Psychology Session 11 Psychological Disorders

Psychology

Session 11

Psychological Disorders

Date: November 18th, 2016

Course instructor: Cherry Chan

Mothercraft College

Agenda

1. Normal vs. Abnormal

2. Communication disorders

3. Anxiety disorders

4. Schizophrenia spectrum disorders

5. Mood disorders

6. Gender dysphoria

® Registered trade-mark of the Canadian Mothercraft Society


DSM-V • Diagnostic Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth

Edition (May 2013)

– The goal is to provide a clear diagnostic categories such that clinicians and researchers can agree on which disorder they are studying and treating

• Evaluate the primary clinical diagnosis and incorporate other considerations:

– Medical

– Social

– Environmental

(Wade, Tavris, Saucier, & Elias, 2014)


DSM-V: Definition of Abnormal

“ ‘Clinical significant disturbance’ in ‘cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior’ that indicate a ‘dysfunction’ in ‘mental functioning’ that are ‘usually associated with significant distress or disability’ in work, relationships, or other areas of functioning.”

(Pomerantz, 2014, p. 153-154)


Normal vs. Abnormal

• Culture

• Personal distress

• Maladaptive

• Danger to self and others

• Legality

(Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2017)


Causes of psychological disorders

• Biological: structural or biochemical abnormality in the brain

• Psychodynamic: early childhood experiences and unconscious conflicts

• Learning: abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are learned

• Cognitive perspective: negative thinking

• Humanistic: interruption towards self-actualization

(Wood et al., 2017)


Autism Spectrum Disorder

Definition:

A: Deficit in social communication and social interaction

1. Social-emotional reciprocity

2. Non-verbal communicative behaviors used for interaction

3. Developing and maintaining relationships

(APA, 2013)


Autism Spectrum Disorder Definition:

B: Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities (At least two of the following)

• Stereotyped or repetitive speech, motor movements, or use of objects

• Rigid adherence to routines or patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior

• Fixated interests

• Hyper – or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspect of environment

(APA, 2013)


Communication disorders

• Difficulty with verbal or nonverbal communication

• Not caused by low cognitive ability

• Includes:

– Language disorder

– Speech sound disorder

– Child-onset fluency disorder

– Social communication disorder

(APA, 2013)


Anxiety disorders


General anxiety disorder

• Uncontrollable, continuous worry that is accompanied by physical symptoms including irritability, tenseness, and restlessness

• Anxiety is not specific to one issue or event

• Worrying about a variety of everyday events for 6 months or more.

(Wade et al., 2014)


Panic Disorder • Person experience unpredictable attacks

characterized by anxiety, fear, or terror.

• Panic attacks (4 or more of the following):

– Pounding heart

– Sweating

– Shaking

– Feeling of unreality

– Fear of losing control

– Fear of dying

(Wood et al., 2017; APA, 2013)


Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Re-experiencing traumatic event (Intrusion symptom)

– Recurrent dreams, reliving the event

• Avoidance

– distressing memories, thoughts or feelings of the event

• Negative cognition and mood

– Blaming self or others, estrangement from others, diminished interest in activities

• Arousal – Aggressive or self-destructive behaviors, hypervigilance, sleep

disturbances

(APA, 2013)


Phobias

• Specific phobia: situations, natural environment, animals, blood-injection-injury

• Agoraphobia: fear of being in a situation where one cannot escape

• Social anxiety disorder: fear of social or performance situations

(Wood et al., 2017)


Obsessive compulsive disorder

• Obsession: persistent thoughts that one cannot control and cause distress

• Compulsion: persistent and irresistible urge to act on the obsession

• Symptoms of OCD in children include:

– Aggressive obsessions

– Superstitions

– Hoarding

– Ordering

– Somatic concerns

(Parritz & Troy, 2014; Wood et al., 2017)


Eating Disorders • Commonly diagnosed with depression

• Distorted body perceptions – Denial of seriousness of weight loss

– “I am fat”

• Compensatory behaviors – Excessive exercise

– Vomiting

– Use of laxatives

• Anorexia nervosa – Has restricting and binge eating/purging subtype

– Restriction of energy intake leading to severe weight loss

– Intense fear of gaining weight

– Distorted body perceptions

(APA, 2013; Parritz & Troy, 2014)


Eating Disorders • Bulimia nervosa

– Binge eating episode • Eat large amounts of food within 2 hour period

• Having a sense of lack of control over eating during the binge eating episode

– Engage in inappropriate compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain (at least once a week for 3 months)

• Binge eating disorder

– Reccuring binge eating episodes with 3 or more of: • Eating more quickly than usual

• Eating until feeling uncomfortably full

• Eating large amounts of food despite not feeling hunger

• Eating alone due to embarrassment

• Feeling disgusted with oneself or guilty

(APA, 2013)


Somatic Symptom and related disorders

• Physical symptoms are explained by psychological causes

• Individuals are concerned with their appearance or bodily functions

• Somatic symptom disorder: individuals who are concerned about their health and are experiencing physical symptoms

• Illness anxiety disorder: individuals with high health anxiety without physical symptoms

• Conversion disorder: loss of motor or sensory functioning

(Wood et al., 2014; APA 2013)


Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

• Usually begins in early adolescence or early adulthood

• Characteristics:

– Delusions and hallucinations

– Disorganized speech

– Disorganized behaviors

– Impaired cognitions

(Wood et al., 2017)


Positive vs. negative symptoms

• Positive symptoms: having thoughts and behaviors that are not characteristic of normal functioning

– Hallucinations

– Delusions

– Inappropriate affect

• Negative symptoms: loss of thoughts and behaviors that constitutes normal functioning

– Loss of motivation

– Apathy

(Wood et al., 2017)


Delusions vs. Hallucinations

• Delusions: false beliefs

– Delusions of grandeur: one’s belief that he/she is an important person

– Delusions of persecution: one’s belief that other people are after him/her

• Hallucinations: imaginary sensations

(Wood et al., 2017)


Mood disorders


Major Depressive Episode

• Two or more of the following symptoms

– Poor appetite or overeating

– Sleeping too little or too much

– Low energy levels

– Low self-esteem, feeling worthless

– Difficulty concentrating or making decisions

– Feelings of hopelessness

– Having thoughts of death

(APA, 2013; Oltmanns & Emery, 2014)


Manic Episode • Three or more symptoms:

– Racing thoughts

– Inflated self-esteem

– Decreased need for sleep

• Sleeping 3 hours or less but feel very rested

– Easily distracted

– Increased goal-directed activities

– Excessive involvement in high risk activities

• i.e. sexual activities, shopping sprees, business investments

(APA, 2013; Oltmanns & Emery, 2014)


Major depressive disorder

• Must have one of the two symptoms:

– Loss of ability to experience pleasure

– Depressed mood

• Persistent depressive disorder: depressed mood for a longer period of time (2 years or longer)

• Seasonal affective disorder: depressed mood varied by season

– Most commonly occurring in winter

(Oltmanns & Emery, 2014; Wood et al., 2017)


Causes of Major Depressive Disorder

• Gender

– Women are 2-3 times more likely to have depression in comparison to men

• Genetic factors

• Life experiences and circumstances

• Loss of important relationships

• Negative ways of thinking

(Oltmanns & Emery, 2014; Wade et al., 2014)


Bipolar disorder

• Combination of extreme highs and extreme lows

• Cyclothymia: chronic, but less severe form of Bipolar Disorder

• Rapid cycling: a person experiencing 4 episodes of major depression or mania within a year

(Oltmanns & Emery, 2014; Wood et al., 2017)


Gender Dysphoria

• Individuals feel that they are more like the other gender with the exception of their physical anatomy for more than 6 months

• Most individuals are aware of this feeling in childhood.

• For children, the desire to be the other gender must be felt and verbalized.

• Characteristics include: – Strong desire to be treated as the other gender

– Strong desire to get rid of one’s sexual characteristics

– Strong belief that one has typical feelings and reactions of the other gender

(Oltmanns & Emery, 2014)

(Wood et al., 2014)


References American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of

Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Oltmanns, T.F., & Emery, R.E. (2014). Abnormal Psychology (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Parritz, R.H., & Troy, M.F. (2014). Disorders of childhood: Development and Psychopathology (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Pomerantz, A.M. (2014). Clinical psychology: Science, practice, and culture (3rd ed., DSM-V Update). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

Wade, C., Tavris, C., Saucier, D., Elias, L. (2014). Psychology (4th Canadian ed., DSM-5 Update ed., 4th ed.). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.

Wood, S.E., Wood, E.G., Boyd, D., Wood, E., & Desmarais, S. (2017). The world of psychology (7th Canadian ed). Toronto, ON: Pearson Canada.

Psychology Session 11 Psychological Disorders

Documents

Transcript of Psychology Session 11 Psychological Disorders