Psychological disorders

Abnormal/Normal: abnormal behaviour = personally distressing, personally dyfunctional and/or so culturally deviant that other people judge it to be inappropriate or maladaptive

distress

dysfunction

deviance

DSM-5: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by the American Psychiatric Association

ICD: International Classification of Diseases and Helath-related Problems by WHO

Historic perspectives on abnormal behaviour

1900s Sigmund Freund: psychoanalysis

Nowadays

Vulnerability-stress model/diathesis-stress: each of us has some degree of vulnerability (ranging from very low to very high) for developing a → psychological disorder, given sufficient stress

evil spirits in ancient Chinese, Egyptian and Hebrews

demonological model in medieval Europe

mental illness just like physical diseases: Hippocrates

Vulnerability or predisposition due to...

biological factors (e.g. genotype, neurotransmitter system, highly sensitive autonomic nervous system, hormonal factor)

personality facotors (e.g. low selfesteem, extreme pessimism)

environmental or social factors (e.g. poverty, severe trauma, loss earlier in life)

cultural factors (e.g. overemphasis on ahievement and competitiveness in contemporary Western societies)

+ stressor like recent or current event that requires a person to cope

Major psychological disorders

Anxiety and related disorders

Anxiety: natural response to perceived threat with 4 components...

subjective-emotional component: feelings of fear and apprehension

cognitive component: worrisome thiughts and a sense of inability to cope

physiological responses: increased heart rate and blood pressure, muscle tension, rapid breathing, nausea or dry mouth

behavioural response: avoidance of certain situations, impaired performance on other tasks

... but in anxiety and related disorders: the frequency & intensity of anxiety responses are out of proportion to the situations that trigger them

Phobic disorders: specific phobias, social phobia (social anxiety disorder) and agoraphobia

Phobia = strong & irrational fears of certain objects or situations

Agoraphobia = fear of situations using public transport, being in crowd, outside home; difficulty escaping

Social phobia = fear of social situations in which they be negatively evaluated by others

specific phobias (dogs, spiders, airplanes, lifts, blood, injections, heights)

Panic disorder = symptoms occur suddenly an unpredictable, much more intense compared to GAD, not tied to external stimuli, followed by persistent intense worry and fear about experiencing further panic attacks, and/or behavioural changes aimed at reducing the likelihood of their occurence

Generalised Anxiety disorder: chronic tension ,state of diffuse or free floating and worry; lasts for at least 6 months

Obsessive-compulsive disorder / OCD = compelled to act in rigid, repetitive way to reduce their anxiety or distress

Post-traumatic stress disorder/ OCD = severe disorder that can occur in people who have been exposed to traumatic life events

listed together with hoarding disorder, hair pulling, skin picking and body dysmorphic disorder

2 Components:

Obsession: repetitive & unwelcome thoughts, images or impulses that invade consciousness, are often abhorrent to the person and are very difficult to dismiss or control

Compulsions repetitive behaviours, that can be resisted only with great difficulty; overt or covert, strengthened through negative reinforcement allowing to avoid anxiety

grouped together with trauma & other trauma and stess-related disorders (e.g. adjustment disorder, reactive attachment disorder

4 major symptome clusters

Intrusion symütomes: like intrusive images, memories and dreams, that cuase the person to re-experience the traumatic event as if it were recurring again and again

persistent avoidance of any reminders of the traumatic event

negative changes in cognitin and mood, onvolving e.g. fear, helplessness, self-blame, anger or hopelessness

Changes in arousal and reactivity can manifest in sleep disturbances, poor concentration, hypervigilanc, exaggerated startle responses, and reckless or impulsive behaviour

traumas caused by human actions (like war, rape, torture) are 5 to 10x more likely to precipitate PTSD compared to natural disasters

may increase vulnerability to the subsequent development of other disorders

post-trauma interventions aimed at preventing the development of PTSD important

Causal factors in anciety and related disorders

Biological factors (genetic factors to some extend, GABA/serotonin low, also sex linked predispositon: female get it more often

psychological factors

Psychodynamic theories

the role of learning

cognitive factors

sociocultural factors

culture-bound disorders

Somatic symptom and dissociative disorders = physical complaints or disabilities that suggest a medical problem but which do not always have a known biological cause and are not produced voluntarily by the person; e.g. glove aneasthesia

dissociative disorders: involve a breakdown of normal personality integration, resulting in significant alterations in memory or identity

dissociative amnesia: resoinse to a stressful event with extensive memory loss

dissociative fugue: loss of all ense of personal indentity, person gives up her or his customaty life, wanders to a new faraway location and establishes a new identity

dissociative identity (multiple personality) disorder

trauma-dissociation theory

Depressive and bipolar disorders

comorbidity invovling anciety and mood disorders

Depression

major depression vs. persistent depressive disorder

symptoms

negative mood state

cognitive symptoms

motivational symptoms

somatic symptoms

Bipolar disorder

bipolar I disorder: periods of mania ↔ depressive episodes

bipolar II disorder: hypomanic ↔ depressive episodes

Causal factors

Biological factors

genetic: behavioural inhibition system (neurocism) & behavioural activation system (extraversion)

neurochemical factors: norepinephrin, dopamin, erotonin low

psychological factors

personality-based vulnerability

cognitive processes

early catastrophic lsses increas vulnerability to later dpressive disorders

depressive cognitive triad

negative thoughts concerning

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