Biomedical Approach to Mental Health (Level 5)

Question 1

What does the biomedical approach assume about behaviour?

Answer 1

That all behaviour (whether human or animal behaviour) is driven by genetics and an individual’s biological or chemical composition.

Question 2

What does the phrase “correlation does not imply causation” refer to?

Answer 2

The inability to legitimately deduce a cause-and-effect relationship between two events or variables solely on the basis of an observed association or correlation between them.

Question 3

What does the fact that there are biological correlates of behaviour mean?

Answer 3

That there are physiological origins of behaviour such as neurotransmitters, hormones, specialised brain areas, and genes.

Question 4

What does biological relativity require, as opposed to symmetry of causation?

Answer 4

Circular causality

Question 5

What does the biomedical model posit, in addition to emphasising pharmacological treatment to target presumed biological abnormalities?

Answer 5

That mental disorders are brain diseases.

Question 6

What is critical realism, initially developed by Bhaskar (1944 - 2014)?

Answer 6

A philosophical approach to understanding science, and in particular social science.

Question 7

How can the discipline of psychopathology be understood in short?

Answer 7

As an in-depth study of problems related to mental health.

Question 8

On what does descriptive psychopathology exclusively rely?

Answer 8

On the information communicated by a patient or relative, as well as on what is observed by an examiner.

Question 9

What is experimental psychopathology?

Answer 9

The study of the causes, characteristics, and treatment of psychological dysfunction.

Question 10

On what do theory and research in experimental psychopathology focus?

Answer 10

On the assessment and treatment of both childhood and adult disorders.

Question 11

What is the crucial assumption of a fresh and novel, non-experimental approach to psychopathology called network theory?

Answer 11

The notion that psychiatric symptoms are input for other symptoms.

Question 12

What do bipolar disorders comprise?

Answer 12

Recurrent episodes of elevated mood and depression.

Question 13

With which symptoms do patients with bipolar disorder typically present for treatment?

Answer 13

With depression or anxiety or with mixed features, including concurrent mania and depression.

Question 14

What is an example of a symptom of the highs of cyclothymia?

Answer 14

Elevated mood (hypomania).

Question 15

Of what do the lows of cyclothymia consist?

Answer 15

Mild or moderate depressive symptoms.

Question 16

What can recurrent depressive disorder cause?

Answer 16

Consistent feelings of hopelessness and sadness.

Question 17

Which condition is milder yet more enduring than major depression?

Answer 17

Recurrent depressive disorder

Question 18

What are two core features of a major depressive episode, despite a strong case being able to be made to pay increasing attention to symptoms of fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and neurocognitive and sexual dysfunction in the diagnosis and evaluation of treatment outcome?

Answer 18

“Depressed mood” and “loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities”.

Question 19

What are the most common types of mood disorders?

Answer 19

Major depression, dysthymia (dysthymic disorder), bipolar disorder, mood disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance-induced mood disorder.

Question 20

What are seven examples of common signs of mood disorders?

Answer 20

Constant feelings of sadness or anxiousness, an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, low self-worth or feeling inadequate, relationship problems, loss of interest in activities that once brought pleasure, excessive guilt, and sleep issues.

Question 21

Why is the stepped care model used by NHS talking therapies services?

Answer 21

To make a clinical decision as to which sort of treatment is currently the most appropriate for the person they are assessing.

Question 22

What is stepped care?

Answer 22

A way of providing and monitoring care and treatment.

Question 23

What is the aim of stepped care?

Answer 23

To provide you with the most effective, yet least resource intensive treatment for you.