Psychiatry Flashcards
What is psychic anxiety?
Feeling of fear or dread
Give some symptoms of anxiety
Palpitations
Sweating
Dry mouth
Splanchnic vasoconstriction (butterflies)
Tremor
Paraesthesia (pins & needles)
Depersonalisation
Syncope
Give some symptoms of OCD
Ego-dystonic thoughts
Repetitive, circular ruminations
May be bizarre and sound delusional
Insight maintained
Unbidden and resisted
Resistance leads to anxiety
Motor response to obsessional thoughts
Often ritualistic, stereotyped, precise
What can you classify anxiety as?
Generalised anxiety disorder
Panic disorder
Agoraphobia
Simple phobia
Social phobia
When is anxiety classified as normal and as a disorder?
Anxiety is normal (and useful!)
Anxiety is only a ‘disorder’ if it is excessive, impacts on life or out of context
Give some psychological symptoms of depression
Poor concentration
Feelings of guilt
Feelings of hopelessness
Low self-esteem
Indecisive
Suicidal ideation
Delusions
Give some physical symptoms of depression
Loss of appetite
Weight loss
Diurnal variation of mood
Poor sleep
Loss of libido
Constipation
Psychomotor slowing or agitation
What are the treatments of depression?
Medication: Antidepressants
Response after 2-3 weeks
Psychological therapies
12 session CBT
Social prescribing
Exercise, company
90% of patients make a full recovery
Core features of depression
Pervasive low mood/sadness
Loss of energy (anergia)
Loss of enjoyment (anhedonia)
Give some symptoms of mania
Elated mood
Irritability
Over-energized
Grandiose
Little need for sleep
Poor concentration
Poor judgement
Over-spending
Rapid speech
Give some symptoms of schizophrenia
Hallucination
Delusion
Passivity
Thought alienation
Abnormal Behaviour
Disorganised speech
Disturbances of emotions
What is formal thought disorder?
Failing to follow the semantic and syntactic rules of language
Schizophrenia treatments
Antipsychotics
Psychological therapies
Family therapy
Arts therapies
What is reality failure?
A group of pathologies which disrupt the process of perceiving and interpreting reality.
What is psychosis characterised as?
Psychosis usually defined as hallucinations + delusions
What is the content of consciousness selected by?
Attention
What is a delusion?
Fixed, false, unshakeable belief, out of context with cultural background
Give some causes of psychosis
Schizophrenia
Mania
Depression
Drugs
Endocrine
Metabolic
Infections
What is the difference between positive and negative symptoms?
Pos+
Hallucinations
Delusions
Persecutory/Grandiose
- Delusional perceptions
- Delusions of control
- Thought delusions or interference
Neg-
Anhedonia
Apathy
Social withdrawal
Blunted mood
What are disorganised symptoms?
Thought disorder
Disorganised speech/behaviour
Inappropriate affect
What are 2 major factors in experience/self awareness disturbance?
Perplexity
Disruption of sense of self
Pathophysiology of schizophrenia
1% prevalence ~ 80% is heritable
Excess of striatal dopamine
What is the role of dopamine
Anticipated reward → directed attention
Reward prediction error signalling
Salience (sense of importance attached to perceptions)
What is the core function of working memory?
Contextualisation of the present moment
Give some treatments of psychosis
Antipsychotics
(Dopamine blockers)
Psychological therapies
Social support
What social factor makes someone much more likely to suffer from mental illness
Victim of violence
What are the 2 generalised classifications of symptoms?
Communications
Adaptations
What is anxiety a response to and what is its role?
Exists to automatically motivate us to avoid harm.
What can anxiety and depression be conceptualised as?
A self-perpetuating network of positive feedback loops arising from normally adapted responses
What is central to the development of addictions?
Social context
What is characterised as negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement, driven by the distresscaused by the intrusive thoughts, and cemented by habit- formation, are central to compulsion in OCD.
What are eating disorders conceptualised as?
Eating disorders can be conceptualised as means of reducing intense distress, particularly that associated with feeling everything is out of control.
What factors prompt self harm and what role does it have?
Self-harm typically occurs in the context of low self-worth and persistent distress – it serves various functions, mainly related to reducing this distress.
What is the abbreviation for self harm without suicidal intention?
NSSI-Non suicidal self injury
