psychological disorders

• what is a psychological disorder according to DSM

  clinically significant disturbance in cognition/emotions/behaviour associated with distress/disability in activities
• psychopathology

  study of psychological disorders

  • abnormal psychology: nature and origins
  • clinical psychology: treatment
• How to qualify for a psychological disorder

  syndrome must not be

  1. expectable response to common stressors
  2. culturally approved to event
  3. simple deviance from social norms
• point prevalence vs lifetime prevalence

  • people with disorder at point in time
  • people will have disorder at any point in time
• clinical assessment


  procedure to get info to evaluate psychological functioning for diagnosis
• clinical interview 


  clinician asks client to describe problems/concerns
• self report measures


  fixed set of questions answered to target certain set of symptoms
• thematic apperception test (TAT)

  projective test showing ambiguous stimuli (pictures) describe a story
• 2 classification schemes of psychological disorders

  1. ICD-11: diseases/health
  2. DSM: 20 categories of psychological disorders
• diagnostic labels


  framework to describe difficulties of a client (research)
• stigma of diagnostic label

  people with disorders have family members viewed negatively (perception on others and themselves)
• Diathesis Stress Model 


  identifies diathesis one diathesis for predisposition for disorder and another for the stressor (assuming the trigger turns the predisposition into the disorder)
• learned helplessness


  hopeless / passive acceptance of events as beyond their control
• neuroticism


  high levels of this is a diathesis that combine traumatic assault to influence an individuals risk for many forms of psychological disorders
• biopsychosocial model


  analysis of psychological functioning is incomplete unless it considers biological psychological and social dimensions
• types anxiety related disorders

  • specific phobias
  • social anxiety disorder
• specific phobia


  fear/anxiety for particular object or situation

  • some major/minor impacts on life dependent on phobia
  • people develop strategies to avoid phobias
• social anxiety disorder 


  • fear being evaluated/judged
  • -/+ evaluations threatening
  • often begins in childhood
• panic disorder


  unexpected panic attacks (episodes of uncontrollable fear/anxiety/bodily symptoms)
• panic attacks

  • fear / anxiety
  • terrifying bodily symptoms (heart attack / death)
  • insanity / loss of control
• agoraphobia


  fear of situations where help is not available or escape is embarrassing/difficult
• generalized anxiety disorder


  • excessive anxiety to any activity / event
  • continuous / beyond control
• OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)


  often childhood development of unwinding/disturbing obsessions and ritualistic compulsions to control obsessions (both or one of each)
• trauma + stressor related disorders

  • triggers by threats of death/injury/sexual violation
  • dissociation/intrusive/avoidance symptoms
• acute stress disorder


  stress reactions to traumas are limited duration (less than one month)
• posttraumatic stress disorder


  lifetime prevalence and persistence of traumatic event
• comorbidity (someone having one AD is more likely to have another)

  • general risk: factors that are vulnerable to various disorders
  • specific risk: factors that are vulnerable to only one disorder
• concordance rate

  • probably rate of disorder through family relation
  • ex: identical twins 5x more than fraternal
• amygdala and insula


  irregular activity contribute to development of excessive fear of a specific phobias and social phobia
• prefrontal regions 


  PTSD patients have less brain activity related to emotion regulation
• autonomic NS


  panic disorder instability
• anterior cingulate cortex, ínsula, caudate, and putamen

  OCD linked to overactivity and is unclear if is a cause/consequence
• vicarious learning


  
  

  • learned behaviours by observing others
  • create diathesis for specific phobias
• Major depressive disorder (depression)


  mood related disorder by sadness/emptiness and anhedonia (diminished pleasure/interest in activities)
• rumination


  repeatedly turning emotional difficulties over and over in the mind
• bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness)


  manic (excited/energetic/normal episodes) and depression show mixed states
• hypomania


  mild level of mania where client seems to shift high gear and infectiously happy and unstoppable but may jump from activities that brittle irritation among small frustrations
• biological risk factors for mood related disorders

  1. genetic profile
  2. dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin
• genetic profile


  concordance rate for MDD, BPD, is higher in identical twins than fraternal
• three neurotransmitters to mood disorder

  • antidepressant and mood stabilizers
  • alter availability of chemicals at synapse