This portion of the study guide is a review of the last lectures from the psychological disorders topics Psychological Disorders Abnormal Psychology DSM Abbreviation for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders a comprehensive classification of officially recognized psychiatric disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association for use by mental health professionals to ensure uniformity of diagnosis General Anxiety Disorder people with generalized anxiety disorder GAD are extremely worried about these and many other things even when there is little or no reason to worry about them They are very anxious about just getting through the day They think things will always go badly At times worrying keeps people with GAD from doing everyday tasks Treatments psychotherapy and medication Panic Attack with agoraphobia A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear that triggers severe physical reactions when there is no real danger or apparent cause people stop going into situations or places in which they ve previously had a panic attack in anticipation of it happening again Panic Disorder people who experience spontaneous seemingly out of the blue panic attacks and are preoccupied with the fear of a recurring attack Panic attacks occur unexpectedly sometimes even during sleep Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD is a mental health condition that s triggered by a terrifying event either experiencing it or witnessing it Symptoms may include flashbacks nightmares and severe anxiety as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event Phobia A phobia is an overwhelming and unreasonable fear of an object or situation that poses little real danger but provokes anxiety and avoidance Unlike the brief anxiety most people feel when they give a speech or take a test a phobia is long lasting causes intense physical and psychological reactions and can affect your ability to function normally at work or in social settings Obsessive Compulsive Disorder OCD is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears obsessions that lead you to do repetitive behaviors compulsions It s also possible to have only obsessions or only compulsions and still have OCD Schizophrenia severe brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations delusions and extremely disordered thinking and behavior Hallucinations A profound distortion in a person s perception of reality typically accompanied by a powerful sense of reality An hallucination may be a sensory experience in which a person can see hear smell taste or feel something that is not there Delusions persecution reference grandeur somatic Persecutory delusions are a delusional condition in which the affected person believes they are being persecuted Specifically they have been defined as containing two central elements The individual thinks that harm is occurring or is going to occur Ideas of reference and delusions of reference describe the phenomenon of an individual s experiencing innocuous events or mere coincidences and believing they have strong personal significance It is the notion that everything one perceives in the world relates to one s own destiny A delusion of grandeur is the fixed false belief that one possesses superior qualities such as genius fame omnipotence or wealth It is most often a symptom of schizophrenia but can also be a symptom found in psychotic or bipolar disorders as well as dementia such as Alzheimer s Somatic delusion A delusion whose content pertains to bodily functioning bodily sensations or physical appearance Usually the false belief is that the body is somehow diseased abnormal or changed Word Salad a confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases specifically in psychiatry as a form of speech indicative of advanced schizophrenia Neologisms new words something made up new Positive Negative and Cognitive Symptoms of Schizophrenia Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in healthy people People with positive symptoms often lose touch with reality These symptoms can come and go Sometimes they are severe and at other times hardly noticeable depending on whether the individual is receiving treatment Hallucinations delusions though disorders movement disorders Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors These symptoms are harder to recognize as part of the disorder and can be mistaken for depression or other conditions These symptoms include the following lack of pleasure lack of speech flat effect monotone person seems lifeless Cognitive symptoms are subtle Like negative symptoms cognitive symptoms may be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder Often they are detected only when other tests are performed Cognitive symptoms include the following poor executive functioning trouble paying attention focusing problems with working memory Major Depressive Disorder Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression it affects how you feel think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems You may have trouble doing normal day to day activities and sometimes you may feel as if life isn t worth living Bipolar Disorder I and II Bipolar I disorder is characterized by one or more manic episodes or mixed episodes symptoms of both a mania and a depression occurring nearly every day for at least one week and one or more major depressive episodes Bipolar I disorder is the most severe form of the illness marked by extreme manic episodes Bipolar II disorder pronounced bipolar two is a form of mental illness Bipolar II is similar to bipolar I disorder with moods cycling between high and low over time However in bipolar II disorder the up moods never reach full blown mania The less intense elevated moods in bipolar II disorder are called hypomanic episodes or hypomania Why is it something you should be aware of when you take classes in abnormal psychology branch of psychology concerned with mental and emotional disorders as neuroses psychoses and mental retardation and with certain incompletely understood normal phenomena as dreams and hypnosis What factors have to be present to merit a diagnosis marked impairment or hospitalization required at least 7 days or any if hospital required NO marked impairment Hospitalization NOT required at least 4 days
View Full Document
Unlocking...