L17 - Psychiatry Flashcards
Dualism
Relationship between mind and matter
Claiming that mental phenomenon are non physical
Convergent disorders
Convert psychological stress into physical symptoms
Neurology
Disorders of the nervous system with:
- established aetiologies
- anatomical pathology
- physical symptoms
Psychiatry
Disorders of the mood, thought and behaviour
- no or minor physical symptoms
- no visible pathology
Functional psychiatry
Multiple or unspecified causes
Neurotic disorders e.g depression, anxiety and phobias
Psychotic disorders e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar
Organic psychiatry
Due to identifiable physical disease of brain trauma
E.g. dementia, epilepsy, Parkinson’s
Psychopharmacotherapy
Identify chemical imbalances and changes in neurotransmitters or receptors and attempt to correct imbalance
[Rule of thirds]
Approaches of mental health
- chemical imbalance - psychopharmacotherapy
- upbringing and environmental factors - psychotherapy
Use of classifications
- understand implications of diagnosis, prognosis and treatment
- facilitate research
The term disorder
Lack of clear underlying cause
Therefore group symptoms and behaviours and associate them with distress and interference with life
Disadvantages of classifications
- denies unique personal difficulties
- deviant behaviours labelled as illness
- individuals do not fit neatly in a category
- stigma of diagnosis of disorder
- arbitrary criteria of abnormal and normal
Dimensional classification
Various axes or dimensions e.g led low to very high
Good for personality disorders
DSM
Tested
Precise operational criteria
Multi-axial
Grouped disorders
Psychiatric genetics
Family history and genotype can:
- aid classification
- aid risk estimation
- assist in the development of new treatments
