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CHAPTER 12 NOTES: MENTAL DISORDERS – Page 462
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association
1.5 million hospitalized; additional 4-5 million seek help
Depictions of mental disorders are often inaccurate
Statistically, mental patients are less violent than those in the “normal” population
What constitutes abnormal behavior?
1. Person suffers from discomfort more or less continuously. (Shows up as extreme anxiety, endless worry, or long periods of depression;
feels something is wrong w/ his/her life more than the average person does)
2. Person is behaving in a bizarre fashion. (Misinterprets what is going on or what others are doing/saying; afraid to go to work or
school; frequently comes completely apart over minor things or sinks into a depression about them)
3. Person is very inefficient and is therefore unable to perform their life roles properly.
Characteristics of Abnormal Behavior:
1. Inflexible in their responses to almost everything (Ex: Shy, withdrawn man goes to a party and a few people are nice to him; instead,
he thinks they only “feel sorry” for him)
2. Constantly see a threatening environment (Ex: See danger, rejection, and failure around every corner)
Disorder
Subsets
-Hyperactivity
First diagnosed in
-Autism
infancy,
childhood, or
adolescence
-Delirium
Cognitive
Disorders
-Dementia
-Amnesiac
Description
Problems such as hyperactivity and childhood fears,
conduct disorders, frequent bed-wetting or soiling, and
other problems in normal social and behavioral
development.
Austisism disorder is a severe imparment in social,
behavior and language development.
Comments/Connections/Questions (CCQ)
Does this usually only happen to children? Is
hyperactivity really a disorder? Maybe they
had too much sugar!
These disorders are caused by physical deteriation of the
brain. This can happen with age, drugs, and other
chemicals, maybe drinking.
People should stop killing their brain cells
because they don’t grow back!
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-Alcoholism
SubstanceRelated Disorders -Chemical abuse
-Schizophrenia
PSYCHOTIC
DISORDERS
(Thought
disorder,
hallucinations,
delusions,
inappropriate
emotional
responses)
-Catatonic
Schizophrenia
-Most serious mental disturbance; schizophrenia affects
about 1% of the population; often arises in late adolescence
or early adulthood; word salad (incoherence) and clang
associations (rhymes); cycles of lucidity and psychosis;
heredity does not seem to be the key factor (90% of
patients do not have members in their immediate family
who suffer from it); environment may contribute to the
development for those who have a predisposition; linked to
high levels of dopamine
This is just like the cognitive disorders,
basically some druggies getting high.
The first time I heard about this disorder I was
shocked that people can actually live in
another world. One time at the YMCA in the
mens locker room, my friend and I met a man
that kept talking to himself. We kept thinking
that he was talking to us, but he wasn’t. We
also noticed that we were the only ones in the
locker room. So now I think he may have had
schizophrenia.
-Disturbances of movement; does not speak or says little;
appears to be in a stupor; may rigidly hold strange posture
and may not move for hours
-Paranoid
Schizophrenia
-Undifferentiated
Schizophrenia
-Dysthymic
Disorder
MOOD
DISORDERS
(deal with one’s
emotional state)
Caused by the abuse of a variety of chemical substances,
including alchohol, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines,
hallucinogens, marijuana and tobacco.
-Major Depression
-Mania
-Bipolar Disorders
(Manic Depression
or Manic
-Strong feelings of persecution or suspiciousness;
delusions
-Lacks distinguishing symptoms
Serious mood swings, disturbances, especially depression,
overexcitement.
I think mood disorders are crazy. One minute
they’re nice and gentle, the next they are a
savage beast that wants to rip you apart.
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Depressive
Psychosis)
-Panic Disorder
ANXIETY
DISORDERS
(most common)
-Phobic Disorders
These are usually phobias of all sorts; panic attacks;
generalized feelings of dread; rituals of thought and action
aimed at controlling anxiety; and problems caused by
traumatic events, such as rape or military combat.
When I watched the Maury show I watched
the “phobia” episode. People had the craziest
phobias, like one person had a phobia to
pickles.
-ObsessiveCompulsive
Disorder
-Conversion
SOMATOFORM Disorders
DISORDERS
(expressed in
bodily symptoms)
-Hypochondriasis
Factitious
Disorders
Physical symptoms, such as paralysis and blindness, that
have no physical cause.
Can paralysis be a disorder? Blindness? Isnt
that just an impairment?
False mental disorders that are intentionally produced to
satisfy some psychological need.
Triyng to get attention.
-Amnesia
DISSOCIATIVE
DISORDERS
(disconnects or
disassociates
certain
events/behaviors
Psychologically caused problems of consciousness and self
identification, loss of memory.
-Fugue
-Dissociative
Identity Disorder
Would alzheimers be considered a
dissociative disorder? If you get hit in the
head really hard you can get amnesia.
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from one
another; very
rare)
Finding sexual
arousal of shoes or
Sexual and
Gender Disorders unusual objects and
situations
Sexual dysfunction
Anorexia nervosa
Eating Disorders
Builimia nervosa
Insomnia
Sleep Disorders
Problems with their sexual desires, they can be aroused by
the most unusual things.
Eating too little or binge eating by making yourself vomit.
They do this because for some reason they think they’re fat
when they are not.
I don’t understand how someone can make
themselves vomit. I don’t understand their
way of thinking.
Problems sleeping, with the sleep-wake cycle, especially
an inablility to sleep well at night or to stay awake during
the day.
I used to have insomnia when I was younger.
I always happened every week.
Gambling
Compulsive gambling, stealing or fire setting.
Impulse Control
Disorders
Stealing
Fire setting
I know some people that might fall under this
category.
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Failure to adjust to, or deal with, such stressor as divorce,
financial problems, family discord, or other unhappy life
events.
Adjustment
Disorders
PERSONALITY
DISORDERS
(Personalities are
“off-center”)
-Antisocial
Personality
(Psychopaths and
Sociopaths)
-Borderline
Personality
-Lack of conscience; often in conflict w/ the law and show
little or no concern, guilt, or anxiety; sometimes have a
family history of neglect and rough treatment
-Created in 1980; characterized by intense and unstable
relationships w/ others; very dependent; self-destructive
behavior to manipulate others; suspicious and therefore
difficult to treat
This is why people murder other people,
because they don’t have a conscience.
