HOSA Behavioral Health - Psychology and Behavioral Health Disorders, Treatments, Therapies & Services

Autism

is a mental disorder that starts in childhood that is characterized by persistent impairments in being to engage in social communication and interaction with others.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

People with severe forms of autism may have a difficult time with everyday activities that significantly limits the kinds of things they do as an adult. People with less severe forms of autism may appear to be perfectly normal, except in certain social situations where the impairment becomes more apparent. Autism may exist with or without accompanying intellectual and language impairments.

Level 1 - High Function Autism

- Requiring support

- difficulty initiating social interactions

- inflexibility of behavior

- Difficulty switching activities

- Problems with organization

- Asperger's is Level 1

Level 2 - Autism

- Requiring substantial support

- Marked deficits with social interactions

- Inflexibility of behavior

- Difficult or distress coping with change

- Repetitive behaviors

Level 3 - Severe Autism

- Requiring very substantial support

- Severe deficits with social interactions and communication

- Inflexibility of behavior

- Extreme difficulty of distress coping with change

- Repetitive behaviors interfere with functioning.

Symptoms of Autism

Stereotyped behaviors, overly rigid routines, highly specific interests or preoccupations, and hypersensitivity to the sensory stimuli in the environment.

Therapy for Autism

Most treatment approaches for this condition use psychotherapy as the foundation for change

There are a variety of therapeutic techniques employed to help someone with this condition learn to manage its symptoms over the course of their life

For some people with autism, interventions may target specific deficits in learning, language, imitation, attention, motivation, compliance, and initiative interaction.

These types of treatment may include behavioral methods, communication therapy, occupational and physical therapy along with social play interventions.

Medicine for Autism

Irritability and Aggression:

Clozapine

Risperidone

Aripiprazole

Haloperidol

Sertraline

Aberrant Social Behavior

Risperidone Haloperidol

Oxytocin

Secretin

Repetitive Behaviors

Fluoxetine

Citalopram

Bumetanide

ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

Is a mental health disorder than can cause above-normal levels of hyperactive and impulsive behaviors. People with ADHD may also have trouble focusing their attention on a single task or sitting for long periods of time. Both adults and children can have ADHD

Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Presentation

Hyperactive:

Hyperactive teenagers may also feel internally restless. They often feel the need to stay busy and may try to do several things at once.

Impulsive

People who are impulsive seem unable to control their immediate reactions or think before they act.

They will often blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint, and act without considering the consequences.

They may find it hard to wait for things they want, or take their turn in games. They may grab a toy from another child or hit or even act out when upset. Often fidgets with or taps hands or feet, or squirms in seat

Often leaves seat in situations when remaining seat is expected

Running or climbing situations where it is inappropriate

Blurting out answers before hearing the whole question

Talking excessively

Interrupting or intruding on others

Having difficulty waiting in line or taking turns

Unable to play or engage in leisure activities quietly

Feeling very restless, as if "drive by a motor", and talk excessively

Predominantly Inattentive Presentation

Not giving close attention to details or making careless mistakes in schoolwork, work, or other activities

Often has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities

Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly

Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities, often skipping from one uncompleted activity to another

Becomes easily distracted by irrelevant stimuli, like sights and sounds

Fails to pay attention to instructions and makes careless mistakes, not finishing work, cores or duties

Loses or forgets things needed for a task, like pencils, books, assignments, or tools.

Avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time

Is often forgetful in daily activities.

Inattentive people are rarely impulsive or hyperactive but have a significant problem paying attention. They often appear to be daydreaming, and are easily confused, and lethargic.

They may process information slowly and less accurately than others.

People with this form of ADHD often get along better with others than the more impulsive and hyperactive norms, as they may not have the same sorts of social problems common with other forms of ADHD.

Combined Presentation

A person exhibiting hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention are considered to have the Combined Presentation of ADHD, which combines all of the above symptoms.

Treatments of ADHD

ADD in children and teenagers is readily treatable. The most common treatments for this condition include certain types of medications (called stimulants) and for some, psychotherapy focused on behavioral interventions.

ADHD Stimulants

These medicines help you focus your thoughts and ignore distractions. Stimulant meds work for 70% - 80% of people. They are used to treat moderate and severe ADHD. May be helpful for children, teens and adults who have a hard time at school, work, or home.

ADHD Non-Stimulants

In cases where stimulants don't work or cause unpleasant side effects, nn-stimulants might help. These medications can improve symptoms like concentration and impulse control.

Antidepressants - People with ADHD often have depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder too. They may take an antidepressant to control mental health issues or other conditions along with a stimulant for ADHD.

Types of Medication for ADHD

Short-Acting stimulants

Dextroamphetamine

Amphetamine

Dexmethylphenidate

Methylphenidate

Intermediate-Long Acting stimulants

Amphetamine sulfate

Lisdexamfetamine

Methylphenidate

Dexmethylphenidate

Non-Stimulants

Atomoxetine

Clonidine

Guanfacine

Antidepressants:

Bupropion

Desipramine

Imipramine

Nortriptyline

Schizophrenia

Is a mental disorder that is characterized by hallucinations (auditory, visual, olfactory, or tactile) and delusions. It is usually treated with a combination of antipsychotic medications and psychotherapy.

Paranoid Schizophrenia

A person feels extremely suspicious, persecuted, grandiose, or experiences a combination of these emotions

Disorganized Schizophrenia

A person is often incoherent but may not have delusions

Cationic Schizophrenia

A person is withdrawn, mute, negative and often assumes very unusual postures

Residual Schizophrenia

A person is no longer delusion or hallucination, but has no motivation or interest in life. These symptoms can be most devastating .

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Delusions

Hallucinations

Incoherent speech or speech that quickly switches topics with little continuity

Problems in their behavior, such as inexplicable agitation or silliness, to catatonic behavior.

Negative symptoms characterized by a lack of any emotional expression and/or lack of purposeful activity.

Delusions

Fixed beliefs that don't change, even when the person is given evidence their beliefs are not based in reality. People can have a variety of delusions ranging from persecutory, referential, grandiose erotomanic, nihilistic, and somatic. Delusions may also be considered bizarre is they have no connection to reality in the same kind of culture the person was raised in.

Hallucinations

Experiencing something in one's perception, but without the necessary external stimuli being available - like seeing something that isn't really there. These unreal perceptions can occur in any of a person's senses, but most often occur as auditory hallucinations.

Schizophrenia Treatment

There are many successful treatments available for schizophrenia, focusing on a set of antipsychotic medications and finding the right ones with the right balance.

In addition to medications, many people with schizophrenia also benefit from some form of psychotherapy or social support treatments.

Types of Medications

Traditional antipsychotics - block dopamine receptors and effectively control hallucinations, delusions, and confusion of schizophrenia. These include:

Chlorpromazine

Haloperidol

Fluphenazine

Side effects

Short term: dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, drowsiness, and dizziness.

Serious side effects: trouble with muscle control, muscle spasms or cramps in the head and neck, fidgeting, tremors etc.

Atypical antipsychotics - work on both serotonin and dopamine receptors, and consequently might treat positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. These include

Quetiapine

Risperidone

Olanzapine

Psychotherapy for Schizophrenia

Psychotherapy: psychotherapy can help a person continue treatment, learn essential social skills, and maintain their weekly goals and activities. It can also help with performing daily activities, such as cooking and personal grooming as well as communicating with loved ones and coworkers. Types therapy:

Group Therapy

Family Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy

Assertive community treatment

Cognitive remediation

Cognitive adaptation

Bipolar Disorder

Also known in some parts of the world as "manic depression", is a mental disorder that is characterized by serious and significant mood swings. A person with this condition experiences alternating highs (mania) and low(depression).

4 categories of Bipolar

There are 4 major categories of bipolar disorder; bipolar I, bipolar II disorder, cyclothymic disorder, and bipolar disorder due to another medical or substance abuse disorder.

A Manic episode (Bipolar I)

is characterized by extreme happiness, extreme irritability, hyperactivity, little need for sleep and/or racing thoughts, which may lead to rapid speech.

People in a manic episode feel like they can do anything, make plans and try and do all those things, and believe that nothing can stop them.

Must have lasted a week and represents a noticeable change from a person's usual behavior.

A hypomanic episode (Bipolar II)

is characterized by the same symptoms as a manic episode, except the symptoms need to only have been present for at least four days

A depressive episode

characterized by extreme sadness, a lack of energy or interest in things, an inability to enjoy normally pleasurable activities and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

May have up to three years of normal mood between episodes of mania or depression

Treatment for Bipolar Disorder

Today, this condition can be treated with psychotherapy combined with psychiatric medications (most people benefit more quickly from combined treatment of he two)

Treatment for this disorder is generally effective and helps most people keep a blanched mood through the day.

Medications for Bipolar Disorder

You might start with one of these first line medications, which include mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics

Lithium

Quetiapine

Divalproex

Asenapine

Aripiprazole

Paliperidone

Risperidone

Cariprazine

If these don't work, the doctor will move on to combinational therapy with these first-line agents

Either lithium or divalproex and quetiapine, aripiprazole, risperidone, or asenapine.

Depression

A group of conditions associated with the elevation or lowering of a person's mood, such as depression or bipolar disorder.

Clinical depression goes by many names, such as "the blues", biological or clinical depression, and a major depressive episode.

But all of these names refer to the same thing; feeling sad and depressed for weeks or months on end - not just a passing blue mood of a day or two.

The feeling is most often accompanied by a sense of hopelessness, a lack of energy (feeling weighed down), and taking little or no pleasure in things that once gave a person joy in the past.

Major Depressive Disorder:

Overwhelming depressed mood for more than two weeks. Affects all facets of the person's life; work, homelife, relationships, and friendships. Find it difficult to get motivated, so even seeking treatment for this condition can be challenging.

Dysthymia

Symptoms occur over a much longer period of time - more than 2 years. Considered a chronic form of depression treatment can be challenging as an individual with dysthymia has often tried all manner of treatment over the course of many years.

Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood

Condition is diagnosed when a person is adjusting to some new facet or change in their lives that has caused a great deal of stress. Can also be diagnosed when a person is experiencing a good event in their life.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Suffer the symptoms of a Major Depressive Disorder only during a specific time of year, usually winter. This appears to be related to the shooter days in winter, and the lack of sunlight in many parts of the country.

Postpartum Depression:

Hormonal changes in a woman's body may trigger symptoms of depression.

Causes of Most Mental Disorders

Genetics

Neurobiological makeup

Gut bacteria

Family history

Personality and psychological factors

Environment

Social factors growing up

Depression Treatment:

Depression can be readily treated with short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy and modern antidepressant medications. For most, a combination of the two works best and is usually what is recommended.

Psychotherapy approaches scientifically proven to work with depression include cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, and psychodynamic therapy.

Medications for Depression

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are frequently prescribed for depression:

Prozac (fluoxetine)

Paxil (paroxetine)

Zoloft (sertraline)

Luvox (fluvoxamine)

SSRI's work on increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain.

Atypical antidepressants are often prescribed when a person hasn't improved with a common SSRI:

Nefazodone (Serzone)

Trazodone (Desyrel)

Bupropion (Wellbutrin)

A doctor also might prescribe an atypical antipsychotic to boost the effectiveness of your antidepressant:

Aripiprazole (abilify)

Quetiapine XR (Seroquel XR)

Olanzapine-fluoxetine (Symbyax)

Other medication that are used to augment the effectiveness of an antidepressant are the moddstabalizer:

Lithium

Thyroid hormones

Anxiety

A set of related mental conditions that include: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, and simple phobias.

Generalized Anxiety disorder

It's chronic and exaggerated worry and tension, even though nothing seems to provoke it. Having this disorder means always anticipating disaster, often worrying excessively about health, money, family, or work. Sometimes the source of the worry is hard to pinpoint.

Panic Disorder

Have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly most often with no warning. The frequency and severity of panic symptoms can vary widely. A person with this condition usually can't predict when an attack will occur and so many develop intense anxiety between episodes, worrying when and where the next one will strike. Between panic attacks there is a persistent, lingering worry that another one could come at any minute.

Agoraphobia

Severe anxiety and fear about being in or anticipating certain situations. These situations include things like being in a place where escape might be difficult or impossible, or in which help may not be available in the event of having a panic attack.

Social Anxiety

Is an intense fear of becoming extremely anxious and possibly humiliated in social situations - specifically of embarrassing yourself in front of other people.

Specific Phobia

Intense, irrational fears of certain things or situations. Phobias aren't just extreme fear, there are irrational fear.

Symptoms for Anxiety

Muscle tension

Physical weakness

Poor memory

Sweaty hands

Fear or confusion

Inability to relax

Constant worry

Shortness of breath

Palpitations

Upset stomach

Poor concentration.

Anxiety Treatment

Focuses on a two-pronged approach for most people, that focuses on using psychotherapy combined with occasional use of anti-anxiety medications on an as-needed basis.

Most types of anxiety can be successfully treated with psychotherapy alone - cognitive behavioral and behavioral techniques have been shown to be very effective.

Anti-anxiety medications tend to be fast-acting and have a short life, meaning they leave a person's system fairly quickly compared to other psychiatric medications, which can take weeks or even months to completely leave.

Anxiety Medications

SSRI's

Citalopram (celexa)

Escitalopram (Lexapro)

Fluoxetine (Prozac

fluvoxamine (Luvox)

paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva)

sertraline (Zoloft)

Serotonin -norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors:

duloxetine (Cymbalta)

venlafaxine (Effexor XR)

Tricyclic antidepressants;

amitriptyline (Elavil)

imipramine (Tofranil)

nortriptyline (Pamelor)

Benzodiazepines:

alprazolam (Xanax)

chlordiazepoxide (Librium)

diazepam (Valium)

lorazepam (Ativan)

Other:

Beta-blockers

Buspirone

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors:

isocarboxazid (Marplan)

phenelzine (Nardil)

selegiline (Emsam)

tranylcypromine (Parnate)

OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

Is a mental disorder whose main symptoms include obsessions and compulsions, driving the person to engage in unwanted, oftentimes distress behaviors or thoughts, it is treated through a combination of psychiatric medications and psychotherapy.

OCD symptoms

OCD is characterized by a combinations of obsessions and or/compulsions in most people

Obsessions are persistent thoughts or urges that a person experiences that are strange, intrusive, and not wanted.

And obsession isn't simply worrying about something a lot - it is overwhelming and stant.

Attempts to stop the thoughts are usually unsuccessful. Some people only put the thought to bed is to engage in a compulsion.

A compulsion is a repetitie kind of behavior - like counting or hand-washing - that a person feels like they must perform in order to prevent something bad from happening, or to stop an obsessive thought.

The compulsions are aimed at reducing anxiety and the associated feelings of distress that accompany obsessions.

Treatment for OCD

include a comprehensive treatment plan that focuses on weekly individual psychotherapy, along with certain types of psychiatric medications.

Specific types of therapy used to treat this condition include cognitive-behavioral and behavioral techniques, such as Exposure and Response Prevention therapy.

Medications for OCD

Your doctor might prescribe one of those SSRIs or escitalopram or citalopram, which haven't been FDA-approved but also are effective in reducing OCD symptoms.

fluoxetine (Prozac)

fluvoxamine (Luvox)

paroxetine (Paxil)

sertraline (Zoloft).

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Is a debilitating mental disorder that can occur when a person has either directly experienced or simply witnessed an extremely traumatic, tragic, or terrifying event. People with PTSD usually have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to

Symptoms of PTSD

PTSD involves five main components: experiencing a traumatic event, re-experiencing the event, engaging in avoidance, suffering from these experiences, and an increase in arousal symptoms ( feeling on edge all the time).

PTSD involves a constant re-experiencing of the event, or intrusive thoughts or memories of the event. Many people with this condition experience nightmares and flashbacks of the event. They will often be more emotional or upset upon the anniversary of the event, or being reminded of it.

People diagnosed with PTSD also engaged in avoidance of any types of feelings, people, or situations associated with the traumatic event. They experience significant problems in their everyday life due to these symptoms such as having problems with remembering things, having a distorted sense of blame, being stuck in a cycle of negative emotions, and feeling detached, disconnected or isolated from others.

Criterions for PTSD

Criterion A: Traumatic event

Trauma survivors must have been exposed to actual or threatened:

Death

Serious injury

Sexual violence

The exposure can be:

Direct

Witnessed

Indirect, by hearing of relative or close friend who has experienced the event - indirectly experienced death must by accidental or violent

Repeated or extreme in direct exposure to qualifying events, usually by professionals - non professional exposure by media does not count.

Criterion B: Intrusion of Re-experiencing

These symptoms envelope ways that some e-experiences the events. This could look like:

Intrusive thoughts or memories

Nightmares of distressing dreams related to the traumatic events

Flashbacks, feeling like the events is happening again

Psychological and physical reactivity to reminders of the traumatic event tusch as an anniversary.

Criterion C: Avoidant symptoms

Avoidant symptoms describe ways that someone may try to avoid any memory of the event, and must include one of the following:

Avoiding thoughts or feelings connected to the traumatic event

Avoiding people or situations connected to the traumatic event.

Criterion D: Negative alterations in mood or thoughts

This criterion is new, but captures many symptoms that have long been observed by PTSD sufferers and clinicians. Basically there is a decline in someone's mood or thought patterns, which can include

Memory problems that are exclusive to the event

Negative thoughts or beliefs about one's self or the world

Distorted sense of blame for one's self or others, related to the event

Being stuck in severe emotions related to the trauma

Severely reduced interest in pre-trauma activities

Feeling detached, isolated or disconnected from other people.

Criterion E: Increased arousal symptoms:

Increased arousal symptoms are used to describe the ways that the brain remains "on edge," wary and

Causes of PSTD

experiencing a significant childhood loss

having poor self-esteem

experiencing previous trauma

experiencing previous abusive or traumatic situations that couldn't be escaped or left

having previous mental health concerns or a history of mental illness in the family

or having a history of substance abuse

Treatment for PTSD

PTSD can be successfully treated, usually with a combination of psychotherapy and medications (for specific symptom relief...the common accompanying depressive feelings etc.).

Most treatment for PTSD is focused on a type of psychotherapy called Trauma therapy. Trauma therapy is typically divided into three primary phases: safety, reviewing trauma memories, and helping the person integrate their new skills and knowledge into their everyday life. This can be done through a combination of exposure, relaxation techniques, EMDR, and body work (or somatic therapies)

Some people also benefit from group therapy, or attending a regular support group. In most cases, the symptoms associated with this condition decrease over time with treatment. Depending upon the severity of the symptoms, many people will enjoy symptom relief within a few months and significant recovery within a year or two.

Medications for PTSD

Medications:

SSRI's

fluoxetine (Prozac)

paroxetine (Paxil)

sertraline (Zoloft)

and the selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) venlafaxine (Effexor)

Personality Disorder

A personality disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from the norm of the individual's culture. The pattern is seen in two or more of the following areas: cognition; affect; interpersonal functioning; or impulse control. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations. It typically leads to significant distress or impairment in social, work, or other areas of functioning. The pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be traced back to early adulthood or adolescence.

Antisocial Personality Disorder:

Someone with antisocial personality disorder has a reckless disregard for others and often for themself (most people with antisocial personality disorder are male). They don't want to conform to social norms and willfully destroy property, stel or manipulate others for personal profit, or overindulge in pleasure-seeking behavior.

A person with ASPD may often be arrogant, even cocky Yet someone with ASPD can be charming while manipulating others for his own gain. He has little concern about his current problems and certainly not for the future.

The guiltless pattern of social irresponsibility demonstrated by someone with antisocial personality begins in childhood or adolescence.

Avoidant Personality disorder

People with avoidant disorder experience long-standing feelings of inadequacy and are extremely sensitive to what others think about them. These feelings of inadequacy lead the person to be socially inhibited and feel socially inept. Because of these feelings of inadequacy and inhibition, the person with avoidant personality disorder will regularly seek to avoid work, school, and any activities that involve socializing or interacting with others.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Characterized by a recurring, long-standing pattern of having unstable relationships with others - whether they be romantic relationships, friendships, children, or relationships with family members. The condition is marked by an effort to avoid abandonment, and impulsivity in decision-making.

The term "borderline" means in-between one thing and another. Originally, this term was used when the clinician was unsure of the correct diagnosis because the client manifested a mixture of neurotic and psychotic symptoms.

People with borderline personality disorder often swing from one emotion to another easily and quickly, and their self-image changes just as often.

Dependent Personality Disorder

Characterized by a long-standing need for the person to be taken care of by others in their life, especially specific people they have identified as being the most important to them. Some people characterize people with this disorder as seeming to be clingy because they have trouble letting go of others.

The trouble appears to be the result of a fear of abandonment or long separation from others.

A person with DPD believes they can't live without certain other people in their life.

This leads the person to engage in dependent and submissive behaviors that are designed to elicit care-giving behaviors.

People with DPD often seem doubtful of their own abilities and skills, and generally see themselves as worthless or of little value to others

Decisions may be difficult for a person with dependent personality disorder, and they may limit their social interactions with others to just those few they feel most dependent on.

People with DPD are anxious and insecure when they are not with a person who will support them, make decisions for them and generally take care of them.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Characterized by a long-standing pattern of attention seeking behavior and extreme emotionality. Someone with histrionic personality disorder wants to be the center of attention in any group of people, and they feel uncomfortable when they're not. While often lively, interesting, and sometimes dramatic, they have difficulty when people aren't focused exclusively on them. People with this disorder may be perceived as being shallow, and may engage in sexually seductive or provocative behavior to draw attention to themselves.

Individuals with histrionic personality disorder may have difficulty achieving emotional intimacy in romantic relationships.

Without being aware of it, they often act out a rule in their relationships to others. They may seek to control their partner through emotional manipulation of seductiveness on one level, yet displaying a marked dependency on them at another level.

People with HPD may crave novelty, stimulation, and excitement and have a tendency to become bored with their usual routine. These individuals are often intolerant of, or frustrated by, situations that involve delayed gratification and their actions are often directed as obtained immediate satisfaction.

Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder:

Is characterized by having two or more distinct people, each with his or her own identity and personality, that alternately take control over a person. It is thought this disorder may be cuased by truama from a person's childhood, such as ongoing physical abused, sexual assault, and/or emotional abuse.

The person also experiences severe memory loss that cannot be explained by ordinary forgetfulness

Dissociation helps a person leave the traumatic situation. While all people do that when they daydream, this disorder takes it to another level where the dissociations become real and the person begins to mold themselves into another identity entirely.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

Characterized by a long-standing pattern of grandiosity (either in fantasy or behavior), and overwhelming need or admiration, and usually a complete lack of empathy toward others. People with this disorder often believe they are of primary importance in everybody's life - and to anyone they meet.

They often display snobbish, disdainful, or patronizing attitudes.

For example, an individual with this disorder may complain about a clumsy waiter's "rudeness" or "stupidity," or conclude a medical evaluation with a condescending evaluation of the physician.

A personality disorder is an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from the norm of the individual's culture. The pattern is seen in two or more of the following areas: cognition; affect; interpersonal functioning; or impulse control. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.

Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder:

Characterized by a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, and the expense of flexibility, openneses, and efficiency.

People with OCPD may have such difficulty deciding which tasks take priority or what is the best way of doing some particular task that they may never get started doing anything.

They are prone to become upset or angry in situations in which they are not able to maintain control of their physical or interpersonal environment, although the anger is typically not expressed directly.

People with this disorder may be especially attentive to their relative status in dominance-submission relationships and may display excessive deference to an authority they respect and excessive resistance to authority that they do not respect.

Individuals with this disorder usually express affection in a highly-controlled or stilted fashion and may be very uncomfortable in the presence of others who are emotionally expressive.

Paranoid Personality Disorder:

Characterized by having a long-standing pattern of pervasive distrust and suspiciousness of others. A person with PPD will nearly always believe that other people's motives are suspect or even malevolent

They will assume that other people will exploit, harm, or deceive them, even if no evidence exists to support this expectation.

Their excessive suspiciousness and hostility may be expressed in overt argumentativeness, in recurrent complaining, or by quiet, apparently hostile aloofness.

Because they are hypervigilant for potential threats, they may act in a guarded, secretive, or devious manner and appear to be "cold" and lacking in tender feelings.

Because individuals with paranoid personality disorder lack trust in others, they have an excessive need to be self-sufficient and a strong sense of autonomy.

Schizoid Personality Disorder:

Characterized by a long-standing pattern of detachment from social relationships. A person with SPD often has difficulty expressing emotions and does so typically in very restricted range, especially when communicating with others.

People with this disorder may appear to lack a desire for intimacy, and will avid close relationships with others. They may often prefer to spend time with themselves rather than socialize or be in a group of people

Individuals with schizoid personality disorder may have particular difficulty expressing anger, even in response to direct provocation, which contributes to the impression that they lack emotion.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder:

Characterized by someone who has great difficulty in establishing and maintaining close relationships with others. A person with SPD may have extreme discomfort with such relationships, and therefore have less of a capacity for them. Someone with this disorder usually has cognitive or perceptual distortions as well as eccentricities in their everyday behavior.

Often have ideas of reference (they have incorrect interpretations of casual incidents and external events as having a particular and unusual meaning specifically for the person).

People with this disorder may be unusually superstitious or preoccupied with paranormal phenomena that are outside the norms of their subculture.

Those with this disorder often seek treatment for the associated symptoms of anxiety, depression, or other dysphoric effects rather than for the personality disorder features per se.

Depersonalization:

The person has persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from one's surroundings, mental processes, or body (feeling like one is in a dream, or as if one is looking at themselves as an outside observer).

In the case of depersonalization, the individual may feel detached from his or her entire being (e.g., "I am no one," "I have no self").

He or she may also feel subjectively detached from aspects of the self, including feelings (e.g., hypoemotionality: "I know I have feelings but I don't feel them")

thoughts (e.g., "My thoughts don't feel like my own," "head filled with cotton")

whole body or body parts, or sensations (e.g., touch, proprioception, hunger, thirst, libido).

There may also be a diminished sense of agency (e.g., feeling robotic, like an automaton; lacking control of one's speech or movements).

Episodes of derealization are characterized by a feeling of unreality or detachment from, or unfamiliarity with, the world, be it individuals, inanimate objects, or all surroundings

Dissociative Amnesia:

Is one or more episodes of inability to recall important information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is too expensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of dissociative identity disorder, dissociative fugue, posttraumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder, or somatization disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a neurological or other general medical condition (e.g., amnestic disorder due to head trauma).

Dissociative Fugue:

One or more episodes of amnesia in which an individual cannot recall some or all of his or her past. Either the loss of one's identity or the formation of a new identity may occur with sudden, expected, purposeful travel away from home.

The predominant disturbance is sudden, unexpected travel away from home or one's customary place of work, with inability to recall one's past.

Confusion about personal identity or assumption of a new identity (partial or complete).

The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of dissociative identity disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy).

Dissociative Disorder: Not Otherwise Specified

A dissociative disorder NOS (not otherwise specified) is a disorder that includes a dissociative symptom (i.e., a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment) that does not meet the criteria for any specific dissociative disorder. "Not otherwise specified" disorders are those that don't fit into any existing diagnostic categories and are generally rare.

Anorexia Nervosa;

People who intentionally starve themselves, even though they terribly suffer from hunger pains.

Characterized by thor refusal to maintain a body weight which is consistent with their build, age, and height. The minimum level of severity is based, for adults, on current body mass index (BMI or, for children and adolescents, on BMI percentile.

The individual usually experiences an intense and overwhelming fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. The fear, regardless of the person's actual weight, will often continue even when the person is near death from starvation. It is related to a person's poor self image, which is also a symptom of this disorder.

Types of anorexia nervosa:

Restricting type - The person restricts their food intake on their own and does engage in binge-eating or purging behavior.

Binge eating/purging type - The person self-induced vomiting or misuses laxatives, diuretics or enemas.

Binge Eating Disorder:

Characterized by episodes of binge eating - eating qan amount of food that is larger than what most people would eat, and a sense of locking any control over eating during the episode. People who engage in binge eating are uncomfortable and distressed by their behavior.

People with binge eating disorder feel both emotionally and physically out of control of their eating. Consequently, remorse and emotional anguish are common. Unlike the patient with bulimia, the binge eater does not compensate after a binge by overexercising, vomiting or fasting.

Treatment of binge eating disorder (BED) nearly always involves some type of psychotherapy, as well as medication. Some medications have been found to be especially helpful with certain eating disorders.

Bulimia Nervosa

People who consume large amounts of food and then rid their bodies of excess calories by vomiting, abusing laxatives or diuretics, taking enemas ,or exercising obsessively. Some use a combination of all these forms of purging. Because many individuals with bulimia binge and purge in secret and maintain normal or above normal body weight, they can often successfully hide their problem from others for years.

Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat during a similar period of time and under similar circumstances

A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating)

Pica:

Is an eating disorder that involves a person eating things that they really shouldn't be eating. Typical non food things that a person might eat when diagnosed with pica include; wool, talcum powder, paint, cloth, or clothing, hair, dirt or pebbles etc.

Cognitive explanation for depression:

result of a combination of negative thoughts about the self, the world, and the future

learning explanation for depression

reduction in positive enforcement or increase in negative outcomes

Social explanation for depression

feelings of sadness and loneliness

biological explanation for depression

heritability is 40%; certain genes affecting serotonin levels

diathesis-stress model

suggests that biological vulnerabilities for a disorder interact with a person's experience of stress

anhedonia

lack of interest in activities that previously provided pleasure

_____ % is the Percentage of children diagnosed with ADHD

11

the causes of _______ are genetic (heritability 70%) and environmental facotors

ADHD

schizophrenia affects what percentage of the population?

1%

positive symptoms

behaviors found in patients with schizophrenia but not in normal people (ex: hallucinations, delusions)

negative symptoms

behaviors found in normal people but not in schizophrenics (ex: avolition, flat affect)

sources of causality

strong genetic vulnerability (50% concordance rate in twins); environmental factors (birth month, stress)

abnormalities in what neurotransmitter, are associated with schizophrenia?

Dopamine

abnormalities in what brain area is associated with schizophrenia?

enlarged ventricles

_____ % of the adult population is affected by bipolar disorder

2.6%

what gender is most affected by bipolar disorder?

female

concordance rates for bipolar disorder in twins is as high as ____%

70%

____ % of the population is affected by MDD (Major Depressive Disorder)

7