Chapter 15: Psychological Disorders Flashcards
A disturbance in thinking, emotion, or behaviour that causes a person to suffer, is self-destructive, impairs one’s ability to work or get along with others, or makes them unable to control the impulse to endanger others
Mental disorder
The standard reference manual used to diagnose mental disorders
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
What is the primary aim of the DSM?
To provide clear, descriptive, diagnostic categories so that clinicians/researchers can agree on which disorders they are talking about, and how to treat them
What are some problems with the the use of DSM?
- the danger of overdiagnosis
- the power of diagnostic labels (“bipolar,” “autism spectrum”)
- the illusion of objectivity
- inaccurate diagnoses
What are the different types of clinical interviews?
Structured:
“Script” of questions asked in a specific order
Unstructured:
More flexible, clinician can ask their own questions at their discretion
What are clinical interviews trying to determine?
- what specific issues are prompting them to seek clinical attention;
- their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral state and whether their S&S meet established criteria for a diagnosis;
- their history of trauma and other stressors;
- their risk of harming themselves or others; and
- their educational, occupational, and family status and functioning
This involves emotional, behavioral,
cognitive, and physical changes severe enough to disrupt ordinary functioning
Symptoms include:
- feeling despairing and worthless
- losing interest in activities that usually give them pleasure
- feeling unable to get up and do things
- overeating or stopping eating
- difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- having trouble concentrating
- feeling tired all the time
Major depression
What are the 2 types of bipolar disorder?
Type 1:
- full manic episodes
- rare major depression
Type 2:
- very small manic episodes
- longer stretches of major depressive episodes
What is the vulnerability-stress model?
It emphasizes how individual vulnerabilities might interact with external stresses or circumstances to produce specific mental disorders, such as depression
What are some central contributing factors to depression?
Genetic predispositions
Personality traits
Cognitive habits
Violence & abuse
Losses of important relationships
What are indicators of generalized anxiety disorder?
- restlessness
- sleep disturbance
- muscle tension
- difficulty concentrating
This involves recurring rapid-onset
attacks of intense fear and many physical symptoms of arousal. Symptoms include rapid heart rate, chest pain or discomfort, shortness of breath, dizziness, feelings of
unreality, hot and cold flashes, sweating, and trembling and shaking
Panic disorder
This is an exaggerated, unrealistic fear
and avoidance of a specific situation, activity, or object
Phobia
What is social anxiety disorder?
People become extremely anxious in situations involving possible scrutiny and negative evaluation by others, including:
> eating in a restaurant
> speaking in public
> having to perform for an audience
This is a fear and avoidance of places
where escape or rescue might be difficult in the event of a panic attack or other incapacitating symptoms
Agoraphobia
How long does an individual need to be experiencing symptoms to be considered for PTSD?
~1 month
Why might some individuals be more likely to develop PTSD after trauma?
• genetic vulnerability
• a smaller-than-average hippocampus
• exaggerated activation in the amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
• a prior history of psychological problems, such as anxiety and impulsive aggression
• lower intelligence, reflecting diminished cognitive coping skills
These are pervasive, enduring patterns of emotion and behavior that cause great distress to an individual or impair their ability to get along with others
Personality disorders
This is characterized by extreme negative emotionality and an inability to regulate emotions
Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
It often results in intense but unstable relationships, impulsivity, self-mutilating behavior, feelings of emptiness, and a fear of abandonment
This is characterized by a lifelong pattern of irresponsible, antisocial behavior such as law breaking, violence, and other impulsive, reckless acts
Antisocial personality disorder (ADP)
Genes that increase risk for developing antisocial personality disorder (APD) likely relate to brain structure and function. What do these appear to be associated with?
- frontal lobe abnormalities
- abnormal structure and function of
the amygdala
This is a set of personality characteristics that can accompany antisocial personality disorder and is marked by:
* fearlessness
* lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse
* use of deceit
* coldheartedness
Psychopathy
The DSM-5-TR category of substance-related and addictive disorders covers the abuse of 10 classes of drugs, including what?
- alcohol
- caffeine
- hallucinogens
- inhalants
- cocaine
- tobacco
- and adds “other (or unknown) substances,” in case as-yet-unidentified ways of getting high turn up
This model holds that addiction is primarily due primarily to a person’s neurology and genetic predisposition
Biological or disease model
Example of biology addiction is nicotine
