left Open
The Account Being Tested
The account comes from two clinic visits with W.T., the retired county road worker followed in this course, whose spouse died of pancreatic cancer in December. The question is whether the account reaches the threshold the current diagnostic manual sets for a major depressive episode (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). In paraphrase, that threshold asks for at least five of nine listed symptoms present together during the same two weeks, one of them depressed mood or loss of interest, a change from previous functioning, clinically significant distress or impairment, and the episode not being due to a substance or another medical condition. Each test is run separately below.
Test 1: Duration, Anchored to a Date
"For a while now" cannot be held against a two-week threshold, so I asked W.T. to tie the start to something remembered. The answer was the farm auction in late May, when the spouse's quilting frame and the camper were sold: "I wasn't right after that. Before that I was sad, but I was going to coffee." The anchor puts the start of the current change about four months ago, well past two weeks, and separates it from the grief of the winter months, which W.T. described as coming in waves around the spouse's birthday and the holidays.
Result: duration met, dated to the end of May.
Test 2: The Count, From What Was Asked
Table 1
Symptom Count Built Only From What Was Asked or Observed
| Symptom area | Asked? | Answer as given | Counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depressed mood | Yes | "Flat," most days since the auction | Yes |
| Loss of interest | Yes | Stopped coffee at the co-op and the church council; "nothing pulls at me" | Yes |
| Sleep | Yes | Awake by 3:30 most mornings, cannot get back to sleep | Yes |
| Energy | Yes | "Wore out by ten" | Yes |
| Appetite or weight | Yes | Eats one meal; belt one notch tighter; nine pounds down on the clinic scale since March | Yes |
| Worthlessness or guilt | Yes | Blames self for not pressing the spouse's doctors sooner | Uncertain |
| Concentration | Yes | Gave up the crossword; loses track of the radio news | Yes |
| Slowed or restless | Observed, not asked of others | Slow answers in the visit | Not counted |
| Thoughts of death | Yes | Mornings of not wanting to wake up | Yes |
Note. Note. Symptom areas are summarized in plain words, not quoted from the manual.
Seven areas are counted, including both depressed mood and loss of interest. The guilt is about one specific thing, the timing of the spouse's diagnosis, and that pattern is common in grief; I did not count it, because the manual treats guilt in a depressive episode as broader and excessive. Slowing was observed in the room but nobody who sees W.T. at home was asked whether it is new, so it is recorded as not established rather than absent. Even without those two, the count clears five.
Result: count met, seven of nine, with the core symptoms present.
Test 3: Something That Stopped
Functioning is answered with what has stopped happening. Since June, W.T. has missed four church council meetings after twenty years of attending. The agreement to feed a neighbor's cattle each morning, which W.T. took on after retiring, has been kept, but the evening check has been dropped and the neighbor now does it. Mail is collected weekly instead of daily, and the clinic letter about a blood pressure recheck went unopened for three weeks. W.T. still drives, shops and pays bills.
Result: impairment present in social and household roles, with core self-care kept.
The Exclusions, Not Yet Answerable
The episode must not be the effect of a substance or another medical condition, and this part cannot yet be answered. W.T. drinks three or four whiskeys most evenings, more since spring, and takes a combination headache tablet containing caffeine on most days. Either could produce poor sleep, low energy and morning headaches. A thyroid level was drawn at the second visit and has not come back. Bereavement does not by itself exclude an episode, but it requires a judgment about whether the picture is grief or something more; the change after the auction, the pervasive flatness and the loss of interest in everything, not only in reminders of the spouse, point toward an episode rather than grief alone.
The Result
Duration, count and impairment are met. Whether the presentation meets the full threshold depends on the exclusions: if the thyroid level is normal and the symptoms persist after a period with much less alcohol, the criteria are met; if they clear with less alcohol, they are not. A reader could reach either answer from this page depending on those two facts, which is the point of writing the open part as open. A result below the line would also be an answer, and the exercise would report it the same way.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
What the PA 505 Week 4 assignment asks for
The fourth week asks you to apply the diagnostic criteria for a condition, such as a major depressive episode, to the account in your case. Run each test separately and report its result in its own terms. Answer duration with a date the person can anchor to an event rather than a phrase like several months. Build the symptom count only from what was actually asked or observed, and record features nobody asked about as not asked rather than absent. Answer functioning with something that has stopped happening, not a sentence about severity. Address the exclusions, including substances, medical conditions and, where relevant, bereavement. State whether the threshold is met, written so a reader could reach the opposite result from the same evidence if the open facts went the other way. Paraphrase the criteria rather than copying the manual.
Inside the PA 505 Week 4 example
The exercise opens by paraphrasing the threshold: at least five of nine symptoms in the same two weeks, including low mood or lost interest, a change from before, distress or impairment, and no substance or medical cause. Duration is anchored to the late-May auction at which the spouse's quilting frame and camper were sold, separating the current change from the waves of winter grief. A table lists nine symptom areas, whether each was asked, the answer as given and whether it counted, arriving at seven including both core symptoms. Guilt tied only to the timing of the spouse's diagnosis is left uncounted, and slowing seen in clinic is recorded as not established. Functioning is shown through missed church council meetings, a dropped evening chore and unopened mail. The exclusions stay open because of nightly whiskey, a caffeine headache tablet and a thyroid result still pending, and the result states which facts would decide it.
Where the points sit in the PA 505 Week 4 rubric
Nothing costs more here than a presentation declared to meet criteria with no threshold actually tested, so the conclusion rests on a description that would fit half a waiting room. Next comes duration written as a feeling about time, recently or for some months, which cannot be held against a two-week number. Further deductions follow for a count assembled by inference, where a feature nobody asked about is scored because the story seems to imply it; for functioning described as how bad things are rather than what has stopped; for exclusions skipped; and for a result forced past the threshold when the evidence does not reach it. Strong exercises run each test on its own, date the onset, count only what was asked or observed, show lost roles and leave open what cannot yet be decided. Paraphrasing the criteria accurately, without quoting the manual, is part of the expected standard.
PA 505 Week 4 help: mistakes that cost points
Applying criteria sounds mechanical, but the marks sit in the judgments about what counts and what is still unknown. If you share your case, we can help you find a date the onset can be anchored to, set up a table that separates asked, observed and not asked, and decide how to treat symptoms that may belong to grief, alcohol or a medical cause. We can also help you write the functioning test around concrete things that stopped. Many students struggle to write a result that is honestly open, and together we can phrase it so the deciding facts are plain to a reader. The clinical judgments in the exercise are yours. If your section asks for a table instead of prose, or names a different condition, the custom sample follows that format and those criteria.
Get a PA-505 Week 4 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment, the rubric, the case material your section issued and the criterion set your classroom works from, since editions differ and an exercise scored against one cannot be marked against another. A custom PA-505 Week 4 exercise is written to those and returned inside 24-48h, the first one free of charge.
More PA 505 papers and MPAS samples
- PA 505 Week 1: Where Depression Is First Met
- PA 505 Week 2: MSE Narrative
- PA 505 Week 3: PHQ-9 Score Interpretation
- PA 505 Week 5: Delirium Versus Depression Comparison
- PA 505 Week 6: Substance Use History Brief
- PA 505 Week 7: Risk Formulation Note
- PA 505 Week 8: Capacity Determination Note
- PA 504 Week 4: Review of Systems Draft
- PA 503 Week 4: Diagnostic Schema
- PA 502 Week 4: Surrogate Outcome Critique
- PA 501 Week 4: Role Delineation Memo
PA 505 Week 4 questions, answered
Our section wants this in a table. Does that change the work?
The format changes and the reasoning does not. A table makes the three tests easier to read and easier to fake, since a cell can restate the criterion instead of holding evidence against it. Whatever shape the worksheet takes, each row still needs the case material that satisfies it, the source of that material, and a plain entry where nothing was asked.
The presentation does not reach the threshold. Have I done it wrong?
No, and a negative result is often the stronger exercise. What gets marked is whether all three thresholds were tested and whether the failing one was identified precisely: short of the published duration, one item below the count, functioning affected but not in the way the criteria describe. Say which, then say what would change the answer and how long that would take to know.
The case gives no date for when anything began.
Then duration cannot be tested and the exercise says so rather than estimating. Write what the account does establish about sequence, name the question that would fix a start date, and mark the duration threshold as unassessed. An exercise inventing a timeline to reach a conclusion has failed the one test in the week that is checkable line by line.
Where can I find a free PA 505 Week 4 sample paper?
You can read the complete PA 505 Week 4 criteria exercise, with the symptom count table and the open exclusions, on this page.
Why does the PA 505 Week 4 sample not count the patient's guilt?
Because the guilt is tied only to the timing of the spouse's diagnosis, a pattern common in grief, while the criteria describe broader and excessive guilt.