Psychological Disorders

1. Psychological Disorders Anxiety disorders Dissociative disorders Somatoform disorders Mood disorders schizophrenia Personality disorders

2. PD’s • Behavior patterns or mental processes that cause serious personal suffering or interfere w/a person’s ability to cope. • 4 characteristicS for classification & diagnosis • Maladaptivity • Typicality • Emotional discomfort • Socially unacceptable behavior • Normal: what is average for the majority of people

3. Classifying Psychological Disorders • DSM-IV (2000) • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders • PDs are classified by observable signs & symptoms • The DSM is in an ongoing process of revision • Ex: Post traumatic stress disorder was added after Vietnam War

4. Anxiety Disorders • Anxiety: the general state of dread or uneasiness in response to a vague or imagined danger • Physical signs • Sweating, shortness of breath, faintness, trembling • Psychological signs • Inability to relax or sleep, nervousness, concern about losing control

5. Phobic Disorder • Simple phobia –persistent excessive fear of a an object or situation • Leads to avoidance behavior that interferes with the person’s life • Claustrophobia (being in small spaces) • Acrophobia (heights) • Aviaphobia (flying) • Social phbia (being scrutinized by others)

6. Panic Disorder • Panic attack • Short period of intense fear or discomfort • Physical symptoms like nausea, rapid heartrate, shaking or choking • Seem to have no apparent cause

7. Agoraphobia • Fear of being in places or situations in which escape may be difficult or impossible • Often afraid of crowded places • Panic attack often occurs when facing these decisions • 50 to 80 % of patients suffer from either panic attack and/or agoraphobia

8. Generalized anxiety disorder • Excessive or unrealistic worry about life circumstances that last for at least six months • Most common disorder, but most untreated • Often hard to separate from the daily stresses of life • Finances, Work, Interpersonal problems, Accidents, Illness

9. Obsessive-compulsive disorder • OCD • Obsessions: unwanted thoughts or mental images that occur over and over again • Most people try to ignore or suppress them • People with obsessions usually practice compulsions to reduce the anxiety their obsessions cause • Repetitive ritual behaviors, often involving checking or cleaning

10. Stress Disorders • PTSD -post traumatic stress disorder • Flashbacks, nightmares, numbness of feelings, avoidance of sounds or sights associated with the trauma, increased tension, sleeplessness • Assault victims, veterans, accident victims often are sufferers • can last for years or decades • Acute stress disorder –short term problem

11. Reasons for anxiety disorders • Psychological • Repressed urges • conditioned in childhood (experiencing a bad event or witnessing a parent’s fear) • believing one is helpless to control what happens to them • Biological • Genetic connection

12. Dissociative Disorders • The separation of certain personality components or mental processes from conscious thought • Normal example: daydreaming • When used to avoid stress or feelings it can be considered a psychological problem • Memory loss

13. 4 Types of Dissociative Disorders • Dissociative amnesia • Sudden memory loss cause by an event • Depersonalization disorder • Person feels detachment from one’s mind or body • Dissociative fugue • Forgetting personal information AND taking on a new identity and including moving, but forget fugue state when it ends • Dissociative Identity • Existence of two or more distinct personalities within a distinct individual (changes in voice, facial expressions and abilities is common

14. Somatoform Disorders • Expression of psychological stress through physical symptoms • Illness is not intentionally faked • 6 types of somatoform disorders • Hypochondriassisis the most common

15. Hypochondriassis • Hypochondriassis • A person’s unrealistic preoccupation that he has a serious disease • Sneezing is seen as a sign of a life threatening allergy

16. Mood Disorders • Mood changes that are inconsistent with the situations to which they are responding • Feeling sad even when life is going well • Classified into two types • Depression • Bipolar Disorder

17. Depression • Most common PD affecting about 10% of population in their lifetime • Depressed mood for most of the day • Loss of interest in almost all activities • Changes in appetite • Loss of energy • Feeling of worthlessness • Thought of death or suicide

18. Bipolar Disorder • Dramatic ups and downs in mood • Mania: periods of extreme excitement characterized by hyperactivity and chaotic behavior that transitions into depression often for no apparent reason • Inflated self-esteem, inability to sit still or sleep, difficulty concentrating, racing thoughts • Some sufferers can have paranoid delusions or engage in impulsive behavior

19. Explaining Mood Disorders • Psychological • Suffered real loss of a person during childhood • Does not express anger over loss, but internalizes it as guilt or low self-esteem • Or a learned helplessness: life events are beyond a person’s control

20. Explaining MD • Biological • Often occur in families about 25% of people who suffer from a mood disorder have a parent who does • 2 neurotransmitters are responsible • Low amounts of SEROTONIN & NORADRENALINE are found in people with depression • Why drug therapy is popular for patients with mood disorders

21. Schizophrenia • Most serious psychological disorder • “thought disorder” • Loss of contact with reality • Untreated can worsen over time • Disorganized thought or speech • At worst, results in catatonic stupor

22. 3 Types of Schizophrenia Paranoid schizophrenia -delusions or auditory hallucinations Disorganized schizophrenia -incoherent in thought and speech -unconnected delusions Catatonic schizophrenia -activity slows, then suddenly becomes frenetic -holding unusual body positions for long periods of time

23. Causes • Family environment that is overly critical in childhood • Biologically • brain disorder (smaller frontal lobe) • Birth defect (prenatal development) • Viral infection • Heredity • Child with two schizophrenic parents has a 35% chance of having the disorder

24. Personality Disorder • Patterns of inflexible traits that disrupt social life & work causing distress • Shows up in late adolescence • Affects all aspects of personality –thought processes, emotions & behavior • Unlike other disorders these are not episodic illnesses • These are major components of personality • Affects less than 1% of people

25. 4 Personality Disorders • 1)Paranoid –distrustful of others, interpret other people’s behavior as insulting or threatening • Often lead isolated lives • Are not delusional, but have distorted reality • 2)Schizoid –no interest in relationships with other people, lacking normal emotional responsiveness, but are not delusional

26. 4 Personality Disorders • 3) Antisocial –show disregard for and violation of the rights of others & will not stop even with punishment • Often run away or hurt people in teen years • As adults break the law & have trouble keeping a job • 4) Avoidant –do not form relationships by tremendous fear of disapproval from others • Often shy or withdrawn in social situations

27. Explaining personality disorder • Biological • Genetic connection from parents • Patients with antisocial pd have fewer neurons in their frontal lobe (affects emotions) • Psychological • Underdeveloped super ego: conscience • Antisocial people lack guilt due to childhood treatment