#22 OVERVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

• Psychiatry - a branch of medicine that attempts to understand and treat psychological disorders
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders Fifth Edition - DSM5
• DSM5 - a manual that is used to classify different psychiatric conditions combining the scientific evidence and clinical observations
• Mental Disorders - a set of related conditions— are clinically significant disturbances of thoughts, feelings,

  or behaviors

  defined as a syndrome
• 4Ds

  1. Disturbances
  2. Dysfunction
  3. Distress/Disability
  4. Deviant
• if I behavior is culturally accepted it cannot be a disorder
• Neurodevelopmental disorders - although most clinical diagnosis are reversed for adults older than 18, a number of disorders are permanent in childhood


  which includes intellectual disabilities and learning disabilities
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD
• ADHD - a childhood disorder characterized by inability to focus attention for more than a few minutes, to remain still in quiet, to do careful work

  • before age of 12 


  Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls biracial of 2:1

  • It begins in childhood but for about 30% the symptoms continue into adulthood
• Autism Spectrum Disorder - ASD
• ASD - is A childhood disorder characterized by severe language and social impairment along with repetitive habits and inward-focused behaviors

  • people with ASD are extremely sensitive to sensory stimulation and have trouble integrating multiple sources of sensory information
  • more interested in inanimate objects than in people and social activities and have difficulty with joint attention
• Psychotic disorder - characterized by inability to distinguish real from imagine perception.
• Schizophrenia - second involves profound disturbances in thought and emotion— impairments in perception such as hallucinations; persist for 1 month.

  • I just order as a split from reality not a split attitude or split personality.
• Symptoms of Schizophrenia;

  1. delusions
  2. hallucinations
  3. disorganized speech
  4. grossly disorganized behavior or catatonic behavior
  5. negative symptoms
• Positive Symptoms - bizarre perceptual experiences associated with schizophrenia
• Hallucinations - these are convincing sense of experiences that occur in the absence of an external stimulus


  auditory hallucinations are most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia
• Delusions - these are false beliefs, often exaggerated claims. that a person holds in spite of evidence to the contrary.
• Disorganized thought and speech - inability to speak coherently, clearly, and logically
• Negative Symptoms - non-responsiveness, emotional flatness, immobility or striking a strange poses (catatonia), reduction of speaking, and inability to complete a tasks
• Cognitive symptoms - problems with working memory, attention, verbal and visual learning and memory, reasoning and problem solving, speed of processing and disordered speech
• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) - is chronic condition characterized by engineering changes in mood motivation and sense of self worth
• Symptoms of MDD ( for at least 2 consecutive weeks)

  1. Depressed mood that stays low all day for several days
  2. reduced interest
  3. significant change in body weight
  4. sleep disturbances
  5. sluggishness or restlessness
  6. daily fatigue or loss of energy
  7. daily feeling of worthlessness self-approach or excessive guilt
  8. lack of ability to concentrate or think clearly
  9. recurrent thoughts of death are suicidal ideation
• symptoms must be significantly impact daily functioning, in terms of both social and work related contexts, and they must be a source of distress, in order to be the basis for a diagnosis of MDD
• female experience depression up to two or three times as often as males
• Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD) - most of its symptoms are the same as in the major depressive but they are less intense in PDD

  • depressive mood last most of the day and most of the time for at least 2 years
  • previously called dysthymia
• Learned Helplessness - It is the sense of failure that results from repeated inability to control or escape from overwhelmingly stressful situation


  this giving up in the face of repeated adversity has offered a powerful behavioral model of depression that is consistent with the relationship of extreme stress to the incidence of depression
• experiencing extreme stress in childhood increases one's risk for depression later in life
• The effects of childhood trauma have lasting impact
• women with more adverse childhood experiences were more likely to have postpartum depression, is more likely to have a child with psychological disorder and likely to have babies with impaired socioemotional skills
• Psychological Resilience - the ability to manage and recover from stress well— can reduce the likelihood of depression in the people who have experience severe stress and adverse childhood experiences
• depression is heritable— genes related to serotonin transport seen particularly important for depression
• Bipolar Disorder - severe mood fluctuations cycling between very low and very high episodes
• Very low = major depressive

  Very high = manic or hypomania
• Manic episodes - typically involve increase energy, sleeplessness, euphoria, irritability, delusions of grandeur, increase sex drive, and racing thoughts that least at least one week
• Hypomanic episodes - nearly the same symptoms but shorter and duration that lasts at least 4 days
• A useful mnemonic for remembering the symptoms of mania (DIGFAST)

  1. DISTRACTIBILITY
  2. INDISCRETION
  3. GRANDIOSITY
  4. FLIGHT OF IDEAS
  5. ACTIVITY INCREASED
  6. SLEEP
  7. TALKATIVENESS
• Bipolar I - has major depressive episodes and meets the whole criteria of mania; hypomania is not a requirement for diagnosis
• Bipolar II - major depressive episode is also present and hypomania; mania is not requirement of diagnosis
• Cyclothymia - It is relatively milder form of bipolar disorder but last longer
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - pervasive excessive anxiety lasting at least 6 months