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Psychological Disorders Flashcards

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1
Q

Mental disorder is

A
  • Persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behaviour, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment
  • Problems with perception, memory, learning, emotion, motivation, thinking and social processes
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2
Q

Who is involved in the diagnosis of mental illness?

A
  • Psychologists: no medication, therapeutic techniques

- Psychiatrists: physicians (i.e. medication), therapeutic techniques

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3
Q

How were mental disorders conceptualized historically?

A
  • Thought to be caused by religious or supernatural forces

- People with psychological disorders have been feared, ridiculed, treated as criminals

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4
Q

Conceptualization of mental illness with medical model

A

Conceptualized as illnesses with biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures

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5
Q

Implications of medical models

A

More scientifically accurate + treats people like human beings (doesn’t condemn them for things outside their control)

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6
Q

Medical model

A
  • Diagnosis: Clinicians determine the nature of the mental disorder by looking at signs/symptoms
  • Signs: Objectively observed indicators of a disorder
  • Symptoms: Subjectively reported behaviours, thoughts, and emotions that suggest illness
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7
Q

Disorder

A

Common set of signs/symptoms

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8
Q

Disease

A

Pathological process affecting the body

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9
Q

Diagnosis

A

Determination if disorder or disease is present

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10
Q

Comorbidity

A

Co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual

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11
Q

Criticisms of medical model

A
  • Client’s self-report to diagnose symptoms

- Medicalizes normal human behaviour - concern of overlabeling and diagnosis (e.g. super shy as social anxiety disorder)

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12
Q

DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

A
  • Describes the symptoms used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder
  • Indicates how disorders can be distinguished from other similar problems
  • Each disorder is named and classified as a distinct illness
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13
Q

History of DSM

A
  • Early volumes = descriptions were vague
  • Recent volumes = diagnostic criteria and lists
  • DSM-5: 22 categories containing more than 200 mental disorders
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14
Q

Epidemiology

A

Study of distribution and causes of health and disease

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15
Q

Mental health issues are reported at different rates BUT….

A
  • Depression and anxiety = most common

- Impulse-control and substance-use disorders = 2nd most common

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16
Q

What is culture’s role in mental health?

A
  • Culture can influence how mental disorders are experienced, described, assessed and treated
  • Use of “Cultural Formulation Interview” (CFI) in DSM
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17
Q

Cultural effects

A

Box on page 593

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18
Q

Cultural syndrome

A

Groups of symptoms that cluster together in specific cultures

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19
Q

Cultural idioms of distress

A

Ways of talking about or expressing distress that differ across cultures

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20
Q

Cultural explanations

A

Culturally recognized descriptions of what causes the symptoms, distress, or disorder

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21
Q

Etiology

A

Specifiable pattern of cause

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22
Q

Prognosis

A

Course over time and susceptibility to treatment and cure

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23
Q

Prevalence

A

Proportionate of the population found to have the condition

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24
Q

Biopsychosocial perspective

A

Mental disorders result from interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors
- Includes biological, psychological and social factors

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25
Q

Best way to understand what factors cause mental disorders

A
  • Biopsychosocial perspective
  • Diathesis-stress model
    (Figure 15.2)
26
Q

Diathesis-stress model

A

Disorders have both internal (bio/psych) and external (environmental) causes; person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that stress brings on

  • Diathesis = internal predisposition
  • Stress = external trigger
27
Q

Biological factors

A
  • Genetic/epigenetic influences
  • Biochemical imbalances
  • Abnormalities in brain structure/function
28
Q

Psychological factors

A
  • Maladaptive learning/coping
  • Cognitive biases/dysfunctional attitudes
  • Interpersonal problems
29
Q

Social factors

A
  • Poor socialization
  • Stressful life experiences
  • Cultural/social inequalities
30
Q

Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC)

A
  • Guides the classification and understanding of mental disorders by revealing the basic processes that give rise to them
  • Not a replacement for DSM, just aid in revising it
31
Q

Goal of RDoC

A

Better understand what abnormalities cause different disorders and to classify based on causes rather than symptoms

32
Q

Dangers of labelling

A
  • Concern of negative stereotypes/stigma (60% of people with disorders do not seek treatment)
  • Expectations can compromise judgment of professionals = once you have the label, it sticks
  • Myth of the need to institutionalize
  • Labelling effects how individuals view themselves (e.g. person with schizophrenia vs. a schizophrenic)
33
Q

Anxiety disorders

A
  • NOT referring to situational anxiety, but long-lasting
  • Class of disorders in which anxiety is the predominate feature
  • Common to experience more than one type
  • Often comorbid with depressio
  • Types: phobic, panic and generalized
34
Q

Phobic disorders

A
  • Marked, persistent and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations
  • Recognize fear is irrational but can’t stop it from interfering with everyday functioning
35
Q

Specific phobia

A

Five categories

  • Animals
  • Natural environments (e.g. heights, storms, water)
  • Situations (e.g. bridges, elevators, enclosed spaces)
  • Blood, injections, and injury
  • Other (e.g. choking, loud noises, costumed characters)
36
Q

Social phobia

A
  • Irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed
  • e.g. public speaking, eating in public, using a public bathroom
37
Q

Preparedness theory

A

People are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears from evolutionary perspective

38
Q

Why are phobias so common?

A
  • Preparedness theory
  • Heritability
  • Temperament
  • Neurobiological factors (abnormalities in serotonin and dopamine; activity of amygdala)
  • Role of environment (learned emotional experiences)
39
Q

Panic disorder

A

Sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to feeling of terror

40
Q

Acute symptoms of panic disorder

A
  • Shortness of breath
  • Heart palpitations
  • Sweating
  • Dizziness
  • Depersonalization (detached from body) and derealization (world around you doesn’t feel real)
  • Fear of going crazy or dying
41
Q

Agoraphobia

A

A specific phobia involving a fear of having a panic attack in public places - feeling of being trapped

  • Usually during period of intense stress
  • Need to report worry about another attack for diagnosis
42
Q

Why is it called “generalized” anxiety disorder?

A
  • Worries are not focused on any particular threat; exaggerated and irrational
  • Can’t pinpoint cause, anxiety becomes global, breaks down confidence -> basic tasks become stressful
43
Q

Generalized anxiety disorder

A

Chronic, excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following:

  • Restlessness
  • Fatigue
  • Concentration problems
  • Irritability
  • Muscle tension
  • Sleep disturbance
44
Q

Cause of generalized anxiety disorder

A
  • COMPLICATED! Likely a neurotransmitter imbbalance (e.g. GABA)
  • Influence of stressful life events
45
Q

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

A

Repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviours (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts; significantly interferes with an individual’s functioning

46
Q

Role of anxiety in OCD

A

Obsessive thoughts cause anxiety and compulsions are performed to reduce it

47
Q

Why is suppression of thoughts not effective for OCD?

A

Often leads to increase in frequency or intensity of thoughts

48
Q

Why is OCD classified separate from anxiety disorders?

A

Because it has distinct cause and neural circuitry

49
Q

What kinds of obsessions and compulsions?

A
  • Checking (most common)
  • Ordering
  • Moral concerns
  • Contamination
50
Q

Why do people with OCD have obsessions?

A

Role of preparedness theory - obsessions over things that pose a real threat (e.g. house on fire from unwatched stove)

51
Q

How long and intense are the rituals?

A

Vary in length and intensity

52
Q

Causes of OCD

A
  • Moderate genetic heritability for OCD (though not an actual CAUSE)
  • Heightened neural activity in the caudate nucleus of the region
  • Drugs that increase activity of serotonin help to inhibit activity of caudate nucleus (so usually treated with SSRIs)
53
Q

PTSD

A

Chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images to the trauma, and avoidance of things that bring traumatic event to mind

  • Many sources, most commonly war
  • One of the hardest disorders to treatMir
54
Q

How do people differ in sensitivity to trauma?

A
  • Increased activity in amygdala (evaluating threat); interprets environment as more threatening
  • Decreased activity in medial prefrontal cortex (extinction of fear conditioning)
  • Smaller hippocampus (memory)
55
Q

Mood disorders

A

Mental disorders with mood disturbance as their predominant feature

  • Depression (unipolar mania)
  • Bipolar disorder (extreme depression to extreme mania)
56
Q

Unipolar depression

A

Severely depressed mood and/or inability to experience pleasure that lasts 2 or more weeks; is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbances

57
Q

Persistent depressive disorder

A

Same cognitive and bodily problems, but less severe and last longer, for at least 2 years

58
Q

Double depression

A
  • When both unipolar depression and persistent depressive disorder occur
  • Moderately depressed mood that persists for 2 years and punctuated by periods of major depression
59
Q

Seasonal affective disorder

A

Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern; related to lack of light

60
Q

Causes of depression

A
  • SES status (low income/poverty linked to depression)
  • Hormones (estrogen, androgen and progesterone)
  • 33-45% heritability, vary in severity
61
Q

Treatments for depression

A
  • Mixed! Some drugs that increase levels of NEP and serotonin are effective; others that decrease are effective
  • Hard to treat - many different biological system interactions

Psychology (28 decks)

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