Mental Disorders Chapter 16 Problems in Identifying Mental
Mental Disorders Chapter 16
Problems in Identifying Mental Disorders MENTAL DISORDER: a disturbance in a person’s emotions, thought processes, or behavior that results in: serious and relatively prolonged distress and/or impairment in the ability to function Not simply a normal response to some event in the person’s environment Not explainable as an effect of poverty, prejudice or other social force that prevents the person from behaving adaptively
Categorizing and Diagnosing Mental Disorders Labeling an individual can be RELIABILITY: the degree to harmful which different diagnosticians, all trained in the use of the Blinds you to other qualities the diagnostic system, reach the person may have same conclusions when they Can reduce their self-esteem independently diagnose the Can interfere with the individual’s same individuals ability to cope with their environment VALIDITY: the degree to which the disorders identified are clinically meaningful; that is, the degree to which the diagnostic labels predict real-world behaviors and treatment outcomes
The Brain Is Involved in All Mental Disorders All thoughts, emotions and behaviors are products of the brain. The role of the brain is most obvious in chronic mental disorders—that is, they stay with you for life once they appear Autism Down Syndrome Alzheimer’s Disease Amyloid plaques
A Framework for Thinking About Multiple Causes of Mental Disorders Predisposing Causes • Those conditions that are in place well before the onset of a mental disorder and that make the person susceptible to the disorder Precipitating Causes • The events that most immediately bring on a mental disorder in a person who is sufficiently predisposed for the disorder Perpetuating Causes • Those consequences of a mental disorder—such as the way other people treat the person who has it—that help keep the disorder going once it begins
Anxiety Disorders Class of disorders in which fear or anxiety is the prominent system. Generalized anxiety disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder - anxiety disorder characterized by two phenomena: - Obsessions: disturbing thoughts that intrude repeatedly on a person’s consciousness - Compulsions: a repetitive action that helps to alleviate the obsession Panic disorder - Mental disorder characterized by the repeated occurrence of panic attacks at unpredictable times and with no clear relationship to environmental events. - Panic attack: intense feeling of terror, which usually lasts several minutes, and is accompanied by signs of high physiological arousal Phobias - mental disorder characterized by a strong, irrational fear of some particular category of object or event Post-traumatic stress disorders - a mental disorder that is directly and explicitly tied to a particular traumatic incident or set of incidents that the affected person has experienced
Depressive Disorders Mood • Prolonged emotional state that influences a person’s thoughts and behavior Depression • Prolonged sadness, self-blame, loss of hope, a sense of worthlessness, and absence of pleasure Major Depression • Mental disorder characterized by severe depression that lasts essentially without remission for at least two weeks Dysthymia • Mental disorder characterized by feelings of depression that are less severe than those in major depression but which last for at least a two-year period
Cognitive & Biological Factors Hopelessness theory: 1. The person assumes that the negative event will have catastrophic consequences 2. The person assumes that the negative event reflects something negative about himself or herself 3. The person attributes the cause of the negative event to something that is stable and global Suffering stressful experiences predispose one to develop a depressive episode Genes partly predisposes one to develop depression Depression may be partly due to dysregulation of serotonin or norepinephrine in the brain, and increased release of cortisol
Bipolar Disorders • Mood disorders that are characterized by episodes of abnormally high mood (mania) and abnormally low mood (depression) Bipolar I Disorder • The most severe type of bipolar disorder, characterized by at least one episode of mania and one episode of major depression Bipolar II Disorder • The type of bipolar disorder in which the manic phase is less extreme than it is in Bipolar I Disorder and is referred to as hypomania
The Manic Condition Mania is characterized by euphoria, elevated selfesteem, increased talkativeness, decreased need for sleep and increased energy Bipolar disorders have been linked with creativity
Schizophrenia SCHIZOPHRENIA: a serious class of mental disorder that is characterized by disrupted perceptual and other thought processes, often including hallucinations and delusions • Disorganized thought and speech, Echolalia, Neologisms POSITIVE SYMPTOMS: DELUSIONS: a false belief held in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary Persecution NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS: a lack of or reduction in expected behaviors, thoughts, feelings and drives Being controlled Lack of speech Grandeur Flattened affect HALLUCINATIONS: false sensory perceptions Auditory: hearing voices Loss of basic drives such as hunger Anhedonia
Genes & Environmental Contributions to Schizophrenia The prenatal environment (malnutrition, birth problems, head injury) Increased genetic relatedness increases probability of presenting the disorder (1. 1% population rate) Stressful life events can precipitate schizophrenia and exacerbate its symptoms • Identical twin : 48% • Fraternal twin: 17% • Non-twin sibling: 9% • Both parents: 46% • One parent: 13% • Grandparent: 5% Children of parents who communicate in a disorganized, disjointed or highly emotional manner were more likely to develop schizophrenia
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