mental disorder

Examples of mental disorder in the following topics:

• Mental Health

  • Common disorders that affect a person's mental health can range from attention deficit disorder (ADD), which is often easily treatable and not-disabling, to severe schizophrenia, which can interfere with day-to-day life processes.
  • Mental health describes a level of psychological well-being or the presence/absence of a mental disorder.
  • Thus, the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders varies widely by social class.
  • This lithograph illustrates the eight mental health disorders that were thought to be prominent in England during the early-19th century: dementia, megalomania, acute mania, melancholia, idiocy, hallucination, erotic mania, and paralysis.
  • Since 1837, many of those disorders have been erased from medical textbooks or modified in light of changing social norms.

• Classifying Abnormal Behavior: The DSM

  • The DSM is the standard classification manual of mental disorders and contains a hierarchy of diagnostic criteria for every mental-health disorder recognized by the American Psychiatric Association.
  • The DSM-I was 130 pages long and listed 106 mental disorders, many of which have since been abandoned.
  • Axis II: Personality disorders and/or developmental disorders (such as intellectual disabilities, formerly called mental retardation).
  • The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5, published in 2013.
  • Evaluate the pros and cons of the DSM system of classifying mental disorders

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Mental Illnesses

  • Schizophrenia and depression are just two examples of mental illnesses caused by a disorder of the nervous system.
  • Mental illnesses are nervous system disorders that result in problems with thinking, mood, or relating with other people.
  • Debilitating mental disorders plague approximately 12.5 million Americans (about 1 in 17 people) at an annual cost of more than $300 billion.
  • There are several types of mental disorders including schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and many others.
  • The American Psychiatric Association publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM), which describes the symptoms required for a patient to be diagnosed with a particular mental disorder.

• Preventing Psychological Disorders

  • Focusing on the prevention of mental illness, rather than only on treating existing mental illness, has numerous health and economic benefits.
  • The 2004 report of the World Health Organization (WHO) Prevention of Mental Disorders stated that "prevention of these disorders is obviously one of the most effective ways to reduce the [disease] burden."
  • Similarly, the 2011 European Psychiatric Association (EPA) guidance on prevention of mental disorders states that "There is considerable evidence that various psychiatric conditions can be prevented through the implementation of effective evidence-based interventions."
  • Risk factors for mental illness include both genetic and environmental influences.
  • Some mental disorders have a genetic link.

• Somatic Symptom Disorders

  • A somatic symptom disorder, formerly known as a somatoform disorder, is a category of mental disorder included in a number of diagnostic schemes of mental illness, including the recent DSM-5 section Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders.
  • Somatic symptom disorder is difficult to diagnose and treat and requires psychiatrists to work with neurologists with this disorder.
  • With the 2013 release of the DSM-5, the diagnoses of somatization disorder, hypochondriasis, pain disorder, and undifferentiated somatoform disorder were removed.
  • The person's physical symptoms are not fully explained by a general medical condition, substance use, or a different mental disorder (e.g., panic disorder).
  • The DSM-5's somatic symptom disorder brings with it a risk of mislabeling a sizable proportion of the population as mentally ill, which has substantial social consequences.

• Feeding Disorders

  • Feeding disorders are a type of eating disorder that prevents the consumption of certain foods, often based on color, texture, or other factors.
  • This disturbance must not be due to unavailability of food; to observation of cultural norms; to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or another eating disorder; to perceived flaws in one's body shape or weight; or to another medical condition or mental disorder.
  • When the disorder occurs concurrently with another medical or mental condition, the disturbance must exceed what is normally caused by that condition.
  • However, many have proposed other mental disorders that are comorbid with ARFID—indeed, symptoms of ARFID are usually found with symptoms of other disorders.
  • Children with feeding disorders often exhibit symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

• Factitious Disorders

  • A person with factitious disorder deliberately produces, feigns, or exaggerates physical or mental symptoms in themselves or in another.
  • Münchausen syndrome, a severe form of factitious disorder, was the first to be identified and was for a period used as the umbrella term for all such disorders.
  • In order to be diagnosed with either of these forms of factitious disorder, the person must deliberately aim to deceive others by feigning or causing physical or mental symptoms, illness, or injury (in themselves or another).
  • In addition, the symptoms must not be attributed to another mental disorder (such as a psychotic disorder).
  • If an underlying mood or personality disorder is detected, that disorder should be treated with the appropriate psychotherapy and/or medication.

• Cluster A: Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal Personality Disorders

  • Cluster A disorders include paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder.
  • Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disorder characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspicion and general mistrust of others.
  • These symptoms must not be attributable to an autism spectrum disorder or to schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder.
  • Rates of STPD are disproportionately higher among people who have a relative with schizophrenia than among those who have a relative with no or a different mental illness.
  • STPD is rarely seen as a primary reason for treatment in a clinical setting, but it has high rates of comorbidity with other mental disorders (i.e., it is often part of a dual diagnosis of STPD and a second disorder).

• Introduction to Personality Disorders

  • In the field of psychology, "personality" refers to the set of enduring behavioral and mental traits that distinguish an individual from other people.
  • cannot be better explained by another mental disorder or be due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or general medical condition (e.g., head trauma).
  • Personality disorders are often researched within these clusters, since the disorders in a cluster exhibit many common disturbances.
  • Community mental health services may view individuals with personality disorders as too complex or difficult to deal with and so directly or indirectly exclude them from receiving care.
  • Differentiate among mood disorders and the three clusters of personality disorders identified in the DSM-5

• Bipolar Disorders

  • Bipolar disorders are debilitating mood disorders characterized by periods of mania/hypomania and periods of depression.
  • Bipolar disorder (commonly referred to as manic-depression) is a mood disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression.
  • Other mental health issues such as anxiety disorders and substance use disorders are commonly associated.
  • The symptoms of DMDD resemble those of other childhood disorders, notably attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and bipolar disorder in children.
  • Following (or in lieu of) a hospital admission, support services available can include drop-in centers, visits from members of a community mental-health team or an assertive community treatment (ACT) team, supported employment, patient-led support groups, and intensive outpatient programs.