Psychological Disorders

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Psychological Disorders

• According to the Law
• The definition of mental disorders rests on
  whether
• 1- the person is aware of the consequences of his
  actions
• 2- can control his behavior
• If not the person may be declared insane.

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Definitions of Mental DisorderA Harmful
Dysfunction

• 1- Mental disorders as a violation of cultural
  standards or atypical behavior
• 2- Mental disorder as maladaptive or harmful
  behavior
• 3- Mental disorder as a disturbing emotional
  distress.
• 4- Mental disorder as unjustifiable

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Psychologists Definition

• Any behavior or emotional state that
• 1- causes the individual great suffering or
  worry
• 2- is self-destructive,
• 3- is maladaptive and disrupts either the
  persons relationships or the larger community.

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Understanding Psychological Disorders

• The Medical Perspective
• Psychological disorders are sicknesses and can be
  diagnosed, treated, and even cured.
• The Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective
• How biological, psychological, and social factors
  interact to produce specific psychological
  disorders.

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Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders

• DSM-IV (1994) contains more than 300 mental
  disorders.
• Provides diagnostic categories
• Does not provide information on causes
• Does not provide information on treatment
• It is organized in 5 axes

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Axis IClinical Syndromes

• Anxiety disorders
• Mood disorders
• Dissociative disorders
• Substance abuse disorders
• Schizophrenia

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Axis IIDevelopmental and Personality Disorders

• Ingrained aspects of the clients personality
  that are likely to affect the persons ability to
  be treated, such as self-involvement or
  dependency.

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Axis IIIPhysical Disorders and Conditions

• Medical conditions that are relevant to the
  disorder, such as respiratory or digestive
  problems.

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Axis IVSeverity of Psychosocial Stressors

• Social and environmental stressors that can make
  the disorder worse, such as job and housing
  troubles or having recently left a network of
  close friends.

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Axis VGlobal Assessment of Functioning

• The clients overall level of functioning at
  work, relationships, and leisure time including
  whether the problem was of a recent origin or of
  long duration, and how incapacitating it is.

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Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder

• Symptoms must persist for at least six months
• Symptoms must have begun before age seven
• Symptoms present in at least two situations
• Disorder impairs functioning
• Symptoms not explained by another disorder such
  as

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Diagnostic Criteria for Attention-Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder

• Anxiety
• Schizophrenia
• Mania
• Dissociative Disorder
• Personality Disorder
• Developmental Disorder

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Anxiety Disorders

• 1- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• 2- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• 3- Panic Disorder
• 4- Fears and Phobias
• 5- Obsession Compulsions

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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

• When people are in danger, they produce high
  levels of natural opiates, which can temporarily
  mask pain. They also produce stress hormones.
• People with PTSD tend to continue producing these
  hormones.
• Norepinephrine is higher than normal. It
  activates the hippocampus, which is involved with
  memory and long term memory.
• At high levels, stress hormones can become toxic
  and can damage the brain.

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Phobias

• Acrophobia fear of heights
• Brontophobia fear of thunder
• Claustrophobia fear of closed places
• Porphyrophobia fear of the color purple
• Mysophobia fear of dirt and germs
• Agoraphobia fear of being away from a safe
  place.
• Triskaidekaphobia fear of number 13

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Obsession Compulsions

• Obsessions
• Recurrent, persistent, unwished-for thoughts or
  images.
• Example repetitive thoughts about killing a
  child or becoming contaminated by shaking hands.
• Compulsions
• Repetitive, ritualized behavior that the person
  feels must be carried out to avoid disaster.
• Example hand washing, counting, checking

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Obsession Compulsions

• The orbital cortex sends messages of impending
  danger to the caudate nucleus (prepares the body
  to respond to external danger).
• In people with OCD, the orbital cortex keeps on
  sending false alarms of danger.
• But the caudate nucleus fails to turn them off.

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Explaining Anxiety Disorders

• The Learning Perspective
• Fear Conditioning
• Stimulus Generalization
• Reinforcement
• Observational Learning

• The Biological Perspective
• Evolution
• Genes
• Physiology

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Mood Disorders

• 1- Depression
• 2- Mania
• 3- Bipolar

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Symptoms of Depression

• Feeling of despair and hopelessness
• Exaggerating minor failings and ignoring positive
  events
• Interpreting losses as signs of personal failures
  and concluding that happiness is not possible.
• Physical Changes
• Overeating, insomnia, lack of appetite trouble
  concentrating, feeling tired all the time

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Mania

• An abnormally high state of exhilaration
• Excessive energy
• Irrational decisions
• Feeling of excessive hopefulness
• Speaking rapidly and dramatically
• Excessive feeling of ambition
• Inflated self esteem

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Stages of Mania

• 1-Hypomania
• Patients are energetic, extroverted, and
  assertive
• 2-Mania
• Loss of judgment
• 3-Delusion with Paranoid Themes
• Speech is generally rapid and hyperactive
  behavior may lead to violence.

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Causes of Mania

• Excessive production of one or two
  neurotransmitters
• 1-Norepinephrine
• 2-Serotonin

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Bipolar DisorderManic-Depressive

• When people alternate between episodes of
  depression and one or more episodes of mania.
• Occurs equally in both sexes.
• The onset is between 20-30 with a second peak at
  40
• Those who have rapid cycling may experience more
  episodes of mania and depression that succeed
  each other without a period of remission.

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People Who Had Bipolar

• Abraham Lincoln Edgar Allan Poe
• Van Gough Virginia Wolf
• Vivian Leigh Walt Whitman
• Charles Dickens Ernest Hemingway
• Newton
• Mark Twain

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Theories of Depression

• 1- Biological explanations emphasize genetic and
  brain chemistry.
• 2- Social explanations emphasize the stressful
  circumstances of peoples lives.
• 3- Attachment explanations emphasize problems
  with close relationships.
• 4- Cognitive explanations emphasize particular
  habits of thinking and interpreting events
• 5- Vulnerability-stress explanations draw on
  all four explanations.

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Biological Explanation

• Genes may exert their influence by creating
  biochemical imbalances
• The low production of the neurotransmitters
  norepinephrine and serotonin may be the cause of
  depression.
• The brains of depressed people seem less active.
• The frontal lobes are 7 smaller in severely
  depressed patients.

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Cognitive Explanations

• Internality
• The reason for misery is internal
• Stability
• The situation is permanent
• Lack of Control
• There is no control over the situation

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Learned Helplessness

• Pessimistic Explanatory Style
• Brooding and Ruminating about Unhappiness

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Vulnerability-Stress Model of Depression

• Upsetting Events
• Loss of loved ones
• Loss of job
• Failure
• Trauma
• Violence
• Temporary unhappiness

• Individual Vulnerability
• Biological predisposition
• Low self-esteem
• Insecure attachment
• Learned helplessness
• Negative thinking
• Pessimism
• Brooding

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Personality Disorders

• 1- Paranoid Personality Disorder
• 2- Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• 3- Antisocial Personality Disorder

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Paranoid Personality Disorder

• Unfounded suspiciousness
• Mistrust of other people
• Irrational jealousy
• Secretiveness
• Doubt about the loyalty of others
• Delusions of being persecuted by others.

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Narcissistic Personality Disorder

• Exaggerated sense of self-importance
• Self-absorption
• Fantasies of unlimited success power
• Demand of constant attention admiration
• Feeling of entitlement of special favors
• Narcissistic people cant find a good match
  because they expect perfection.

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Symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder

• 1- They repeatedly break the law.
• 2- They are deceitful, using lies to con others.
• 3- They are impulsive and unable to plan ahead.
• 4- They repeatedly get into fights or assaults.
• 5- They show reckless disregard to their own
  safety or that of others.
• 6- They are constantly irresponsible, failing to
  meet their obligations.
• 7- They lack remorse for actions that harm others.

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Causes for APD

• 1- Abnormalities in the brain and central nervous
  system
• 2- Problems with impulse control
• 3- Brain damage
• 4- Vulnerability-stress explanations

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Emotion

• You perceive the sensory stimulus.
• The adrenal gland sends two hormones epinephrine
  and norepinephrine.
• They activate the sympathetic nervous system.
• That produces a state of arousal or alertness
  that provides the body with the energy to act
  (the pupils dilate, the heart beats faster, and
  breathing speeds up).

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Vulnerability Stress Explanation

• Biological vulnerability
• Brain damage
• Genetic predisposition
• Birth complications
• Central nervous system abnormalities

• Stressful Experiences
• Physical abuse
• Maternal rejection
• Lack of contact comfort

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Dissociative Disorders

• 1- Amnesia
• 2- Fugue
• 3- Dissociative Identity Disorder
• (Multiple Personality Disorder)

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Causes of Addiction

• 1- The Disease Model
• 2- The Learning Model

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The Disease ModalThe Disease Concept of
Alcoholismby E. M. Jellinek

• Alcoholism is a disease over which an individual
  has no control and from which he or she never
  recovers
• Addiction is due to a persons biochemistry,
  metabolism, and genetic predisposition.
• Genetic Predisposition
• Contribute to traits that predispose the person
  to become alcoholic.
• May affect biochemical processes in the brain
  that make some people more susceptible than
  others.

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The Learning Model of Addiction

• 1- Addiction patterns vary according to cultural
  practices and the social environment.
• 2- Policies of total abstinence tend to increase
  rates of addiction rather than reduce them.
• 3- Not all addicts have withdrawal symptoms when
  they stop taking a drug.
• 4- Addiction does not depend on properties of the
  drug alone, but also on the reason for taking it.

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Active Symptoms of Schizophrenia

• 1- Bizarre delusions (Paranoid/Identity)
• 2- Hallucinations and heightened sensory
  awareness (auditory, visual, or tactile)
• 3- Disorganized, incoherent speech
• 4- Grossly disorganized and inappropriate
  behavior

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Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

• Loss of motivation
• Poverty of speech
• Making only brief and empty replies
• Diminished thought and emotionality
• Emotional flatness
• Unresponsive facial expressions
• Poor eye contact

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Explanation of Schizophrenia

• 1- Genetic predisposition
• 2- Structural brain abnormalities
• 3- Neurotransmitter abnormalities
• 4- Prenatal abnormalities
• 5- The Vulnerability-stress approach

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Genetic PredispositionRisk of Developing
Schizophrenia

• Identical twinsless than 50
• Child of 2 schizophrenic parents... 34-46
• Fraternal twins .less than 20
• Children with 1 schizophrenic parent 12
• Siblings .. Less than 10

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Brain Abnormalities

• Signs of cerebral damage
• Decreased brain weight
• Reduced numbers of neurons in the prefrontal
  cortex
• Decrease in volume of the limbic regions
• Abnormalities in the thalamus
• Enlarged ventricles or spaces in the brain

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Neurotransmitter Abnormalities

• Serotonin
• Glutamate
• Dopamine

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Prenatal Abnormalities

• Malnutrition
• Infectious virus during prenatal development
• Mothers exposure to influenza virus during the
  second trimester of pregnancy

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Vulnerability Stress Explanation

• Biological Vulnerability
• Genetic predisposition
• Birth complications that damage the brain
• Prenatal damage due to viral infection

• Stressful Experiences
• Unstable family life
• Extreme stress in late adolescence and early
  adulthood.