Chapter 4: The Spectrum of Mental Health Disorders

Question 1

Define what a mental health problem is?

Answer 1

diminished capacities that interfere with a person’s enjoyment of life or affect their interactions with society and the environment

Question 2

Mental Disorders

Answer 2

clinically significant patterns of behavioural or emotional function that are associated with some level of distress

Question 3

What are 2 systems of Diagnostic Classification in Canada?

Answer 3

1. The international classification of diseases (ICD)

2. The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)

Question 4

What is the ICD?

Answer 4

addresses all types of illness
created by the WHO
used internationally

Question 5

What is the DSM?

Answer 5

addresses psychiatric disorders but no other illness

strictly used in north america

Question 6

Who is considered a primary user of the ICD codes?

Answer 6

health care personnel (drs, nurses, medical coders)

Question 7

Who is a secondary user of the ICD codes?

Answer 7

someone who uses already coded data from hospitals to conduct research

Question 8

What are some criticisms of diagnosis?

Answer 8

1. problems with reliability and validity
2. effects of labelling
3. cultural relativity
4. political and economic misuses

Question 9

What is reliability?

Answer 9

consistency of results when a measurement is repeated

Question 10

What is validity?

Answer 10

whether a measurement really captures what it says it will

Question 11

What are some problems with reliability and validity?

Answer 11

• diagnoses have been criticized for being too vague and unscientific
• few diagnoses are linked to specific causes

Question 12

What are some effects of the labelling theory?

Answer 12

• dominant groups have a tendency to label minority groups negatively
• labels can become internalize and that can lead to deviance

Question 13

Cultural Relativity

Answer 13

• something might be a mental disorder in one cultural but not considered one in another
• in Canada the DSM doesn’t exactly fit with the spiritual framework that many Aboriginals embrace

Question 14

What are some political misuses of diagnosis?

Answer 14

People often use mental illness as an excuse for committing a crime and end up in jail

Question 15

What are some economic misuses of diagnosis?

Answer 15

over-identification of a mental illness for the purpose of selling a medication

Question 16

Why do we diagnose people?

Answer 16

• as a means of understanding different illnesses
• designating the correct treatment
• currently the benefits outweigh the risks

Question 17

What are organic mental disorders?

Answer 17

neurocognitive disorders

caused by a disturbance of brain function or damage to brain structures

Question 18

What is delirium?

Answer 18

disturbance of brain function with confusion, memory loss, disturbed level of consciousness and distorted perception

Question 19

What is dementia?

Answer 19

a progressive degenerative disease that involves the loss of neurons from the cerebral cortex and other areas of the brain

Question 20

Mental and Behavioural Disorders Due to Psychoactive Substance Use

Answer 20

caused by the use of a psychoactive drug

includes prescribed and non-prescribed medications

Question 21

Acute intoxication

Answer 21

disruptions in cognition, emotion, level of consciousness and other mental functions

Question 22

What are concurrent disorders?

Answer 22

combination of substance disorder and another mental disorder

Question 23

When do schizophrenic disorders emerge?

Answer 23

usually in adolescence/ early adulthood

Question 24

What are delusions?

Answer 24

an intense irrational belief

detachment from reality

Question 25

What are 2 types of delusions?

Answer 25

Paranoid delusions and grandiose delusions

Question 26

What is paranoid delusion?

Answer 26

belief that there is imminent danger

world is always coming to an end

Question 27

What are grandiose delusions?

Answer 27

false beliefs about having superpowers

Question 28

What are hallucinations?

Answer 28

false sensory experiences of the mind

are mainly auditory

Question 29

What are schizotypal disorders?

Answer 29

conditions in which disturbances in thinking and eccentric behaviour occur that are similar to symptoms seen in schizophrenic disorders but are milder in nature

Question 30

Major Depressive Disorder

Answer 30

one or more depressive episodes lasting at least 2 weeks

accompanied by 4 symptoms

Question 31

Bipolar Disorder

Answer 31

involves substantial elevations of mood and depressed mood

Question 32

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Answer 32

fight or flight response is triggered by regular activities

Question 33

Phobic anxiety disorder

Answer 33

fear triggered by a traumatic expereince

Question 34

Panic Disorder

Answer 34

person feels scared of first panic attack which then triggers another one

Question 35

PTSD

Answer 35

a response to a stressor
person experiences flashbacks
involves the limbic system

Question 36

Somatoform Disorder

Answer 36

person repeatedly presents physical symptoms with a request for medical investigation in spite of repeated negative findings

Question 37

Examples of disorders of adult personality and behaviour

Answer 37

gender identity disorders
disorders of sexual preference
habit and impulse disorders

Question 38

Define disorders of psychological development

Answer 38

impairment or delay of functions such

not global impairments (presents at an early age and diminishes with age)

Question 39

Examples of disorders occurring in childhood and adolescence

Answer 39

ADD
tic disorders
conduct disorder
separation anxiety

Question 40

Define Unspecified Mental Disorders

Answer 40

conditions that don’t fit in the 10 other groupings

avoid use of this category unless necessary

Question 41

What are 2 mood (affective) disorders

Answer 41

major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder

Question 42

What is major depressive disorder?

Answer 42

one or more depressive episodes lasting at least two weeks, accompanied by at least four additional symptoms of depression

Question 43

What is bipolar disorder?

Answer 43

involves substantial elevations of mood and depressed mood