Psychopathology Flashcards
What are the traditional elements of mental illness?
Infrequency, deviance (from cultural norms, gender roles, etc.), distress (suffering & desire to discontinue behaviour), disability (impairment) and danger (harm to self or others).
How does the DSM-5 define mental illness?
A clinically significant behaviour or psychological syndrome causing present distress / disability / significantly increased risk of suffering, death, pain or loss of freedom. Not merely a culturally sanctioned and expectable response to a particular event, and usually considered a manifestation of behavioural, psychological or biological dysfunction.
In our lifetime, ___% of individuals are diagnosed with a mental disorder of any sort.
48%
What are the 2 broad approaches to treatment?
Biomedical and psychological.
What are some examples of biomedical treatment?
Medication or surgery (lobotomy 🤭), changing some aspect of physical functioning, mental illness perceived as a disease
What are the types of psychological treatments available?
Psychodynamic:
* focus on past, unconscious inner forces driving behaviour, stemming from unresolved childhood conflicts / trauma, hence insight-oriented, guiding patients to discover r/s between root cause and symptoms
Humanistic:
* teaching patient to seek fulfilment and achieve potential
Behavioural:
* focus on present, modify problem behaviours through conditioning, extinguish non-productive behaviours and reinforce good ones through exposure, reinforcement, ignoring & punishment
Cognitive-behavioural:
* focus on how and what we think, belief that thoughts shape behaviour & emotion, how we think abt a situation determines our feelings abt it, hence identify maladaptive thoughts, challenge them, replace with good thoughts
Eclectic:
* integration of multiple types of treatment, mix & match to suit patient’s needs
What is the difference between anxiety and fear / panic?
Anxiety is apprehension about anticipated issues, whilst fear / panic is apprehension about immediate threat or danger.
In the US, ___% of the population have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder in their lifetime.
28%
What are the types of consequences of anxiety disorders?
Financial cost, medical, employment, interpersonal and reduced QOL.
What are the types of anxiety disorders?
Under phobias, there are 3: specific phobias, social phobia (social anxiety disorder - SAD), agoraphobia.
Panic disorder, GAD (generalised AD), OCD, and PTSD.
How is generalised anxiety order characterised?
Apprehensive expectation, generalised & persistent anxiety, constant distress, not isolated to particular situations, wide range of worries
What are the characteristics of panic disorder?
Discrete period of intense fear in the absence of danger, sudden occurrence, builds rapidly, unpredictable, relatively free of anxiety between attacks, sense of imminent danger
Characteristics of agoraphobia?
Marked fear of 2 or more of the following:
- using public transport
- being in open spaces
- being in enclosed spaces
- standing in line / in a crowd
- being outside home alone
causing avoidance, endurance of feared situations with intense anxiety, or requiring accompaniment
Characteristics of social anxiety disorder?
Fear / anxiety about one or more social situations with exposure to possible scrutiny, afraid of negative evaluation by others, hence —> avoidance / endurance w intense anxiety
Characteristics of specific phobias?
Evoked by particular circumstances, usually avoids them, involuntary fear is out of proportion to the situation
What are the 3 obsessive-compulsive related disorders?
OCD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), and Hoarding Disorder (HD)
Characteristics of OC related disorders?
Uncontrollable, time intensive and repetitive thoughts and behaviours causing distress.
In what most common aspects does intrusive OCD thoughts manifest?
Contamination, sexual / aggressive impulses, body problems, religion, symmetry / order.
Do people with OCD understand that their thoughts are “silly”?
Yes, 78% understand that their thoughts are “unfounded.”
People with OCD may often ______ to appease their worries.
Engage in cleaning, repeatedly count or touch a body part, or obsessively check
According to DSM-5, how is PTSD characterised?
Exposure to traumatic experience, one or more intrusive symptoms, persistent avoidance of associated stimuli, 2 or more negative changes in mood & cognition, 2 or more marked alterations in arousal & reactivity, lasts over a month, and clinically significant distress & impairment
How effective is exposure therapy in treating trauma?
70 - 80% found it effective. It is prolonged, consistent with systematic desensitisation & relaxation techniques.
What are the 4 phases of Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy?
1) Increasing activities & elevating mood
2) Challenge automatic thoughts
3) Identify negative thinking & biases
4) Change primary attitudes / schemas
Major depressive disorders are 2x more likely to occur in men than women. True or false?
False. Women are 2x more likely.
What are the 2 types of depressive disorders?
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD).
How is MDD characterised?
A person has MDD if they have either a depressed mood or loss of interest, and exhibit 5 or more of the following within 2 weeks:
- depressed mood for most of the day
- diminished interest / pleasure in most activities
- significant weight loss / gain (>5%)
- insomnia / hypersomnia
- psychomotor agitation / retardation
- fatigue / loss of energy
- worthlessness / extreme guilt
- indecisiveness, inability to think
- recurrent thoughts of death, suicide ideation
What is the Negative Triad of perception?
It involves 3 methods of perception: the self (“I am worthless”), the world (“no one likes me because I am worthless”), and the future (“I won’t succeed because I’m worthless”).
What is the difference between psychosis and schizophrenia?
Psychosis is a raw set of symptoms unspecific to any disorder, such as dissociation, disorganised behaviour, lacking in motivation. vs Schizophrenia which is a specific disorder characterised by psychotic symptoms.
What are the 3 symptom clusters of psychoses?
Positive (exceeding typical function: hallucinations), negative (diminished function: lack of motivation) and disorganised.
What is DSM-5’s diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia?
2 or more of the following for over 6 months:
- delusions
- hallucinations
- disorganised speech
- disorganised / catatonic behaviour
- negative symptoms
+ downward drift, where these symptoms emerge gradually
What are 6 types of delusions (positive symptoms)?
Persecution: belief someone wants to harm you
Erotomania: belief someone is into you despite no interaction whatsoever
Grandeur: belief that one is an agent of God, a deity, helms special powers
Reference: belief someone through the TV is talking to you
Somatic: belief of foreign body invasion, suffering from severe disease
Nihilistic: belief that the world is going to end
5 types of hallucinations?
Gustatory, olfactory, auditory, visual and tactile.