Specific disorders Flashcards
What are the different anxiety disorders?
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder/social phobia
- Specific phobias
- Health anxiety - hypochondriasis
- Obsessive compulsive disorder/body dysmorphic disorder
- PTSD
- Generalised anxiety disorder
What is specific phobia?
Irrational fear of specific object or situation w avoidance of object or situation.
Avoidant behaviour - autonomic response to get away, then anxiety is reduced.
What is panic disorder? +/- agoraphobia
Fear of physiological and psychological reactions - bodily changes viewed as signs of impending collapse, insanity or death. Experience a catastrophic misinterpretation leading to panic, often unpredictable.
Avoidance of situations that may trigger these reactions = agoraphobia, don’t want to leave the house.
What are the sx of panic disorder?
- Sense of dread
- Choking sensation
- Palpitations and chest pain
- Shaking and wobbly legs and sweating
- Feeling faint, dizziness
- Depersonalisation or derealisation
- Secondary fear of dying, losing control or going mad
- Hyperventilation - tingling in hands, feet or around mouth - can lead to carpopedal spasm if severe
What is GAD? What are the CFs?
Generalised anxiety disorder: free floating anxiety sx
- Apprehension - worries about anything, difficulty conc, feeling on edge
- Motor tension - restlessness, tension headaches, trembling
- Autonomic overactivity - insomnia, muscle tension, GI problems, headaches, sweating, persistent nervousness, trembling
- Often have the belief that worry is useful = positive worry beliefs
- V rarely begins after 35
- Can also get depersonalisation and derealisation
What is social anxiety disorder? What are the CFs?
Fear of a neg evaluation by others - avoidance of feared situations eg. social situations.
- Anticipatory anxiety
- Anxiety following social encounters, debrief
- Blushing, hand tremor, nausea, urgency
- May abuse alcohol or drugs
Obsessions vs compulsions
Obsessions - unpleasant distressing unwanted recurring intrusive thoughts or images. Opposite of what pt want to do = ego dystonic - thoughts inconsistent w ones self concept. eg. being contaminated, causing harm, behaving inappropriately, sexual imagery
Compulsions - behaviour to neutralise the obsessive/intrusive thought, helps to manage distress. Pt recognises the behaviour is pointless and attempts are made to resist but this makes anxiety worse.
Overt vs covert compulsions
Overt - washing, checking, ordering, aligning
Covert - praying, counting, repeating words
What is BDD?
Body dysmorphic disorder - preoccupation w imagined defect in appearance - time consuming behaviours - comparison, reassurance seeking, skin picking
What is PTSD?
Caused by exposure to event or situation that is exceptionally threatening which would be likely to cause distress in almost anyone.
eg. car accident, veterans, natural disasters
What are the cardinal features of PTSD?
- Re experiencing - nightmares or flashbacks, feel like you are back in the situation experiencing it - dissociation
- Avoidance - avoid triggers that experience re experiencing
- Hyperarousal - cont perceiving threat due to unprocessed memory, enhanced startle reaction, hypervigilence, insomnia
Disorder usually starts w/i 3 months of event, need to have had sx for 1 month.
What are some problems associated w anxiety disorders?
- Increased autonomic arousal
- Avoidance
- Time consuming anxiety reducing behaviours
- Worry and procrastination and reduced conc
- Impact on functioning
- Impaired sleep pattern
- Alcohol and drug dependence
What is the diff diagnosis for anxiety?
- Adjustment disorders or bereavement
- Other func psych illness - treat the primary disorder
- Organic - endocrine, neurological, drug induced, alc and drug misuse, other eg. infection, anaemia
What are 4 CF of psychosis?
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Fragmentation of behaviour - disorders of the self
- Formal thought disorder
Lack of insight
What are hallucinations?
Perception of an object in the absence of an ex stim:
- Any of the 5 modalities
- Auditory most common
- Visual - more likely to be delirium
- Olfactory - indicates possible frontal lobe pathology
- Can also get tactile and gastrotony (taste hallucination)
What are delusions? What are the types?
Fixed belief, usually false that is held despite evidence to the contrary and is out of keeping w persons’ sociocultural norms:
- Persecutory
- Grandiose
- Reference
- Erotomanic - someone in love w u
- Hypochondriacal
What is formal thought disorder?
Problem w speech:
1. Flight of ideas
2. Loosening of associations
3. Circumstantiality
4. Tangentiality
5. Neoligisms
What are disorders of the self/fragmentation of behaviour?
Pt can’t distinguish between himself and the world, includes:
- Thought broadcast
- Passivity phenomena - someone is moving me
- Thought insertion - someone put those thoughts in their head
What happens following a psychotic episode?
- Never have a psychotic episode again
- Get better and go on to have recurrent episodes of psychosis but always fully recover after
- Never get better, personality change, and then go on to have recurrent episodes
What is shizophrenia?
Disorder characterised by psychotic eps (positive sx) and neg symptoms.
What are the positive sx of schizophrenia?
Psychotic symptoms:
- Auditory hallucinations
- Delusional perceptions
- Formal thought disorder
- Passitivity phenomena
What are the negative sx of schizophrenia?
- Alogia - poverty of speech
- Anhedonia - not enjoying anything
- Flattening/blunting of affect
- Avolition/apathy - poor motivation
- Social withdrawal
- Self neglect
What are the first rank sx of schizophrenia?
- Auditory hallucinations
- Thought disorders - thought insertion, w drawal and broadcasting
- Delusional perceptions - normal object perceived and delusional interpretation of its meaning or abnormal significance from a normal event
- Passivity phenomena
What is the biopsychosocial assessment in psych?
Bio - blood and drug tests, CT, compliance
Psycho - MSE, collateral
Social - carers, housing
What is the biopsychosocial management of schizophrenia and psychosis?
Bio - antipyschotics
Psycho - supportive counselling, family therapy
Social - debts, benefits, housing, CPN and support worker
What are some factors shaping personality?
Biological - genes, temperament, IQ, physical appearance, disability
Psych - early attachment and environment, siblings, school, trauma?, peer relationships
Social - socioeconomic status, living through war/peace, social media, culture, climate
What are personality disorders?
Conditions where individual differs from the avg person in how they think, perceive, feel or relate to others. Deviates markedly from those accepted from individuals culture. Patterns develop early and are inflexible.
How is self harm tried to be minimised?
- Replace self harm w less damaging strategies - elastic bands, holding ice cubes
- Distract themselves eg. go on a walk
- Self harm can be addictive as releases endorphins
- Get pt to be treated for their injuries
What is adjustment disorder? What are the manifestations?
Distress and emotional disturb interfering w social functioning and performance arising in period of adaptation to significant life change or stressful event. Features last for at least one month but onset straight away not more than 6 months after stressor.
Manifestations:
- Depressed mood or anxiety
- Inability to cope, plan ahead or continue in present situation
- Avoidance
What is the prevalence of the anxiety disorders?
- 10% of all pt, most are female
- Comorbidity w depression, substance misuse and personality disorder
- Childhood adversity and FH predispose to anxiety
- If present after 35-40 years more likely to be organic disease or depressive disorder
What is the management of GAD?
- Mild = psycho education, advice and reassurance, self help
- Counselling to address pt worries or CBT
- Other therapy = anxiety management training, relaxation techniques
- Benzos shouldn’t be prescribed for more than 10 days, only really for severe sx that obstruct other treatments, diazepam the least likely to have w drawal sx
- Drug therapy - SSRI, SNRI, B blockers eg. propanolol in somatic anxiety sx, pregab, low dose antipsychotics
What is the management of panic disorder?
BioPsychoSocial
- CBT first line and effective in 80-100% - education about panic attacks and fear of fear cycles, aim to change thought processes
- Controlled exposure to somatic sx - breath in CO2 and exercise
- SSRIs = first line drug, second line to CBTT
- Clomipramine - tricyclic w similar action to SSRI
What is busipirone?
Seratonin agonist, used for short term management of GAD. Has a delayed onset of action but diminished efficacy in prev benzo users. Has minimal sedation
SEs - dizziness, headache, nausea
What is involved in a risk assessment?
- Risk factors
- Protective factors eg. having a pet or children
- Specific suicide inquiry
- Then decide risk level
What are some of the risks of suicide?
- Highest during inpt stay - prev behaviour, violence to property, delusions
- Post discharge - still unwell, uneployment, lack of cont of care
- Physical illness, chronic
- Living alone
- Male
- Unemployment
- Drug and alcohol misuse
- Mental illness and prev self harm - severe depression, schizophrenia, bipolar
- Access to weapons
What is the management of phobias?
BioPyschoSocial
- Exposure techniques using graded hierarchy approach - flooding and modelling
- Agoraphobia, social phobia and panic disorders - CBT
- SSRIs and MAOIs good for agoraphobia and social phobia
- If depressive component - tricyclic antidepressants
- Benzos before a phobic situation
- B blockers for somatic sx
What is an acute stress reaction?
Transient disorder in an individual w no other apparent mental disorder in response to large amounts of stress.
Usually ends w/i hours or days, shouldn’t last longer than a month. Often requires no treatment, some may need trauma focused CBT or EMDR.
What are the sx of ASR?
Behavioural sx - daze, confusion, sadness, anxiety, anger, inactivity/overactivity, social w drawal, depersonalisation and derealisation
Autonomic sx of anxiety also common.
What is EMDR?
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing - unprocessed memories are the cause of PTSD or ASR. Eye movements used to help process traumatic events.
What are the sx of PTSD in children?
- Nightmares and difficulties sleeping
- Repetitive trauma related play
- Intrusive thoughts
- Avoidance and increased behavioural difficulties
- Probs conc and hypervigilance
What is the treatment of PTSD in childnre?
- Trauma focused CBT w/i one month of traumatic event to try and prevent PTSD and for those w PTSD diagnosis
- EMDR if don’t respond to PTSD
- No drug treatments for PTSD <18
What is the management of PTSD in adults?
Psycho:
- Prevention if present w/i 1 month - trauma focused CBT
- Treat w diagnosis or >1 month - cognitive processing therapy, trauma focused CBT, narrative and prolonged exposure therapy
- EMDR for non combat related trauma
Bio - venlafaxine or SSRI, antipsychotics if severe hyperarousal or psychotic sx (second line)
Social - manage other issues that may be a bareer eg. housing and substance misuse
What is the diagnostic criteria for OCD
- Obsessions or compulsions or both present most days for at least 2 weeks
- Originate in the pt mind and not imposed by outside persons or influences
- Repetitive and unpleasant - acknowledged as excessive and unreasonable but unsuccessfully resisted
- Cause distress/interfere w subjects functioning - waste time
What is the management of OCD in adults?
Mild func impairment - CBT and exposure and response prevention (ERP)
Mod func impairment - high intensity CBT and ERP or SSRI/clomipramine
Severe func impairment - high intensity CBT and ERP with an SSRI (usually higher doses needed, may take 12 weeks to work)
What is the management of OCD in children?
Mild - self help and info for family, CAMHS
Mod to severe - CBT/ERP involving family
If psych treatment fails consider comorbid conditions.
>8 years old can add SSRI after MDT, only by consultant.
What is TMS?
Transcranial Magnetic Stim - electromagnetic pulses to part of brain w objective of reducing OCD sx (can treat other mental disorders).
What is anorexia nervosa?
Deliberate weight loss induced and sustained by the patient. Concerns around weight and shape, w fear of becoming fat as an intrusive overvalued idea.
Weight and calorie goals made and pt determined to achieve these regardless of impact on physical health.
May also partake in excessive exercise, laxative use or vomitin.
What are the CF of anorexia nervosa?
Physical features - low BMI, hypotension, bradycardia, enlarged salivary glands, lanugo hair, amenorrhoea
Biochem - hypokalaemia, low FSH, LH, O and T, raised GH and cortisol levels, hypercholesterolaemia
Sx - intolerance of cold, fatigue and fainting, constipation, satiety, dysphagia, abdo pains
What is refeeding syndrome?
Rapidly increasing insulin levels - shifts of K, Mg and phosphate from extracellular to intracellular spaces.
CF - oedema, confusion, tachy
What are some physical consequences of anorexia nervosa?
- Cardiac arrhythmias - always perform ECG
- Body attempts to reduce energy expenditure = bradycardia and hypotension and prolonged QT interval - risk of VF
What are some RF of developing anorexia nervosa?
- Female
- Age
- FH eating disorder, depression, substance misuse
- Premorbid experiences - sexual abuse, dieting behaviour in family, pressure to be slim occupationally, onset of puberty
- Personal characteristics - perfectionism, low self esteem, obsessional traits, early menarche, EUPD
What are the ix into anorexia nervosa?
- ESR and TFTs to rule out other causes of weight loss
- U+Es in those w vomiting, diuretics and laxatives behaviours
- BMI <15 or hx of purging - FBC, ESR, U+E, cr, glucose, LFTs and TFTs
- DXA scan
- ECG - bradycardia or prolonged QT interval
What is the management of children w anorexia?
- Anorexia nervosa focused family therapy, 1st = carer givers control of diet, 2nd = child regains some control, 3rd = plan for maintaining recovery and prevent relapse
- CBT if ^ not appropriate
What is the management of adults w anorexia?
- Individual eating disorder focused CBT
- Other psychological interventions
- Physical complications - monitor U+Es and ECG, DXA scans?
- May need urgent admission if electrolyte imbalance, severe malnutrition and dehydration, organ failure or arrhythmia
What are the CF of bulimia? Inc physical signs
Binge eating - loss of control and eating enormous amounts w urge
Purging - binges cause shame and guilt = vomiting, laxatives, diuretics to undo damage
Body image distortion - feeling fat
Physical features - dental erosion, parotid gland swelling, Russell’s sign, reflux, lethargy, bloating
What is the management of bulimia?
Specialist care - CBT is first line.
In children - bulimia focused family therapy.