Psych 201 Exam 6

Psychopathology

Scientific study of the origins, symptoms, and development of psychological disorders.

DSM-5-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

• Describes the specific symptoms and diagnostic guidelines for different psychological disorders.

• Identifies more than 260 specific psychological disorders.

• Includes symptoms, criteria that must be met to make a diagnosis, and typical course for each mental disorder.

• Offers a common language for diagnosing and studying mental disorders across various clinical settings.

Limitations to DSM-5-TR

• Some conditions are too typical to be considered disorders.

• Arbitrary cutoffs between people with and without particular disorder and between different diagnoses.

• Gender bias

• Possible bias from financial ties of many DSM-5-TR authors to pharmaceutical industry. 

Alternatives to DSM-5-TR

• Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) (NIMH)

• Identification of similar genetic risk factors and similar changes in the brain, general p factor.

• World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

Anxiety

An unpleasant emotional state characterized by physical arousal, feeling of tension, apprehension, and worry. Physically alert and mentally alert.

Anxiety Disorder

A category of psychological disorders in which extreme anxiety is the main diagnostic feature and causes significant disruptions in a person’s cognitive, behavioral, or interpersonal functioning. Irrational, uncontrollable, and disruptive.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive, global, and persistent symptoms of anxiety. When one source of worry is removed, another takes its place.

Panic Attack

Sudden episode of extreme anxiety that rapidly accelerates in intensity.

Panic Disorder

Anxiety disorder in which a person experiences frequent and unexpected panic attacks.

Agoraphobia

Anxiety disorder involving extreme fear of experiencing a panic attack, or other embarrassing or incapacitating symptoms in a public situation where escape is impossible, and help is unavailable.