Mental health and Psychiatry Flashcards
What does trans-diagnostic mean?
A symptom that is present in numerous disorders e.g compulsion
What is the definition of compulsion?
The experience of overwhelming urges to repeat a behaviour even in the knowledge that it is harmful. I
What is state anxiety?
psychological and physiological transient reactions directly related to adverse situations in a specific moment. This is what motivates us to keep out of harm as it causes us to feel nervousness and apprehensiveness
PersWhat is trait anxiety?
Your ability to become anxious under a given set of stressors, it is a personality aspect of anxiety. It is an adaptive response to your environment (e.g more threatening environment=higher trait anxiety) and can have genetic components
How does trait anxiety affect state anxiety?
If a certain thing triggers your trait anxiety e.g. a snake then this can lead to you constantly avoiding it leading to you having a conditioned fear towards it therefore it becoming part of your state anxiety
What are the features of state anxiety that have a positive feedback effect on state anxiety?
Avoidance-perpetuating of conditioned fear
Attentional and cognitive Bias-make you hypervigilant for threats, you may be thinking constantly about bad things that could happen, you may be more likely to notice potential hazards and threats in the environment. All this effects how you perceive and process whats going on around you
Rumination-The process of continuously thinking about the same thoughts, which tend to be sad or dark Poor sleep-if rumination is bad enough this can lead to poor sleep
define anxiety disorder?
Anxiety disorder can be conceptualised as a SELF PERPETUATING NETWORK OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOPS arising from normally adaptive responses
What is anhedonia?
Inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities
What factors can contribute to depression?
-Abuse -Loss -Chronic illness -PROLONGED STRESS -Genetic and environmental factors -Low self worth -Social withdrawal is cause by depression and has a positive feedback effect by leading to further low moods and less self worth -Sleep loss is a result of depression and has a positive feedback effect by causing depression to worsen -anxiety (comes from a low mood response that is normal )
Why do people self harm?
-Low self worth = you believe bad things will happen to you but by doing it yourself at least you have control over the punishment=less anxiety provoking -Endorphin release -Pain is better than feeling empty an numb - you feel you deserve to be punished -temporary relief from anxiety as you can control the punishment -can become compulsive
How is compulsive behaviour developed?
State of distress-> distress reducing behaviour(self harm, substance abuse, disordered eating, compulsive rituals)->temporary relief-> negaitve reinforcement(usually a normal thing for survival) is when the bad thing which in this case is the state of stress, is removed due to the behaviour exhibited-> if you repeat the behavior enough times it leads to an URGE to exhibit this behaviour each time, not because its a good idea but because you feel like you need to do it (unconscious learning process, it almost becomes hardwired into your brain until you no longer really have a conscious control over it ) eventually this stress reducing behaviour causes more stress and therefore a never ending cycle = this leads to things like self harm and eating disorders, addiction
What happens when one rat is given cocaine and is isolated and another rat is given cocaine and lives in rat heaven with others?
The isolated rat becomes addicted to cocaine, eventually overdoses and dies. The other rat tries the cocaine however it doesn’t continue and instead lives a happy life
How can depression by defined?
same as anxiety- a self perpetuating network of positive feedback loops arising from normally adaptive responses
When does self harm typically occur?
In the context of low self worth and persistent distress -it serves various functions mainly related to reducing stress
How can support and kindness effect someone who self harms?
-Doesn’t help because they think they deserve bad things to happen to them so they felt even more anxious (cognitive dissonance between what they think should be happening and what is actually happening) New intrusive thought triggered
What characterises OCD?
INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS/IMAGES which are: -distressing -involuntary COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOURS-serve to relieve state of anxiety/tension
What causes OCD?
Its the compulsion cycle: 1-Intrusive thoughts 2- this leads to stress 3-distress reducing behaviour 4- this provides temporary relief 5-negative reinforcement from this 6-causes the urge to repeat the behaviour 7- as you continues to ruminate over the intrusive thought 8- the cycle repeats leading to compulsion that is central to OCD
What is the difference between someone who wants to lose weight and someone who develops an eating disorder?
The person who develops an eating disorder ties there self worth to their body image and has anxiety about body image
How do bulimia develop?
1-Low self worth and anxiety projected onto the body 2- leads to diet restriction 3- Causes you to be hungry and eat 4-leads to intense feelings of failure and negative thoughts 5-binge because you think whats the point (loss control) 6- This intensifies feeling of failure 7-intense stress 8- Leads people to purging to get rid of the source of stress(food) 9-temporary relief 10-Negative reinforcement 11-You eat again because you feel back in control 12- this compulsive cycle keeps repeating itself
How does Anorexia develop?
1- Low self worth and anxiety projected onto body image 2- diet restriction 3- This causes you to feel safe, control and a sense of achievement 4-Weight loss reinforces these good feelings of safety and control 5- This shields you from the anxiety and low self worth temporarily 6- anxiety and lows elf worth can worsen due to other factors of your life so you need to strengthen this shield 7- So you continue to restrict food as this is the only thing that is making you feel better about yourself 8- Then the thought of going back to normal eating begins to terrify you -losing control 9-Brain starvation leads to cognitive inflexibility and eventually compulsion as they develop rules to maintain control
How does binge eating disorder develop?
1-Low self worth and anxiety projected onto body image 2- seek out high calorie food 3-Neural reward ( natural opiods) 4- temporary relief 5-negative reinforcement 6- cycle repeats
What is delirium?
A type of madness caused by acute brain failure which leads to clouding of consciousness and attention deficit The brain failure can be caused by drugs, infections, endocrine (thyroid etc), metabolic(ca2+,mg2+ etc)
What is encephalopathy?
Aquired brain injury such as stroke leading to madness
What things are associated with madness?
-Psychosis (e.g. Schizophrenia, manic depression etc) -Delirium -Encephalompathy -Dementia -Personality disorder
