Introduction to mental health Flashcards
Mental health what do we mean?
- Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being,
- Affects how we think, feel and act,
- Helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices,
- Mental health is important at every stage of life, from early childhood and adolescence through to adulthood
list some poor mental health symptoms
- Withdrawn from usual activities,
- Loss of energy,
- Feeling hopeless,
- Worry,
- Uses of Drugs/alcohol,
- mood swings,
- suicidal thoughts
What is Psychopathology?
- Its the study of the nature of disease and it’s causes, processes, development, treatments and consequences (causes, development and outcomes)
- Term first used in 1845 in Germany
What is psychopathology associated with?
- Deviance= thoughts, emotions or behaviours which are not culturally or socially held beliefs
- Distress- negative feelings within or about the person
- Dysfunction- functioning in and managing in daily tasks,
- Danger-to self or others
What are the stages of psychopathology- depression example
Deviance- Feelings of low self-esteem, guilt or worthlessness,
Distress- Sadness or guilt is extreme and distressing,
Dysfunction-Unable to get up, leave the house, go to work, relationships
Danger-self harm, suicide, or thoughts to harm others
what are the Models of psychopathology
- Neurobiological= disease, physical symptoms, chemicals within the brain, genetics (twin studies)
- Sociobiological= life events, social forces,
- Psychodynamic= dynamic between unconscious, complicated feelings and our relationships e.g. ego, superego and ego defences,
- Behaviouristic = application of various learning theories, responses to our environments,
- Cognitive= dysfunctional thinking, perception, reasoning and the judgement of our environment and consequential behavioural response
- Interpersonal= relationships with others
Depression- example of the neurobiological approach example
A person presents with symptoms of depression- low mood, poor self esteem, thoughts of self harm
Neurobiological explanation- an imbalance of brain chemicals,
possible treatment- prescription of antidepressants to restore the balance of brain chemicals
Phobias- example of the behavioural approach
- Phobia associated with heights,
- Behavioural explanation= learnt behaviour through classical conditioning. Something happened when a person learned to associate the emotion of fear with the stimulus of being in a high place,
- Possible treatments- could be helped by behavioural therapies e.g. desensitisation or flooding treatments.
Depression- example of the cognitive approach
- Student experiences depressed mood after failing examination at university,
- Person has negative thoughts about a specific failure and may generalise those to other areas of their life,
- The person believes that they are a failure in all aspects of life and may never be successful again
-possible treatments= cognitive therapy to help recognise triggers, change thoughts and consider positive reinforcements
What is the psychodynamic/psychoanalytical model about?
- Based on the work of Sigmund Freud and others,
- Founded on the principles that psychological illness result from repressed emotions and thoughts from experiences in the past (usually childhood)
- Due to repressed feelings or emotions, alternative behaviours replace what is being repressed.
-Possible treatments=individual or group therapy to assist the person understand/resolve the problems by increasing awareness of their own inner world and relationships
Anxiety- example of the psychodynamic approach
- Anxiety symptoms,
- Person is encouraged to explore in the past in order to discover problems occurring during one of the psychosexual stages,
- In order to deal with this problem the patient has used ego-defence mechanisms, such as repression or denial.
- The anxiety itself may have become directed towards someone or something else in the patients world (displacement)
-Treatment would involve, among other things helping the patient to gain insight into the causes of the anxiety
What are some examples of mental health/psychiatric services
- Adult services (e.g. depression, anxiety, bipolar affective disorders, personality disorders)
- Old age (e.g dementia, depression, psychosis)
- Child and adolescent (e.g. depression, anxiety)
- Learning disabilities (e.g. down syndrome or autism)
- addictions (alcohol, drugs)
- Eating disorders (e.g. anorexia, bulimia)
What are the concepts in psychiatry
- Biopsychosocial approach to understanding people,
- Biological, social and psychological factors are all needed to understand a patient and to consider which assessment or treatment is warranted,
- Team work- MDT working is vital,
- Stigma- sensitivity to the stigmas associated with mental health
