Characteristics of MH conditions

Behavioural, cognitive and emotional

behavioural: how the person is behaving or acting

Cognitive: how the persons thoughts and mental processes

Emotional: how the person feels within

phobias

• characterised by uncontrollable, extreme, irrational and enduring fears

• Out of proportion to any actual risk

• Often originate in childhood

Types of phobias

specific phobia - fear of specific things

Social phobia - overly anxious in social situations

Agoraphobia - fear of leaving home or sage space

phobia behaviour characteristics

panic behaviour: crying, screaming, fainting

Avoidance: putting effort to avoid phobia

Endurance: remaining in presence of phobia stimulus, often frozen

Phobia emotional characteristics

• in presence of stimulus will be feelings of anxiety, fear

• Likely to be persistent, out of proportion of actual danger

Phobia cognitive characteristics

• irrational thinking, aware their thoughts are unreasonable

Depression

• mood disorder involving length disruption of emotions

• At least 5 symptoms need to be apparent for every day for 2 weeks to be diagnosed by a doctor

Unipolar

• major depression

• Symptoms can range from mild to severe

• Women favour twice as likely as men to experience unipolar

Bipolar

• manic depression

• Characterised by mixed episodes of mania and depression

Types of depression

1. Major depression

2. Persistent depressive disorder

3. Psychotic depression

4. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder

5. Depression and childbirth

Major depression disorder

• most common and frequently diagnosed

• Symptoms need to last longer than tw weeks

• Typically short-term

Persistent depressive disorder

long-term or recurring depression

psychotic depression

Often experience with paranoia, hallucinations or general psychotic episode

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder

disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation

depression and childbirth

depression during pregnancy, depression in year after childbirth

OCD

• characterised by having persistent and intrusive thoughts that present as obsessions, compulsions or both

• About 1.5% of population has OCD

Obsessions

things you think about which leads to extreme anxiety

• internal component of cognition

compulsions

what is done as result of the obsession

• external behaviour

Common obsession include:

• contamination, eg. Germs

• Fear of losing control

• Perfectionisms

• Religion-related

Common compulsions include

• excessive washing and cleaning

• Excessive checking

• Repetition

• Mental compulsions

• Hoarding

OCD behavioural characteristics

Repetitive: repeat behaviours of thoughts

Hinder everyday functioning

Compulsions to reduce anxiety

emotional characteristics

• extreme anxiety

• Distress

• Guilt

• Co-morbid with depression

OCD cognitive characteristics

Persistent and intrusive thoughts

Hyper vigilance

Realisation of inappropriateness

Rosenhan Aim

to test the hypothesis that psychiatrist cannot reliably tell the difference between people who are sane and insane

Rosenhan procedure

• recruited 8 people with no history of mental illness to go to a psychiatric and report q symptom

• A voice saying things like ‘thud’, ‘empty’, ‘hollow’

• Once admitted they acted normally

Rosenhan results

• individuals stayed in institution between 7-52 days (avg 19)

• Psycharfitrists didn’t know they were faking

Follow up study

Rosenhan told hospitals about his results and told them to expect others trying to get themselves committed (he did not send anyone)

follow up study results

• 41 patients were suspected of being fakes, 19 of these had been diagnosed by a member of staff