Psychological Disorders

Question 1

What is the definition of a psychological disorder?

Answer 1

a characteristic set of thoughts, feelings, or actions that cause to distress to the sufferer and cause maladaptive functioning in society

Question 2

What are the two main ways to classify psychological disorders?

Answer 2

biomedical approach and biopsychosocial approach

Question 3

Why is the biomedical approach to understanding psychological disorders limited in its use?

Answer 3

it only considers one factor in the development of a disorder, that being primarily genetics

Question 4

What is the name of the manual that contains up-to-date information of psychological disorders?

Answer 4

DSM-5 (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders)

Question 5

How many diagnostic classes are there in DSM-5?

Answer 5

20

Question 6

What are the main diagnostic classes of DSM-5 that are tested on the MCAT?

Answer 6

schizophrenia disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, dissociative disorders, somatic symptom disorders, and personality disorders

Question 7

What is schizophrenia?

Answer 7

the prototypical psychotic disorder… a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior

Question 8

What are some characteristics of schizophrenia?

Answer 8

delusion, hallucinations, disorganized thought, disorganized behavior, catatonia, negative symptoms

Question 9

What are the two main categories of schizophrenia?

Answer 9

positive and negative symptoms

Question 10

What are positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 10

the breakdown of the mental state by the addition of unexpected emotion, thoughts, and behavior

Question 11

What are negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 11

symptoms that involve the absence of normal or desired behavior

Question 12

What are the main positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 12

delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thought, and disorganized behavior

Question 13

What are delusions?

Answer 13

false beliefs discordant with reality and not shared by others

Question 14

What is the delusion of reference? Given an example.

Answer 14

• a belief that common elements are directed toward an patient.
• a schizophrenic patient may believe that an automated announcement in a train is talking specifically to them

Question 15

What is the delusion of persecution?

Answer 15

a belief that the patient is being deliberately discriminated against or threatened

Question 16

What is the delusion of grandeur?

Answer 16

a belief that the patient is a famous person, or somebody easily recognized

Question 17

What is thought broadcoasting?

Answer 17

the belief that one’s thoughts are automatically broadcasted into the world and do not need to be verbalized

Question 18

What is though insertion?

Answer 18

the belief that one’s thoughts are being placed in one’s head

Question 19

What are hallucinations?

Answer 19

perceptions that are not due to external stimuli but are compelling enough to be deemed as reality by the patient

Question 20

The words “delusion” and “hallucination” are used interchangeably in common language, but in the DSM, they have specific uses. Suppose a schizophrenic patient wakes up at night and claims to see a monster under their bed. Is this a delusion or a hallucination?

Answer 20

hallucination

Question 21

What is disorganized thought?

Answer 21

incoherent speech that only the patient can understand

Question 22

What is a neologism?

Answer 22

a word invented by a schizophrenic person

Question 23

What is disorganized behavior?

Answer 23

odd, bizarre behavior

Question 24

What are some examples of disorganized behavior?

Answer 24

catonia, echolalia, and echopraxia

Question 25

What are some negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 25

disturbance of affect and avolition

Question 26

What are the three main disturbances of affect?

Answer 26

flat, blunt, and inappropriate

Question 27

What is avolition?

Answer 27

the loss of goals

Question 28

What is the prodromal phase?

Answer 28

the stage before schizophrenia, characterized by deterioration, social withdrawal, etc.

Question 29

What are depressive disorders?

Answer 29

disorders with long stretches of severe sadness

Question 30

What are the two main types of depressive disorders?

Answer 30

major depressive disorder and seasonal affective disorder

Question 31

What are bipolar disorders?

Answer 31

mood disorders characterized by both depression and mania

Question 32

In order to be diagnosed with major depression disorder, the patient must have two traits of a long list of traits for at least two weeks. Name the traits on the list.

Answer 32

sadness, insomnia, guilt, loss of energy, loss of concentration, anxiety, loss of psychomotor skills, suicidal thoughts

Question 33

What is the difference between a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder (also known as dysthymia)?

Answer 33

In dysthymia, the symptoms are milder but last for very long periods of time, usually a year or more.

Question 34

What is seasonal depressive disorder? How is it treated?

Answer 34

- a depressive disorder that usually occurs in the winter, resulting from an imbalance between serotonin and melatonin - light therapy

Question 35

What are bipolar disorders characterized by?

Answer 35

mood swings that result in very high (mania) states

Question 36

What is the difference between bipolar disorder I and bipolar disorder II?

Answer 36

Type 1 has a very intense period of mania and sometimes has a major depressive episode. Type 2 has a much lower intensity period of hypomania and always comes with a major depressive episode.

Question 37

What is cyclothymic disorder?

Answer 37

a type of depressive order that involves hypomania and dysthymia

Question 38

What are anxiety characterized by?

Answer 38

irrational fear of a particular thing or place

Question 39

What is generalized anxiety disoder?

Answer 39

persistent worry about common tasks like mortgage payments, returning emails, making dinner

Question 40

What is agarophobia?

Answer 40

fear of places that do not have easy escape routes

Question 41

What is social anxiety disorder?

Answer 41

fear of social interactions that could result in awkwardness of embarrassment

Question 42

What is panic disorder?

Answer 42

an anxiety disorder that results in random and intense activation of the sympathetic nervous system, often characterized by an impending sense of doom

Question 43

What are obsessive compulsive disorders?

Answer 43

disorders where a person is constantly given stress (obsessions) and must release the stress (compulsions)

Question 44

What is body dysmorphic disorder?

Answer 44

a disorder where the person does not like their body, often toward one part of their body

Question 45

What are the three main categories of dissociative identity disorders?

Answer 45

dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, derealization/deidentification

Question 46

Dissociative fugue is a symptom of what dissociative disoder?

Answer 46

dissociative amnesia

Question 47

What is somatic symptom disorder?

Answer 47

irrational or unexpected pain that is disproportionate to an injury's severity

Question 48

What is is illness anxiety disorder?

Answer 48

the constant thoughts of developing an illness

Question 49

What is conversion disorder?

Answer 49

the loss of a bodily function or sense after a traumatic event that are not readily explicable or rationalized

Question 50

What does ego-dystonic mean?

Answer 50

the individual has a psychological disorder but considers it to be a detriment to their goals, thrust upon them

Question 51

What are the disorders in cluster A of personality disorders?

Answer 51

paranoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder

Question 52

What are the disorders in cluster B of personality disorders?

Answer 52

histrionic, narcissistic personality, borderline, antisocial

Question 53

What are the disorders in cluster C of personality disorders?

Answer 53

dependent, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive