Psychological Disorders and Treatment Approaches

Concept that diseases, particularly psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and cured, often through treatment in a hospital.
May involve treatment in a psychiatric hospital.
Suggests issues with neurotransmitters associated with disorders.
Emphasizes a biological and medical perspective, asserting that many genes collectively influence brain and biochemical abnormalities that contribute to major psychological disorders.

A method emphasizing the interplay of biological, psychological, and sociocultural influences on psychological disorders.
Posits that the mind and body are inseparable.

Concept stating that genetic predispositions interact with environmental stressors to influence the development of psychological disorders.

Provides a standardization of symptoms for psychological disorders.
Cons:
- Labels can be subjective or represent value judgments posing as scientific data.
- Labels can alter reality by priming individuals to confirm their expectations.

An anxiety disorder characterized by sudden episodes of intense dread.
Symptoms include terror and anxiety-related sensations like chest pain and feelings of choking.
Episodes usually last for minutes and are often followed by worries of having another attack, causing individuals to develop a fear of fear itself.

Marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.
Agoraphobia: Fear of situations where escape may be difficult.
Common specific phobias:
- Acrophobia: Fear of heights
- Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders

Suggests that humans are biologically predisposed to fear specific threats faced by our ancestors (e.g., spiders, snakes).
Anxiety is generally a response to anticipated future loss, while depression is an often reactive response to past and current stressors.

Group of disorders defined by persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness, irritability, and cognitive or physical changes impacting functionality.
Major Depressive Disorder:
- Diagnosis requires 5 or more symptoms lasting at least 2 weeks without substance use.
- Symptoms include depressed mood and loss of interest in pleasurable activities.
Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia):
- Customer experiences a depressed mood more often than not for at least 2 years.
- Main difference between the two disorders is duration.

Bipolar I:
- Most severe form, marked by episodes of mania (euphoria, excessive talkativeness, high energy) lasting a week or longer.
Bipolar II:
- Less severe; involves cycles of depression and milder forms of mania (hypomania).
Major depressive episodes can naturally resolve, but therapy is effective in speeding recovery.
In depression, serotonin levels are often found to be scarce or inactive.

This perspective explores how individuals' assumptions and expectations shape their perceptions and experiences.
Many individuals suffering from depression hold intensely negative self-views, beliefs about their situations, and pessimistic outlooks on their futures.
Both self-defeating beliefs and a negative explanatory style contribute to the perpetuation of depression.

Positive Symptoms:
- Presence of inappropriate or disorganized behavior, including disorganized speech.
Negative Symptoms:
- Absence of appropriate behavior, such as affecting a flat emotional state, expressionless faces, and mutism.
Hallucinations:
- Perceptions of stimuli (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory) that do not exist.
- These are positive symptoms.
Delusions:
- Characterized by disorganized, fragmented thoughts often influenced by false beliefs.

Possible influences on schizophrenia include prenatal factors, such as viral infections during mid-pregnancy that impair fetal brain development.

Defined by a disconnection of a person's consciousness from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings.
Example: A Vietnam War veteran experiences amnesia and dissociation after trauma, being discovered in a homeless shelter.
Dissociative Identity Disorder:
- Involves a person exhibiting two or more distinct identities or personality states, leading to a dissociated self from ordinary consciousness.

Characterized by a disregard for others' rights, impulsivity, and criminal behaviors.
Antisocial:
- Refers to behaviors that are harmful and remorseless rather than simply being unsociable.

Anorexia Nervosa:
- Characterized by extreme weight loss, prevalent among female adolescents, involving excessive exercise and an intense fear of gaining weight.
Bulimia Nervosa:
- Involves cycles of binge eating alternated with compensatory behaviors (e.g., excessive exercise), leading to significant weight fluctuations.
Binge Eating Disorder:
- Defined by episodes of binge eating without compensatory weight-loss behaviors.
Variations in family environments and levels of body satisfaction can influence the development of these disorders.

Characterized by impaired theory of mind, including difficulties in understanding body language and the intuitive capacity to infer others' thoughts.

Focuses on releasing pent-up energies involved in id, ego, and superego conflicts, with an understanding that individuals may have unconscious, repressed aspects of themselves.
Patients engage in free associations, explore resistances, and interpret dreams to unearth repressed feelings and acquire insight.
Founded by Sigmund Freud, who highlighted the influence of childhood experiences on adult behavior, noting that mental blocks indicate resistance, drawing the analyst's attention.

Focuses on releasing pent-up energies involved in id, ego, and superego conflicts, with an understanding that individuals may have unconscious, repressed aspects of themselves.
We do not fully know ourselves, and there are threatening things we repress.
Patients engage in free associations, explore resistances, and interpret dreams to unearth repressed feelings allowing the patient to gain self insight.
Founded by Sigmund Freud, who emphasized the power of childhood experiences to mold adult behavior.
Mental blocks indicate resistance, which the analyst will note.
Humanistic therapies are part of the psychodynamic tradition.
Views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences and seeks to enhance self insight.
Aims to improve psychological functioning by increasing awareness of underlying motives and defenses.