Mental and Physical Health - Psychological Disorders Flashcards
definition of psychological disorder
“A syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behaviour that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental functioning”
biomedical model
Posits that mental disorders are brain diseases and emphasizes pharmacological treatment to target presumed biological abnormalities
- Implies that it is not the fault of the person, but doesn’t necessarily reduce stigma or discrimination
diathesis-stress model
The combination of genetic predisposition and environment to determine how likely someone is to develop a mental disorder
assessment and diagnosis
- Assessment involves examining a person’s mental state in order to diagnose (and treat) possible psychological disorders
- Use of DSM
problem with diagnosing disorders
There is no sharp line between “normal” and “abnormal” behavior
maladaptive behaviour
The behaviour must interfere with at least one important aspect of the person’s life
treatment
- Always involves interactions between practitioner and client/patient
- Increased understanding of the causes of a mental disorder does not necessarily lead to more effective treatment strategies
psychotherapy
- Any psychological service provided by a trained professional that primarily uses forms of communication and interaction to assess, diagnose, and treat dysfunctional emotional reactions, ways of thinking, and behaviour patterns
- Ex. Psychodynamic therapy, humanistic therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy
psychoanalytic therapy
- Focus on bringing unconscious struggles into consciousness (free association, dream analysis)
- Insight: increase patient’s understanding of their own psychological processes
person-centred (humanistic) therapy
- Encouragement of personal growth through self-understanding -> congruence
- Safe and comfortable setting, empathy, reflective listening
cognitive therapy
- Attempts to modify maladaptive thought patterns
- Ex. cognitive restructuring
behaviour therapy
- Beck
- Attempts to modify maladaptive behaviours and the environments that trigger them (reconditioning)
- Ex. systematic desensitization (fear hierarchy, relaxation training, exposure therapy)
cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Incorporates techniques from both cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy to correct faulty thinking and change maladaptive behaviours
- Very successful at treating anxiety and mood disorders, particularly over the long term
cognitive restructuring
Recognizing automatic thoughts
Identify cognitive distortions (ex. personalizing)
Challenge or dispute the thoughts
Replace with healthier/more functional thoughts
psychotropic medication
Drugs that affect mental processes
anxiolytics
Treatment of anxiety (ex. benzodiazepines, increase GABA activity)
antidepressants
Treatment of depression Ex. SSRIs (increase serotonin levels)
antipsychotics
Block dopamine, reduce positive symptoms of schizophrenia (ex. hallucinations, delusions
schizophrenia
- A mental disorder characterized by alterations in perceptions, emotions, thoughts, or consciousness
- Used to be classes into different subtypes (removed from DSM-5): paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, residual type
schizophrenia symptoms (pos. + neg)
Can be categorized as positive or negative
- Positive symptoms
Excesses in behaviour
-> Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behaviour
- Negative symptoms
Deficits in functioning
-> Isolation, withdrawal, apathy, blunted emotion, slowed and monotonous speech
Generally more difficult to treat than positive symptoms, different underlying causes
schizophrenia symptoms (bio + env)
- Genetic component
- Structural and functional differences in the brain
Frontal lobe dysfunction - Environmental stress
Socioeconomic status, prenatal environment - Drug use (THC)
treatment for schizophrenia treatment
Pharmacological treatments are the most effective
- Neuroleptics revolutionized the treatment of schizophrenia
but… Significant side effects -> tardive dyskinesia
- Atypical (second generation) antipsychotics
- Little to no effect on negative symptoms in the long-term
bipolar disorders
- Manic episodes
Elevated mood, increased activity, diminished need for sleep, grandiose ideas, racing thoughts, and extreme distractibility - Different subtypes based on nature of manic (or hypomanic) and depressive (or neutral) episodes
major depressive disorder (MDD)
- One of the most frequently diagnosed disorders (~7% of the adult population each year)
- More common amount young adults 18-29 years old and women
- Diagnosis requires presence of depressed mood and/or anhedonia, along with other physical or cognitive symptoms
potential causes of depression
- Learned helplessness
- Depressive attributional style: attribute failures to internal, global, stable causes
- Many different areas of the brain are impacted by depression
- The experience of severed stress frequently occurs just before the onset of a depressive episode
- Heritability of depression
Beck’s cognitive triad
Negative views of the self, the world, and the future
heritability of depression
Estimated to be around 40%
- Genes affecting serotonin function
- Genes affecting circadian rhythms
treatment for depression
- Antidepressants
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy
- Alternative treatments: phototherapy, aerobic exercise, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), deep brain stimulation (DBS)
anxiety disorders
- Characterized by excessive anxiety in the absence of true danger (1 in 4 Canadian adults during lifetime)
- Common symptoms (across disorders) include autonomic system arousal, worry/anxiety/tenseness, restlessness, excessive startle response
cognitive potential causes of anxiety disorders
- Attention to and perception of threat
- Ambiguous stimuli
- Interpretation of bodily sensations (panic disorder)
biological potential causes of anxiety disorders
- Genetics: inhibited temperamental style
- Fear circuitry dysfunction (amygdala, prefrontal cortex)
treatment of anxiety disorders
- Anxiolytics (ex. Xanax increases GABA)
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy
Exposure therapy (phobias)
obsessive compulsive disorder
Involves frequent intrusive thoughts and/or compulsive actions: anticipate catastrophe and loss of control
obsessions
Recurrent, intrusive, and unwanted thoughts or ideas or mental images; often include fear of contamination, of accidents, or of one’s own aggression
compulsions
Particular acts that one feels driven to perform over and over again; often include cleaning, checking, and counting
causes of OCD
- Strong genetic component
- Classical and operant conditioning processes
Anxiety paired with event, behaviour linked with relief
learned helplessness
when the person believes that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try, even when opportunities for change are available.
