Differential Diagnosis: Depression vs. Anxiety

Register by October 8th at 5 PM

Note: This course is offered via Zoom. You will receive additional instructions and a Zoom link in your confirmation email one week before the training. We will send another reminder 24 hours before the session starts. They will be sent by the Institute for Human Services from the following email address: training@ihs-trainet.com. You may want to add this email to your contact list to ensure it comes through. Please check your spam folder in case you don’t receive the first email. Sometimes, employers’ firewalls and filtering services block communication from unrecognizable email addresses. We recommend including an alternative email address to prevent this.

Course Overview

Differential Diagnosis: Depression vs. Anxiety equips counselors and social workers with practical strategies to distinguish between two of the most common—and frequently overlapping—mental health conditions. Using the metaphor of "The Heart That Sinks / The Heart That Races," this interactive workshop explores the emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological features that differentiate depression and anxiety while recognizing where symptoms overlap.

Participants learn how untreated anxiety can resemble depression, how untreated depression can present as anxiety, and how to improve diagnostic accuracy using research-supported assessment tools, including the PHQ-9, GAD-7, and a practical "Big 10" clinical decision tree. Through discussion, experiential activities, and real-world clinical applications, participants leave with greater confidence and a structured approach to making accurate differential diagnoses.

Objectives

As a result of participating in this workshop, you will be able to:

• Differentiate core symptom patterns and features of depression vs. anxiety
• Use a clinical decision tree to improve diagnostic accuracy
• Apply differential diagnosis principles to improve clinical decision-making.

View additional information and the course objective

Continuing Education

This training is approved for 1.5 Social Work CE Credits. See additional information below.

Institute for Human Services, provider #1802, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 03/25/2026 – 03/25/2029. Social workers completing this course receive 1.5 general or clinical continuing education credits.

To earn CE credits, participants must attend the session in its entirety, remain on camera, complete an evaluation, and pay the $10 CE fee at the time of registration.

The Institute for Human Services understands that circumstances arise that may prevent registrants from attending a pre-paid training. A training and continuing education credit (minus the Eventbrite platform fee and any credit card fees) will be refunded if a registrant cancels their training attendance on the registration platform at least 7 days before the training event. If the registrant does not cancel within 7 days of the continuing education session, no refund will be issued.

View Our Grievance and Refund Policy

Questions? Email training@ihs-trainet.com or contact our office at 614-251-6000 Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EDT. If you need additional accessibility supports, please contact us in advance of the training to make necessary arrangements.

Reminder: This virtual workshop will take place from 1 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (EDT) and has two short breaks built in. Please make note of the time zone.

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