PSYC241: Midterm 2 Flashcards
Many clinicians believe that somatic symptom and related disorders happen because…
Of maladaptive ways of coping with extreme stress but a lot of debate over this
More systematic research in recent years is shedding light on nature/cause of these disorders
How are dissociative and somatic symptom/related disorders classified in DSM-5?
Two separate diagnostic categories (but strongly linked and have common features)
Used to be classified together under anxiety disorders
What caused the change in classification of dissociative and somatic symptom/related disorders?
In the DSM 3, classification changed from an emphasis on etiology to observable behaviour
This caused them to be given their own categories outside of anxiety disorders as they had different observable symptoms
Historical theories on dissociative disorders/somatic symptom disorders
- hysteria caused by “wandering womb” (Plato)
- supernatural explanations like possession
- breakdown of mental processes
- resulting from trauma of a sexual nature
- Freud thought trauma was made up in their minds, decided it was protection against sexual desires + conversion to anxiety (physical symptoms) relieve pressure from dealing directly with mental problems
Secondary gain (dissociative / somatic symptom disorders)
Refers to benefits that a person may consciously or subconsciously seek by adopting the sick role (hysterical symptoms=benefits=reinforcers)
Primary gain (dissociative / somatic symptom disorder)
Avoidance of dealing with unconscious psychological conflicts by translating it into physical symptoms
How are dissociative disorders characterized?
Severe maladaptive disruptions or changes in identity, memory and consciousness that are experienced as being beyond one’s control
Defining symptom= dissociation
What is a common dissociative experience, and what would make it pathological?
Becoming so absorbed in a book or movie that you forget about your surroundings or the passage of time = normal
Pathological when it’s uncontrollable or you can’t snap out of it and it makes it hard to function normally
What personality trait is dissociation related to?
Easily hypnotized
Categories of dissociative experiences
1- mild, non pathological forms like absorption and imaginative involvement
2- severe pathological types of experiences like amnesia, derealization, depersonalization and identity alteration
Causal factors of dissociative disorder
Psychological trauma
Emotional distress
Dissociative amnesia
Not able to recall personal information but can recall general info
Includes dissociative fugue, a rare condition where people randomly leave their home and can end up in another city with no memory of their past
Usually happens after a traumatic event
Includes five patterns of memory loss
Dissociative identity disorder
Presence of two or more personalities (usually 13-16)
Used to be called multiple personality disorder
Person can be aware or not of the personalities
Changing personalities is called “switching” (happens due to stressful situation)
More commonly diagnosed in women and between ages 29-35
Common to have self-destructive behaviour
Depersonalization/derealization
Feeling of being detached from oneself and one’s physical and social environment
If experienced for a short time=normal
Have less reactivity to stressful stimuli and interruptions in attention/perceptual processes possibility caused by brain abnormalities in perceptual pathways
Are repressed memories brought up by psychotherapy true or false?
No objective way to tell but there is a lot of evidence that hypnosis can implant highly detailed but untied memories
People affected by dissociative disorder
More inpatient psychiatric patients than the general population
Same amount for women and men
Slightly more common in younger adults compared to older
High rates of comorbidity with other psych disorders like anxiety, bipolar, etc
Five patterns of memory loss associated with dissociative amnesia
1- localized amnesia (failure to recall info from a specific time period)
2- selective amnesia (only some parts of trauma are forgotten, other parts remembered)
3- generalized amnesia (forgets all personal info from their past)
4- continuous amnesia (individual forgets info from specific date until present)
5- systemized amnesia (individual only forgets certain categories of info, like certain places or people)
***first two are the most common
Depersonalization vs derealization
Depersonalization: detached from yourself
Derealization: detached from your surroundings (visual distortions, seeing other people or objects as foggy/dreamlike/etc)
What is the third most commonly reported psychotic symptom after depression and anxiety?
Depersonalization
Describe somatic symptom and related disorders
Includes conditions that involve bodily symptoms associated with distress and impairment
Two models of etiology of DID
1- trauma model (diathesis-stress formulation which means person has predisposed personality traits that make them susceptible and therefore can be triggered by stress; says that DID=result of childhood trauma)
2- socio cognitive model (don’t accept DID as a legit disorder, believes it is form of role playing where people construe themselves as if they have multiple selves and begin to act in ways consistent with their own or their therapists conception of the disorder, iatrogenic=caused by treatment)
What does attachment have to do with DID?
Lack of sensitive responding from parents
Develop insecure attachment called disorganized pattern (inconsistent, contradictory behaviours when faced with stress including stereotypical movements/postures, freezing and trance like states similar to dissociation)
Psychotherapy for dissociative disorders
Psychotherapy
-focus on resolving emotional distress associated with past trauma and learning better ways of dealing with stress
Five step treatment for DID
1- establishing safe enviro to talk about past trauma
2- help patients develop coping skills to use in discussions
3- remembering/grieving
4- after developing more effective coping strategies and acceptance of past, last step of integrating personalities
Goal: one personality or group of alters that are conscious of each other and can work together
2/3 show improvement, 1/3 achieve integration
SLIDES SHOW 3 STAGES
1- building therapeutic alliance
2- develop coping skills and tools to deal with past trauma
3- integration of personalities
Hypnosis for DID
Used to confirm diagnosis, contact alters and retrieve memories
Critique: false memories
Medication for dissociative disorders
Not very useful for dissociative disorders themselves, but good for comorbid disorders like depression and anxiety Truth serum (sodium Amytal) which is a barbiturate that causes drowsiness used to help person recall memories or identify alters (doesn't always work and sometimes person doesn't remember what they say)
Describe somatic symptom and related disorders
Soma=body in Greek
Group of disorders where individuals present physical symptoms that suggest medical illnesses + psychological distress/ functioning impairment
Physical symptoms can take diff forms (serious=substantial impairment of sensory or muscular system; other disorders=worrying that person has a disease and become disabled by their worry anxiety and excessive time and energy devoted to their health concerns)
More likely to seek help from Doctor than psychologist
How somatic symptom and related disorders have changed with the DSM
- Used to be called somatoform disorders
- important criteria=no physiological basis or medical explanation
- assumption that symptoms were caused by psych factors due to early traumatic experiences and unresolved emotional distress
- because patients didn’t feel good about their symptoms being called fake, DSM-5 changed it so that it’s not such a central part of diagnosis (so patient could actually have medical problem and still be diagnosed with this)
- key point now=excessive worry/stress cause onset or make symptoms worse
Somatic symptom disorder
1+ somatic symptoms (ex: chronic pain, fatigue) that cause distress or disruption of daily life
Overdramatic concerns about seriousness
Anxiety
Excessive time and energy devoted to health probs
May or may not have actual diagnosed medical problem
Illness anxiety disorder
Anxiety and worry about having or acquiring a serious illness without somatic symptoms and despite not being able to find any serious medical condition
Conversion disorder
Symptoms affecting voluntary motor or sensory functions (blindness, paralysis, loss of feeling etc) which don’t go with recognized neurological or medical conditions
Can have seizures/convulsions
Possibly due to conflict or stress
Usually have other psychological disorders like depression or anxiety
Psychological factors affecting other medical conditions
Individual has a medical condition (ex: asthma, diabetes, etc) that is affected by psychological or behavioural factors (ex: anxiety making asthma symptoms worse or stressful work environment causing high blood pressure)
Factitious disorder
Faking or inducing symptoms of illness to gain sympathy, medical care and attention
How to identify if symptoms are medical or not in conversion disorder
-electroencephalographic recordings can show if patient’s seizures are consistent with brainwave
Glove anaesthesia (conversion disorder)
Loss of all sensation in the hand with the loss sharply demarcated at the wrist, rather than following a pattern consistent with sensory inner cation of the hand and forearm
La belle indifference (conversion disorder)
Lack of concern about the nature and implication of one’s symptoms
Only in some cases and not a good defining factor
Brain activity involved with conversion disorder
Symptoms result from dynamic reorganization of the brain circuits that link volition, movement and perception, leading to inhibition of normal cortical activity
You don’t see this in people actively faking symptoms
What were conversion and dissociative disorders originally grouped under?
Hysteria
Argument for conversion disorder being a dissociative disorder
Process of dissociation where there’s a lack of integration between conscious awareness and sensory processes or voluntary control over physical symptoms
Tend to have high scores on measures of dissociative experiences and hypnotizability
Frequently have history of childhood trauma
***still grouped until somatoform disorders tho
Somatic symptom disorder
New diagnosis for DSM 5 (used to be somatization disorder or hypochondriasis)
Have multiple, reoccurring somatic symptoms
May or may not be diagnosed as a medical condition
Distressing to individual/disruption of daily life
Lots of anxiety and time spent worrying
Prone to periods of anxiety and depression that they can’t properly cope with
Excessive sensitivity to bodily symptoms
Important to understand culture to diagnose it (burning hands/feet and bugs crawling on you=symptoms in Asia and Africa)
Similarity and difference between panic disorder and somatic symptom disorder
Similarity: both involve sensitivity to bodily symptoms that seem relevant to their fears
Difference: panic disorder focuses on short term symptom related disasters whereas somatic symptom disorder focuses on the long term process of illness and disease
Somatic symptom disorder with predominant pain
Used to have its own diagnosis as pain disorder but now under category of somatic symptom disorder
Must have pain in 1+ body sites that is severe enough to cause distress/interrupt daily life
Excessive thoughts/behaviours/feelings related to the pain such as exaggerated concerns about its seriousness or lots of energy and time dealing with it
Risk of becoming dependant on prescription meds
Associated with comorbid depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances
Cause of somatic pain
Once thought to be unconscious conflicts in individuals with certain dysfunctional personality traits (now bad because suggest that pain is fake and only imagination)
Now it is recognized that experiencing pain is complex synthesis of thoughts and feelings and sensory input
Illness anxiety disorder
New diagnosis in DSM 5 (used to be hypochondriasis)
Preoccupied with fear that they may have a serious medical disease despite medical exams showing nothing wrong with them
Highly anxious about their health and easily alarmed about illness-related events (hearing that a friend is sick or seeing illness on tv)
Examine themselves frequently and check internet for answers
Illness part of their identity
Seek doctors not psychologists
Illness preoccupation must be present for at least 6 months but illness can change
Difference between illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder
People with illness anxiety disorder don’t have significant bodily symptoms and are mostly worrying about the idea that they are sick, whereas those with somatic symptom disorder have significant symptoms and might be diagnosed with a real medical illness
Factitious disorder
Also called Münchausen syndrome
Deliberately fake or generate the symptoms of an illness or injury to gain medical attention
Involves physical symptoms and psychiatric symptoms like hallucinations or delusions
To be diagnosed, must not be any obvious external rewards like insurance money/avoiding exam
Motivation=gain sympathy
Another type: factitious disorder imposed on another (falsifying illness in another person such as your own child)
Body dysmorphic disorder
Excessive preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated body disfigurement, almost to the point of delusion
Causes significant distress and impairment in daily function
Preoccupations feel tormenting/devastating
25% attempt suicide
Most imagined defect=hair (then nose and skin)
What group does body dysmorphic disorder fall under?
Used to be in somatoform group
Now in obsessive-compulsive and related disorders as they have prominent obsessions and compulsive behaviours
Actually more disturbed than those with OCD typically
How is body dysmorphic disorder different than anorexia nervosa?
Diff gender distribution, familial patterns and response to treatment
Etiology of somatic symptom and related disorders
Once believed that they resulted from anxiety about unconscious conflicts and sexual drives converted into somatic symptoms and distress
Now believed that a number of physiological, psychological, and social factors may interact in a series of vicious cycles with diff disorders resulting from diff patterns of interaction (biopsychosocial model)
Physiological factors: chronic stress producing activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis affects immune system and creates illness-like symptoms for example, causing people to think they’re sick when it’s really the stress causing the issue
Cognitive factors: skewed interpretations, uncontrollable worry, excessive bodily concerns (somatic amplification = hypothesis tendency for individuals to experience bodily sensations as intense/noxious/disturbing
Personality traits like negative affectivity and tendencies to suppress emotional expression
Cognitive-behavioural concept of health anxiety
Early life experiences and social learning (childhood physical or sexual abuse)
Treatment of somatic symptom and related disorders
- Shifted away from traditional psychodynamic therapy to focus on cognitive, affective and social processes that maintain the excessive or inappropriate behaviour
- Co-operative therapeutic environment is very important as patient probably doesn’t want to think of their symptoms as psychological (identify persons main concerns, establish position that the symptoms are “real” and distressing, negotiating a mutually acceptable treatment goal, shift attention away from somatic symptoms to life stresses and focus on symptom management and rehabilitation)
- identification of comorbid anxiety/depression and treating these is vital with meds sometimes prescribed
What somatic symptom and related disorders respond well to antidepressants?
Illness anxiety disorder and body dysmorphic disorder
Cognitive-behavioural approach to treating somatic symptom and related disorders
Involves restructuring morbid thoughts and preoccupations
Works to get behaviour patterns under control
Effective!!!
Uses self monitoring and relaxation techniques for reducing emotional arousal and behavioural management methods for increasing enjoyable activities and social interaction
Anorexia nervosa
-Morbid fear of fatness
See themselves as fat
-Reduce their food intake to the point of starving
-Can develop ritualistic eating behaviours like eating foods in a set order, dissecting food into small pieces or weighing food before eating
-excessive exercise to lose weight
-purging behaviours
-disturbance in body image
-disturbed cognitive/emotional/physiological functioning including social withdrawal, irritability, preoccupation with food and depression (all from semi-starvation)
Bulimia nervosa
- Periods of food restriction alternate with periods of binge eating
- Binges followed by attempts to compensate by either vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse, hyper exercising or starving oneself (weight loss is mostly from dehydration with these methods)
- weight and shape info to self-evaluate
- social isolation and depression
- usually within normal weight range bc compensation strategies not good for losing weight
- medical consequences of purging include impaired renal function and cardiovascular problems like arrhythmias
Binge-eating disorder
New to the DSM-5
Reoccurring episodes of binge eating occur (like bulimia nervosa) but without the compensatory behaviours to try to rid the body of calories
Binge eating is instead associated with bad eating behaviours and then feeling guilty/disgusted about the binge eating
Can include dieting and overeating in cycles
Often overweight and sometimes obese, but can also be normal weight (usually younger patients)
Use binges to escape problems
Defining a binge
Must determine whether a binge is objective or subjective
Both associated with lack of control but amount of food differs
Objective binge=eating a large amount of food over a specific time period like less than 2 hours
Subjective binge=eating normal amounts or small amounts of food
Which eating disorder(s) is the most common?
Other specified eating or feeding disorder (aka partial syndrome eating disorders) but expected to DECREASE with new eating disorder criteria of DSM 5
What psychiatric disorder has the highest mortality rate?
Eating disorders
Most common causes of death are starvation/nutritional complications and suicide
How many bulimic patients stop binging and purging with treatment?
50%
Two subtypes of anorexia in the DSM-5
Restricting type: strict dieting and sometimes lots of exercise
Binge eating/purging type: strict dieting, sometimes lots of exercise, binge eating and purging behaviours
Types are important bc specific treatment and own physical consequences; binge eating and purging type has possibly poorer prognosis; important in research
Essential 3 criterion for bulimia nervosa
- self evaluation of individuals with bulimia is majorly influenced by body shape and/or weight
- episodes of binging and purging behaviours occur on average around once a week for 3 months
- the obvious aka binging and purging behaviours
Binge eating disorder (BED) has to have 3+ features of binge eating episodes
Eating very quickly
Eating large amounts of food when not even hungry
Eating alone bc embarrassment
Feeling depressed guilty or disgusted after binges
Other specified/unspecified feeding or eating disorder
G
Changes in DSM-5 that will hopefully reduce “other” diagnoses for eating disorders (three)
- adding BED as its own separate disorder
- decrease in frequency of binge eating needed for diagnosis of bulimia nervosa
- removing criteria of amenorrhea for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa