Lecture 2 - Classification & Diagnosis Flashcards
What are the basic assumptions of the medical model?
That there is a distinction between being healthy and unhealthy, that illnesses/injuries are unrelated (lung problems and broken toe), and that there are specific causes and treatments for specific illnesses.
Why did the medical model initially collapse?
Assumed that there were specific causes and treatments, notably that germs were causing mental illness. This led to seriously dangerous treatment methods (lobotomy) that began to result in deaths.
What are the basic assumptions of the psychoanalytic model?
That there is no distinctive difference between normal mental health and abnormal mental health. Rather, all mental health exists on a continuum, with pathological abnormalities being on the extreme end.
What were the assumptions and problems with DSM-I and DSM-II?
Listed all mental disorders as some kind of defense mechanism, as they were heavily based on psychoanalysis. Doctors questioned the validity of certain illnesses being defense mechanisms (depression) and there was limited consensus between clinicians.
What are the focuses of DSM-III, IV and 5?
Focus on symptoms and treatment of those symptoms, rather than the causes of symptoms.
What are the problems of the newer editions of DSM? (5)
Treat disorders as independent when they may be related (e.g. anxiety and depression are assumed to be different, but they might not be).
People often shift from one disorder to another (depression -> anxiety).
Similar treatments are often used for a variety of different disorders (CBT).
Makes conservative changes (homosexuality being removed in the 1980s).
Does not consider the conceptualisation of disorders, i.e. are they really different? This is more philosophy, however.
