Mental Illness Flashcards
Medical Model
The conceptualization of psychological disorders as diseases that, like physical diseases, have biological causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures.
Disease
Refers to some deviation from normal body functioning that has undesirable consequences for the affected individual.
Diagnosis
Determine nature of the patient’s mental disease by assessing symptoms.
Symptoms
Behaviours, thoughts, and emotions suggestive of an underlying syndrome.
Syndrome
A coherent cluster of symptoms usually due to a single cause.
__% of the population will develop a mental disorder.
40.
DSM
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
DSM-IV-TR
A classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicate how the disorder can be distinguished from similar, other problems.
Disorders are classified as if they were a distinct ___.
Illness.
In order to be classified a mental disorder, a disorder must contain _ elements of diagnosis.
Three.
What are the three elements of diagnosis?
- Disturbances in behaviour, thoughts, or emotions.
- Significant personal distress or impairment.
- Internal dysfunction.
Psychological disorders exist along a ___.
Continuum.
To help with distinguishing between normal and abnormal, there is a scale called the ___.
GAF (Global Assessment of Functioning).
The DSM suffers from complications, because diagnostic categories depend on ___ rather than ___ behaviour.
Interpretation, observable.
The DSM suffers from complications, because diagnosis relies on patient ___.
Self-reports.
The DSM suffers from complications, because agreement amongst clinicians can vary depending on the ___ ___.
Diagnostic category.
The DSM suffers from complications as a result of comorbidity, which is…
The co-occurance of 2 or more disorders in an individual.
Causation for mental illness can be ___ or ___.
Internal or external.
Internal causation can be ___ or ___.
Biological or psychological.
Biological Internal Causation
Genetic influences, biochemical imbalances, and structural abnormalities of the brain.
Psychological Internal Causation
Maladaptive learning and coping, cognitive bias, dysfunctional attitudes, and interpersonal problems.
Environmental External Causation
Poor socialization, stressful life circumstances, and cultural and social inequalities.
Diathesis-Stress Model
A theory that suggests that a person may be predisposed for a mental disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress. However, heritability does not mean destiny.
Intervention-Causation Fallacy
Involves the assumption that if a treatment is effective, it must address the cause of the problem. However, you could have just addressed a symptom, not the cause.
3 negative consequences of labelling:
Stereotypes, stigma, and seen as a sign of weakness.
3 positive consequences of labelling:
Support, shared experience, and treatment.
__% of people with diagnosable psychological disorders do not seek treatment.
70.
Patients who are admitted to psychiatric hospitals are no more likely to be ___ than normal people in society.
Violent.
Label the ___, not the ___.
Disorder, person.
Anxiety Disorder
The class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature.
___ anxiety is normal.
Situational.
Significant comorbidity between anxiety and ___.
Depression.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance.
_% of North Americans suffer from GAD.
5.
GAD occurs more frequently in ___ economic groups and is twice as common in the ___ gender.
Lower, female.
Evidence that GAD is a result of biochemical imbalances.
Some patients respond to drugs, suggesting neurotransmitter imbalances.
Evidence that GAD is situational and experiential.
Psychological explanations focus on anxiety provoking situations (such as poverty, violence, and discrimination).
Phobic Disorders
Disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.
Specific Phobia, and female to male ratio.
A disorder that involves an irrational fear of a particular object of situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function. 4:1 (more likely in women).
Social Phobia, time of emergence, and the percentage of women and men that qualify for diagnosis.
Involves an irrational fear of being publically humiliated or embarrassed. Emerges from adolescence to 25, and 11% of men and 15% of women qualify.
Seligman 1971.
Preparedness Theory.
Preparedness Theory
People are instinctively predisposed towards certain fears.
Example of preparedness theory:
People can be conditioned to fear spiders or snakes, but not flowers or toy rabbits.
Panic Disorder
A disorder characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror.
Panic Attack
Sudden wave of fear (trembling, nausea, tightening of the chest, heat palpitations, sweating, fear that one is going crazy or about to die).
Agoraphobia
An extreme fear of venturing out into public places. Afraid of having a panic attack in a public place.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
A disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviours (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts, interfere significantly with an individual’s functioning.
Medical Model was coined by ___ ___.
R.D. Laing.
