Week 9 | Day 1 | PSYA02

Recall

Psychological Disorders: patterns of deviant and dysfunctional behaviours, thoughts, and/or feelings that cause significant distress, and may even be dangerous, and last for a specific amount of time

• Most DSM disorders have 3 diagnostic criteria in common:
  • Significant distress/affects functioning
  • Cannot be attributed to substance use or other medical conditions

Onset: the chronological age/situational period when the symptoms of a disorder first appear in an individual

• Eg. when does it usually start?

Prognosis: the likely course (i.e trajectory, development) of a disorder

• Eg. what will happen next? When will the disorder go into remission (symptoms improve/disappear)?

Risk Factors: a set of biological, psychological, and social characteristics that increase the likelihood of having the disorder

Etiology: the biological, psychological and/or social causes of a disorder

• Eg. what causes the disorder? What makes more individual more likely to have the disorder than another individual?

Comobiridies: other psychological or physical disorders that frequently co-occur with the disorder in question

• Eg. what other disorders often appear with this one?

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• To illustrate the DSM components, we’ll start by talking about one common type of mental illness:
  • Anxiety disorders
    • FEAR is immediate danger, ANXIETY is for the future
    • Some anxiety is ok, but anxiety that interferes with normal functions is bad and decreases our fitness for survival
    • Pathological anxiety is one anxiety disorder
      • 30% of people will experience one

Anxiety Disorders

• FEAR is immediate danger, ANXIETY is for the future
• Some anxiety is ok, but anxiety that interferes with normal functions is bad and decreases our fitness for survival
• Pathological anxiety is one anxiety disorder
  • 30% of people will experience one

3 main types:

1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
2. Phobic Disorders
3. Panic Disorder
4. Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): an anxiety disorder in which worries are not focused on any specific threat

Diagnostic criteria:

1. Excessive anxiety and worry, occurring more days than not for at least 6 months, about more than one event/stressor
2. The individual finds it difficult to control the worry
3. Three or more symptoms
   1. Restlessness
   2. Fatigue
   3. Concentration deficiency
   4. Irritability
   5. Muscle tension
   6. Sleep disturbance
4. The 3 diagnostic criteria for all psychological disorders

Onset:

• The onset of GAD rarely occurs prior to adolescence
• Median age for diagnosis is age 30
• Level of population/age group anxiety is constant throughout the lifespan
  • Eg. 30 year olds may have more stress than 60 year olds
  • Content of worry can change
    • Eg. 16 year olds would worry about grades but not 6 year olds

Prognosis:

• Full remission is rare

2. Phobic Disorder Types

• Disorder characterized by marked, persistent, excessive fear of specific objects, activities, or situations
• Fear of specific objects
• Person recognizes the irrationality of fear but cannot control it

Phobic Disorder Types:

• Animals
• Natural environments
• Situations
• Medical events

Social phobia: maladaptive fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed

Cause of Phobic Disorders:

Preparedness Theory: May be evolutionarily adapted to fear certain types of stimulus

• Evidence for this hypothesis comes from conditioning
• Monkeys can easily be conditioned to fear snakes, but not flowers
• Fears may be overdeveloped in some individuals

3. Panic Disorder

Panic disorder: sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physical symptoms typically associated with terror

• Many individuals experience panic even when not in danger

Symptoms:

• Shortness of breath
• Heart palpitations
• Sweating
• Dizziness
• Derealisation (feeling that the world is unreal)
• Fear of death/“losing one’s mind”
• Panic episodes pretty common
  • ⅓ Canadians experience 1+ per year
  • Usually during extreme stress
  • Occasional panic disorders are NOT sufficient for diagnosis
• To be diagnosed, individual must experience
  • Recurrent, unexpected atacks
  • Significant fear of another attack