Clinical Psychology - Lecture 1: Introduction to clinical psychology Flashcards
What is clinical psychology?`
Applied branch of psychology which focuses on mental health problems (‘abnormal behaviour’)
Difference between psychiatrists and psychologists
Psychiatrists are doctors and their main way of treating patients is through prescribing medication whereas psychologists use talking therapies
Training to becoming a psychologist
3 years UG with psychology major + 4 years PG training in clinical psychology
Definition of a mental health problem
“…psychological disorder is signalled by a constellation of cognitive, emotional and behavioural symptoms that create significant distress; impair work, school, family, relationships or daily living; or lead to significant risk of harm”
- > cognitive, emotional, behavioural
- > Distress, impairment, significant risk of harm
Identifying distress
Most of the time we experience it and manage it well but it can stay
-> anxiety, panic attacks, disruption in sleep patterns, withdrawal (also impairment) -> get in the way of functioning, relations, work
Often don’t recognise ppl experiencing distress
Identifying impairment
More obvious/observable -> not doing job set out to do - withdrawing from these activities
What are the 2 core parts of a psychological disorder?
Distress and impairment
Identifying significant risk of harm
Being of danger to oneself and/or others
- > avoiding food, constant feeling of being judged
- > exhausted, isolating themself
- > risk of suicide (key risk of harm)
How many people will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime?
1 in 4
MH as a failure
Not a personal failure, if anything more to do with how we as a society respond to MH problems
DSM-5
Main classification system to diagnose MH problems
DSM-5 controversy
Diagnostic inflation - “The fact that the DSM-5 has lowered the threshold for some diagnoses and added a
number of additional diagnoses raises the risk of
giving a mental health diagnosis to someone who
may simply be experiencing normal problems of
living” (Coleman and Gibson, 2013).
What does the DSM-5 recognise?
Many people will experience symptoms similar of MH problems but not to the extent which will mean it causes MH problems
Do all MH disorders apply to everyone?
Some disorders only in adults or children or some more prominent in either
DSM diagnosis pros (3)
- Communication amongst clinicians & researchers
- Relief through appearance of explanation; awareness -> patients knowing they’re not alone and psychologists knowing about it -> treatment options
- Helpful to policy makers & managers -> able to draw line with diagnoses so can allocate resources in sensible manner for most at risk - being able to allocate resources with limited funding
