psychopathology

• Psychopathology


  The study of mental disorders in terms of their causes, development, course, classification, and treatment
• Mental health conditions described by psychopathology

  • Depression
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Schizophrenia
  • Personality disorders
• Understanding and studying psychopathology is a crucial part of diagnosing and treating these mental health disorders
• Statistical Infrequency definition of abnormality


  A person's trait, thinking, or behavior is classified as abnormal if it is rare or statistically unusual
• This definition fails to distinguish between desirable and undesirable behavior
• Many rare behaviors or characteristics have no bearing on normality or abnormality
• Some characteristics are regarded as abnormal even though they are quite frequent
• Deviation from Social Norms definition of abnormality

  A person's thinking or behavior is classified as abnormal if it violates the (unwritten) rules about what is expected or acceptable behavior in a particular social group
• Social norms can vary from culture to culture
• Norms can vary over time, so behavior that was once abnormal may no longer be considered so
• Failure to Function Adequately (FFA) definition of abnormality


  An abnormality that prevents the person from carrying out the range of behaviors that society would expect, such as getting out of bed each day, holding down a job, and conducting successful relationships
• FFA might not be linked to abnormality but to other factors
• Deviation from Ideal Mental Health definition of abnormality

  An absence of characteristics necessary for ideal mental health, such as resistance to stress, growth and self-actualization, high self-esteem, autonomy, and accurate perception of reality
• Very few people would be able to meet all the criteria for ideal mental health
• Diane's behavior could be defined as deviating from social norms
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)


  An anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive and uncontrollable thoughts (obsessions) coupled with a need to perform specific acts repeatedly (compulsions)
• Common clinical obsessions in OCD

  • Fear of contamination
  • Repetitive thoughts of violence
  • Sexual obsessions
  • Obsessive doubt
• Common compulsions in OCD

  • Cleaning
  • Washing
  • Checking
  • Counting
  • Touching
• Cognitive characteristic of OCD

  Obsessions dominate one's thinking and are persistent and recurrent thoughts, images, or beliefs entering the mind uninvited and which cannot be removed
• Behavioral characteristic of OCD

  Compulsions are the repetitive behavioral responses intended to neutralize obsessions, often involving rigidly applied rules
• Genetic factors are moderately important in the development of OCD
• Genes alone do not determine who will develop OCD - they only create vulnerability
• Neural mechanisms involved in OCD


  • Overactive prefrontal cortex causing exaggerated control of primal impulses
  • Abnormalities or imbalance in neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine
• Primitive aspects of behavior

  Regulated by the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
• Overactive PFC


  Exaggerated control of primal impulses
• PFC reduces in activation


  You stop washing hands and go about your day
• OCD


  PFC is over-activated, leading to obsessions and compulsions
• Serotonin


  Neurotransmitter thought to be involved in regulating mood
• Dopamine


  Neurotransmitter that is abnormally high in individuals with OCD, influencing concentration
• Brain scans of OCD patients show increased activity in the PFC
• It is unknown whether low serotonin causes OCD, but they are related</b>
• It is unknown whether high dopamine causes OCD or is an effect of the disorder
• The biochemistry hypothesis does not account for individual differences in mental disorders
• Psychological therapy (CBT) can be a successful treatment, which is difficult to account for in the serotonin hypothesis
• Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)


  Drugs that increase serotonin levels and are effective in treating OCD
• Drugs that mainly affect neurotransmitters other than serotonin are of little or no value in treating OCD
• Reduction in dopamine levels

  Positively correlated with a reduction in OCD symptoms
• Increasing dopamine levels in animals

  Causes OCD-type behaviors
• SSRIs have been shown to reduce OCD symptoms, but research results relating to serotonin are varied
• Drugs show only partial alleviation of OCD symptoms, so the process is not fully understood