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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
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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 Inflexible in their responses to almost everything (Ex: Shy, withdrawn man goes to a party and a few people are nice to him; instead,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
infancy, childhood,
or adolescence
-Autism
Description
~Hyperactivity, childhood fears, conduct disorders, frequent bedwetting or soiling, and other problems in normal social and
behavioral development.
~Severe imparement, in social, behavioral, and language
development as well as learning disorders
Cognitive
Disorders
-Delirium
~An inability to “think straight”.
-Dementia
~Loss of memory and other intellectual functions.
-Amnesiac
-Alcoholism
Substance-Related
Disorders
~Psychological, behavioral, physical or social, or legal
programs
-Chemical abuse
~Chemical substances: alcohol, heroin, cocaine, amphetamines,
hallucinogens, marijuana, and tobacco.
Comments/Connections/Questions (CCQ)
2
-Schizophrenia
-Catatonic
Schizophrenia
PSYCHOTIC
DISORDERS
(Thought disorder,
hallucinations,
delusions,
inappropriate
emotional
responses)
-Paranoid
Schizophrenia
-Undifferentiated
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
~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
~Strong feelings of persecution or suspiciousness; delusions
~Lacks distinguishing symptoms
-Dysthymic Disorder
-Major Depression
MOOD
DISORDERS
(deal with one’s
emotional state)
~Severe disturbances of mood, especially depression,
overexcitement (mania), or alternating episodes of each extreme
(bipolar disorder).
-Mania
-Bipolar Disorders
(Manic Depression or
Manic Depressive
Psychosis)
-Panic Disorder
ANXIETY
DISORDERS
(most common)
-Phobic Disorders
~Specific fears (phobias); panic attacks; generalized feelings of
dread; rituals of thought and action (OCD) aimed at controlling
anxiety; and problems caused by traumatic events, like rape or
military combat.
-ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder
SOMATOFORM
DISORDERS
(expressed in
bodily symptoms)
-Conversion
Disorders
-Hypochondriasis
~Physical symptoms (like paralysis and blindness) that have no
physical cause → nonexistent physical problems
(hypochondriasis, somatization disorder, pain disorder)
3
Factitious
Disorders
~False mental disorders to satisfy a psychological need.
-Amnesia
DISSOCIATIVE
DISORDERS
(disconnects or
disassociates
certain
events/behaviors
from one another;
very rare)
-Fugue
~Psychology caused problems of consciousness and selfidentification → loss of memory (amnesia) or the development of
more than one identity (multiple personality)
-Dissociative Identity
Disorder
~Problems of finding sexual arousal through unusual objects or
situations (shoes or exposing oneself), unsatisfactory sexual
activity (sexual dysfunctionl), or identifying with the opposite
gender
~Problems with eating too little (anorexia) or overeating and
then vomitting (bulimia)
Sexual and Gender
Disorders
Eating Disorders
~Inability to sleep well at night or to stay awake during the day.
Sleep Disorders
~Compulsive gambling, stealing or fire setting.
Impulse Control
Disorders
~Failure to adjust to/deal with. ex: stressors 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