Disorders & Treatments

Vocabulary-based flashcards covering psychological disorders, historical views, treatments, and biological/cognitive models as discussed in Chapters 15 and 16.

Mental Disorder

A condition characterized by being statistically rare, causing subjective distress, impairing day-to-day functioning, societal disapproval, and biological dysfunction in the brain and genes.

Demonic Model

A historical view of mental illness attributing it to evil spirits in the body, which were treated via exorcism or trepanning.

Medical Model

A perspective viewing mental illness as a physical disorder requiring medical treatment.

Moral Treatment

An early psychological approach to treating mental illness with dignity and kindness.

Bloodletting

An early medical treatment where physicians drained approximately $40\%$ of a patient's total blood ($4$ lbs) under the belief that excessive blood caused mental illness.

Chlorpromazine (Thorazine)

The first psychiatric medication, introduced in the $1950s$, which relieved patients suffering from a loss of contact with reality.

Deinstitutionalization

A movement in the $1960s$ to $1970s$ where mental hospitals closed down and patients were released into the community.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

A book that classifies disorders and describes symptoms without explaining causes or cures.

Anxiety Disorders

The most prevalent of all disorders, affecting $29\%$ of the population.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A condition involving continual worry, physical tension, and irritability across many areas of life, where sufferers spend about $60\%$ of their day worrying.

Panic Disorder

A condition characterized by repeated and unexpected panic attacks, persistent concerns about future attacks, and major behavioral changes to avoid them.

Phobia

An intense fear of an object or situation that is out of proportion to the actual threat and restricts one's life or creates distress.

Agoraphobia

The fear of being in a place or situation in which escape is difficult or embarrassing, or where help is unavailable in the event of a panic attack.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

An emotional disturbance following a severely stressful event, characterized by flashbacks, recurrent dreams, avoidance, and sleep difficulties.

Obsessions

In OCD, persistent, unwanted, and inappropriate ideas, thoughts, or impulses that cause marked distress.

Compulsions

In OCD, repetitive behaviors or mental acts undertaken to reduce distress or relieve shame and guilt.

Systematic Desensitization

A behavior therapy for phobias that reduces fear by gradually exposing people to the object under controlled conditions.

Flooding

A behavior therapy involving sudden and large-scale exposure to a feared object until anxiety dissipates.

Benzodiazepines

A class of drugs that acts as a GABA agonist, often prescribed for anxiety though symptoms are suppressed only temporarily and can be addictive.

Response Prevention

A technique in exposure therapy where the therapist prevents a client from performing their typical ritual behaviors.

Major Depressive Disorder

A mood disorder characterized by at least five symptoms (including depressed mood or loss of interest) lasting at least two weeks, often recurrent or chronic.

Dysthymic Disorder

A low-level depression characterized by feeling sad, inadequate, or hopeless that lasts for at least $2$ years.

Learned Helplessness

A state where individuals learn to give up after repeated experiences where they lacked control, interfering with their ability to take action.

The Cognitive Triad

A model of depression consisting of negative beliefs about the self, the world, and the future.

Bipolar Disorder

A disorder characterized by at least one manic episode, often alternating with major depressive episodes.

Mood Stabilizers

Pharmacological treatments for Bipolar Disorder, such as Lithium.

Personality Disorders

Disorders involving inflexible and stable personality traits that appear in adolescence and lead to distress or impairment.

Borderline Personality Disorder

A condition characterized by extreme instability in mood, identity, and impulse control.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A condition marked by a disregard for the rights of others and a lack of conscience, often associated with psychopathy.

Dissociative Fugue

A dissociative disorder where an individual forgets their identity and may flee their home environment.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

A disorder characterized by the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states, known as alters.

Posttraumatic Model

An explanation for DID suggesting that severe abuse leads individuals to compartmentalize their identity into alters to cope with pain.

Sociocognitive Model

An explanation for DID suggesting that patients' symptoms are shaped by psychotherapeutic procedures like hypnosis and cultural influences.

Schizophrenia

A severe disorder of thought and emotion involving a loss of contact with reality, often associated with enlarged brain ventricles and dopamine receptor sensitivity.

Delusions

Strongly held fixed beliefs that have no basis in reality.

Hallucinations

Sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of an external stimulus, with auditory being the most common.

Word Salad

A symptom of disorganized speech in schizophrenia where language is so jumbled it is impossible to understand.

Diathesis Stress Model

A model suggesting that psychopathology results from a combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental stress.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

A treatment involving brief electrical pulses to the brain to produce a seizure, used as a last resort for severe depression.

Prefrontal Lobotomy

A historical psychosurgery where fibers connecting the frontal lobes to the rest of the brain were severed; a notable case is Rose Kennedy.