Practice Passage Test - 8 | Practice Passages for MCAT PDF Download

Passage

The case involves Tim, a 24-year-old PhD candidate at a large university. Over the past six months, Tim has exhibited increasingly strange behavior. Although he was initially enthusiastic about his graduate studies, he has lost interest and lacks motivation to continue. He has isolated himself from friends and has stopped consuming alcohol or any substances. There is no history of substance abuse. Tim struggles to concentrate on his work and shares with his friends and family that he believes someone is following him when he leaves the house and spying on him at night in his bedroom. 

Tim's behavior escalates when he throws his cell phone against a bus window, causing a public disturbance, leading to his transfer to a state psychiatric hospital by the police. Hospital staff notice that Tim engages in frantic whispering when alone, as if having a conversation with someone else. When questioned about his behavior, Tim expresses his belief that his phone is being monitored, he is being pursued by agents, the government wants to kill him, and that he is destined to bring down the government and end the world. Based on these symptoms, Tim is diagnosed with schizophrenia by the psychiatrist and prescribed antipsychotic medication. 

After five weeks of treatment, there are slight improvements in Tim's condition, but his delusions persist. He continues to perceive agents hiding under the floorboards and above him in ceiling tiles. Additionally, he refuses to consume any beverages, fearing they are poisoned. Due to the psychiatrist's assessment of him being a danger to himself and others, Tim is required to remain as an inpatient at the psychiatric hospital for further treatment.