Mental Illness

Question 1

Anxiety disorder

Answer 1

• experience frequent, intense and irrational fear.

- affect around 10% of the population.

Question 2

phobic disorders

Answer 2

• fear out of proportion to any real danger.

Question 3

Generalised anxiety disorder

Answer 3

• non-specific fears and anxiety.
• Hypervigilance results in distractibility, fatigue, irritability and sleep problems
• effects 3-4% of population.

Question 4

panic disorder

Answer 4

• panic attacks
• increased heart rate, sweating, shaking etc.
• both internal and external triggers.
• can coexist with other disorders (depression and substance abuse).
• often avoid external triggers to cope and can result in agoraphobia.

Question 5

Anxiety in older adults

Answer 5

• hard to diagnose because symptoms can mimic those of physical illness.
• anxiety does not increase with age.

Question 6

Theoretical conceptualizations of anxiety disorder

Answer 6

• psychodynamic (repressed urges).
• cognitive behavioural (reinforcement; irrational thinking).
• biological (changes to neural pathways.

Question 7

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Answer 7

Characterised by:
Obsessions: persistent, unwanted and often irrational thoughts and ideas –
○ Compulsions: intentional behaviours or rituals performed in response to an obsession
- Distress levels increase if a person with OCD is prevented from performing their compulsions.
Left untreated, obsessions and the need to perform rituals can take over a person’s life
- OCD is often a chronic, relapsing illness.

Question 8

Depressive Disorders

Answer 8

characterised by disturbances in emotion and mood (particularly negative mood)

- The most severe form of depression is major depressive disorder
- Ranges between 7‐20% (lifetime)  - symptoms of depression can vary across the lifetime.

Question 9

Major depressive disorder

Answer 9

• Symptoms should be present for at least two weeks in a persistent fashion. Five symptoms are needed:
  ○ At least one must be one of the two main features:
  § Persistent sad mood (most of the day, nearly every day)
  § Anhedonia‐ loss of interest or pleasure in activities (either by subjective report or observations of others)
  ○ The remainder can be from the following symptoms (nearly every day):
  § Increase or decrease in appetite or weight
  § Increase or decrease sleep
  § Psychomotor agitation or retardation
  § Fatigue
  § Worthlessness or guilty feelings
  § Difficulty concentrating or indecisiveness
  § Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal thoughts or plans
  ○ MUST ALSO CHECK: – The symptoms are not due to a direct effect of a drug or medical condition
  § e.g. laboratory testing should be done, including thyroid screening
  § The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning

Question 10

Possible Medical causes of depressed mood

Answer 10

- Neurological Illness 
		○ Parkinson’s disease 
		○  Epilepsy 
		○ Sleep apnoea 
	- Systemic Conditions 
		○  Viral or bacterial infections 
		○ AIDS 
	- Endocrine Disorders 
		○ Thyroid disorders 
		○ Post‐partum effects 
	- Vitamin Deficiencies 
		○  Vitamin B12 
		○  Folate 
	- Other 
		○ Cancer 
		○ Kidney Disease

Question 11

Theoretical conceptualisations of depressive disorders.

Answer 11

• psychodynamic (anger at authority figures).
• cogntive- behavioural (learned helplessness; distorted thinking)
• biological (neurotransmitter dysfunction).

Question 12

Bipolar disorder

Answer 12

• A mood disorder characterised by alternating periods of depression and mania
  
  • Bipolar disorder, which tends to run in families, typically emerges in adolescence or early adulthood
  • Bipolar I: mania and hypomania or major depressive episode.
  • Bipolar II: major depression and hypomania
  • Cyclothymia: hypomania and mild depression

Question 13

when is anxiety excessive? when does mood become disordered?

Answer 13

• When it disrupts social or occupational functioning
  
  • When an expected shift in mood due to unusual circumstances (e.g. stress, injury, pregnancy) fails to return to normal

Question 14

Psychological treatment approaches to mental illness

Answer 14

• Psychodynamic therapies
  
  • Cognitive-behavioural therapies
  • Humanistic therapies
  • Group and family therapies
  • Biological treatments

Question 15

Psychodynamic approach

Answer 15

• The approach was created by Sigmund Freud (psychoanalysis)
  
  • Freud believed that symptoms reflect unconscious conflicts between:
    ○ the id
    ○ the ego
    ○ the superego
    Techniques used for tapping into unconscious processes:
  • Hypnosis
  • Free association
  • Dream interpretation

Question 16

tranference relationship

Answer 16

The relationship that develops in therapy where the client acts towards the therapist in a similar manner to the way they have learnt to relate to other authority figures.
Examining this relationship can help the client understand how unconscious patterns are developed during childhood and how they influence later life.

Question 17

Psychodynamic therapy

Answer 17

• Psychoanalysis: patient is on couch and therapist behind them, encouraged to free associate.
  Psychodynamic psychotherapy: The patient and therapist are face-to-face. Techniques are goal directed.

Question 18

cognitive-behavioural therapies

Answer 18

• Cognitive‐behavioural therapies use methods derived from behaviourist and cognitive approaches
  
  • Therapy is typically short‐term and focused on the current behaviours of a person
  • Therapists are more directive

Question 19

Behavioural aspets of CBT

Answer 19

• Behavioural component of CBT involves the notion that our maladaptive behaviour is learned and can therefore be unlearned.
  
  • Key learning principles are operant and classical conditioning.

Question 20

classical conditioning

Answer 20

• Focuses on the associations people form between a neutral stimulus and an emotion.
  
  • Systematic desensitisation: Technique whereby a patient gradually confronts an imagined fear‐inducing stimulus while in a state that inhibits anxiety (e.g. deep muscle relaxation)
  • Exposure: Technique whereby a patient confronts an actual fear‐inducing stimulus
  • Flooding

Question 21

operant conditioning

Answer 21

• Use reinforcement and punishment to modify unwanted behaviours
  
  • Modelling involves the learning of appropriate behavioural responses through the observation of others
  • Activity scheduling involves scheduling activities the client has enjoyed in the past or derived sense of achievement

Question 22

Cognitive componenets of CBT

Answer 22

• The focus of the cognitive component of CBT is on changing dysfunctional thought patterns (automatic thoughts) and challenging cognitive distortions
  
  • Psychological problems do not arise from events per se but the meanings individuals gives to those events.

Question 23

cognitive distortions

Answer 23

occur because we make errors interpreting incoming information from our environment.
All or nothing thinking: things are one extreme or another.
Disqualifying the positive: rejecting positive experiences by insisting that they don’t count (it’s a fluke).
Catastrophizing: Thinking extreme and horrible consequences will occur due to a minor event.

Question 24

Hamanistic therapy

Answer 24

• Humanistic therapies focus on the way in which individuals consciously experience the self, relationships and the world
  
  • Gestalt therapy helps people acknowledge their feelings so they can act in accordance with them (unity of mind and body)
  • Client‐centred therapy helps clients accept the difference between their ideal self and their actual experiences through the use of unconditional positive regard

Question 25

group therapy

Answer 25

• In group therapy, multiple people meet together to work on therapeutic goals (5–10 individuals)
  
  • Participants are able to explore their own issues in the context of group processes
  • A variation of group therapy is the self‐help group in which individuals with a similar experience meet without the guidance of a professional

Question 26

family therapy

Answer 26

• The aim of family therapy is to change maladaptive family interaction patterns
  
  • Focus can be placed on the structure of the family system and intervention focuses on disrupting dysfunctional patterns
  • Marital or couples therapy focuses on the smaller unit of the couple
  • Family therapies can adopt strategies from other therapeutic styles

Question 27

psychotherapy integration

Answer 27

• Twice as many psychologists use elements from multiple therapy orientations than those who stay within one therapy orientation
  
  • Eclectic psychotherapy sees clinicians combine techniques from different approaches to fit the particular client
  • Integrative psychotherapy sees clinicians choose elements from different approaches to develop their own unique approach to treatment