Concepts in psychiatry Flashcards
What is mental illness?
Abnormalities of behaviour
Reports of abnormal or distressing experiences
What is grouping of mental illnesses based on?
Grouping based on similar characteristics
What are the main systems in the categorisation of mental health illnesses?
ICD-10 and DSM-IV
What is the criticism against the systems used for categorisation?
Criticism is that these criteria ‘pathologize’
significant proportions of population.
What are methods of diagnosing mental illnesses?
Phenomenology
Symptoms
Syndrome descriptions
Aetiology – On occasion
What are organic mental illnesses attributable to and examples?
Organic
-Attributable to cerebral or systemic disease
-Such as tumour / Physiological disturbance
What are functional mental illnesses and when was this concept developed?
-No suspected organic pathology
-Concept developed at time when organic disorders diagnosed by naked eye
What happens in psychosis and what are symptoms?
-Psychosis
-Insight impaired
-Inadequate distinction reality / fantasy
-Symptoms such as hallucinations / delusions
What happens in neurosis and is it psychotic?
-Anxiety, low mood, obsessions
-Intact insight
-Not Psychotic
What is a trait?
a distinguishing quality or characteristic, typically one belonging to a person.
What is a state?
State- short term
-May be normal or pathological
What is disease(biological) model?
Mental dysfunction a consequence of physical &
chemical changes in the brain, or elsewhere
Why is the disease(biological) model taken to one extreme?
all mental illnesses will be shown to be diseases in the medically accepted sense
What is the key idea in the psychodynamic model?
mental life continues outside of our
awareness (i.e. it may be unconscious)
What does the psychodynamic model suggest about symptoms?
Symptoms have meaning which expresses
unconscious feelings or thought, thus symptoms may give clues to underlying unconscious problem
What does the behavioural model state?
Abnormal behaviours exhibited in most mental
illness
These behaviours result of unhelpful learned
responses
What is extreme about the behavioural model?
the symptoms are the illnesses
What does treatment in the behavioural model involve?
Treatment involves altering these behaviours
What is the cognitive model?
Mental illnesses are the consequence of unhelpful errors or biases in thinking
What is reactivated during episodes of illness in the cognitive model?
Early dysfunctional assumptions about self or the world are reactivated during episodes of illness
What does treatment involve in the cognitive model?
Treatment involves restructuring thoughts which underpin mental illness & maladaptive behaviours
What does the social model state?
-Social influences are important causes or
precipitants of mental illness
-Ultimately illness is socially defined
What does psychiatry involve?
Clinical diagnosis
Holistic approach
Team approach
Biopsychosocial model
