Psychopathology: Unit 2

From notes/lecture

Normal anxiety 

-signal of genuine threats 

-proportional to threat 

-avoiding over interpreting 

pathologic anxiety

-present in absence of genuine threats

-can be disproportionate to threat

Primary types of anxiety disorders (based on DSM-5)

-ptsd

-acute stress disorder(ASD)

-specific phobia

-social anxiety disorder(SAD)

-generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

-panic disorder (PD)

-OCD

All occur with

-each other

-depression (50 percent)

-substance use disorder (15 percent)

Whats needed to be diagnosed with OCD

BOTH obsessions and compulsions 

anxiety disorder treatments 

-exposure therapy 

-group therapy

-meds

Assessments for anxiety disorders

-interview

-questions/screening 

-differential diagnosis 

-assessing broader vulnerability to “internalizing”

what do all disorders tend to have

two major components

fear

response to something directly happening to you

internalizing

observation is consistant with the notion that there are more general tendencies experiencing excessive fear/worry 

mood disorder 

abnormal mood that exists of a spectrum 

Depression side of spectrum 

-extreme sadness 

-loss of interests

-hopelessness  

mania side of spectrum 

-euphoria

-racing thoughts 

major depressive episode 

severe depressed mood characterized by loss of interest in typical activities 

manic episode 

elevated/ expansive mood characterized by grandiosity, excessive involvement in activities 

learned helplessness-experiment with dogs

Group #1:receives shock (press lever to stop)

Group #2: inescapable shock (lever doesnt stop shock)

negative attributions of modd

internal vs external

stable vs unstable 

global vs specific 

internal vs external

people experiencing events may see themselves as the cause

stable vs unstable 

how one explains the extent of the cause

global vs specific 

people may see a situation as affecting all aspects of life

connection of stress with depressed mood

-stress can cause depressed mood

-depressed mood causes stress 

-other things causes both stress and depressed mood 

-correlation between stress and depression cannot distinguish these possibilities 

unipolar depression 

major depression disorder (Dysmia,MDD)

Bipolar

cyclothymia

bipolar 1

1 or more manic episode

bipolar 2

hypomanic symptoms and depressive systems

hypomanic episode

not as intense as manic, elevated expansive or irritable mood for at least 4 days

-symptoms similar to manic episode 

treatments for mood disorders

-somatic treatment (of bpd)

-lithium (best known treatment but rarely used due to side effects(excessive thirst, urination, kidney damage)

-family therapy 

suicide

women are more likely to contemplate suicide

men are more likely to complete suicide 

interlude-diagnosis/prevention

incremental validity: info is never all presented at once but gathered

Common forms of eating disorders 

-Anorexia nervosa

-bulimia nervosa 

anorexia:DSM 5 criteria 

restriction of energy intake leading to low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat , disturbance in the way body weight or shape 

subtypes 

restricting, binge eating/purging 

anorexia nervosa

loss of appetite for psycological reasons

hunger hormone

ghrelin

what does restricting provide

-sense of control

-excitement

-positive self image 

negative consequences of anorexia

-takes over life

-lack of food→low energy 

palliative psychiatry

anorexia can be highly treatment resistive

bulimia DSM-5 criteria

recurrent episodes of binging with BOTH eating extremely large amounts of food, and lack of control over eating during binge 

inappropriate compensatory behavior to prevent weight gain-self induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, starvation, compulsive exercising 

Binge eating-BOTH occur at least one time a week for 3 months 

does not occur during expisodes of anorexia 

Binge eating

recurrent episodes of binging with BOTH eating large amounts of food and being unable to control 

*THIS IS WITHOUT PURGING

*most common ED

anorexia vs bulimia

both can binge and purge

bulimia vs BED

difference in purging

obesity

overweight and obesity are the result of an energy imbalance overtime 

geome wide association study

study of many genes-comparing and connecting them to things like obesity

alcoholism

chronic disease with genetic psychosocial and environmental factors

disorder

problematic pattern of alc use leading to significant impairment of distress, including x2 of the following from the DSM

examples: 

-current use or cravings 

-drinking and driving 

-withdrawal 

withdrawl

reduction of heavy use

-vomiting

-anxiety

-insomnia

drug use disorder

alc,coffee,nic,cannabis

what does extensive prolonged drug use do

damages the structure of brain an function

korsakoff syndrom

consequence of heavy prolonged alc use-u cannot form any new memories 

effects of legalization of cannabis

increases use by 20%

flushing response 

-heart palpitations

-facial redness 

-nausea,dizzy

ALDHZ

alcohol→acetaldehyde

can also be seen as an example of a specific contribution (gene)

gateway theory

small start up drug use causing future harder(worse) drugs

comorbidity

disorder occurs with another disorder (all substance use disorders comorbid with each other 

burden of scizophrenia

health:one of the leading causes of disability

longevity : 12-15 yr reduction of life expectancy

economic:majority are unemployed-high estimated life cause 

family: compounded by cause 

course of illness 

prodrome: period before onset of symtoms

onset:sudden or gradual worsening of symtoms

recovery: with treatment, recovery is possibly but rarely is to pre onset functioning with occasional reoccurrence

functions disrupted

-thinking

-perception

-emotion

-motor

thinking

abnormal in form and content

disordered though and difficulty organizing 

tangentiality

speech that varies from main subject

loose association

sequence unrelated

word salad

unintelligible mixture of random words

types of delusions

-persecutory(most common-belief of being tormented to followed)

-grandiose(having special powers, purpose or fame) 

-religious (religious or spiritual content) 

-reference (belief that ordinary objects or events have unusual meaning)

control(outside force is controlling individual)

perception

hallucinations (auditory, visual, tactile, gustatory)

what is brain activity associated with

primary auditory cortex

emotion

flat effect: lack of outward express of emotions

anhedonia: less pleasure from activities usually found to be enjoyable 

motor 

psychomotor: disturbance/Catatonia 

-decreased motor activity/engagement

positive symtoms of schizophrenia

-hallucinations

-delusions 

-disorganized thinking 

negative symtoms of schizophrenia

-flat affect

-anhedonia

-lack of motivation

historical view of family/environment on schizophrenia

this is caused by bad parenting

present view of family/environment on schizophrenia

difficult to identify effects of the rearing environment 

-clearly genetic and non shared environment influences 

genome wide association studies

studies used to find genetic variants for conditions for conditions like schizophrenia

social classes association with schizophrenia: sociogenic hypothesis 

stressors associated with lower social class status w schizophrenia 

social classes association with schizophrenia: downward drift drift (social selection)

those with predisposition to develop schizophrenia migrate to lower social status