Mental Health Flashcards
Provide a definition for mental health
A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically
significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion
regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the
psychological, biological, or developmental processes
underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually
associated with significant distress or disability in social,
occupational, or other important activities .
List some limitations with the definition of mental health
- what is clinical significance?
- who decides what is a dysfunction?
- who decides what is significant distress or disability?
Describe the health burden of mental disoders
Typically associated with the level of disability e.g. as measured in DALYs or YLLs, prevalence, or cost to society.
Descrube the prevalence of mental disorders
Prevalence gives an overview of a disroder at the population level.
Questions arise e.g. point prevalence, 12 months, years etc. Raises issues when attempting to quanntify a problem.
Prevalence dictates access to services.
Prevalence is dictated by cut-offs i.e. much of the population will be subclinical.
Age of diagnosis will also have an impact on whether someone is counted in prevalence.
Insight of patient will also affect prevalence counts.
As well sex or gender based prevalence, and SES factors that influence prevalence ^[note also the cycle of poverty if diagnosed].
Note that there is also a setting dependent prevalence e.g. in prisons vs general population.
Describe the assessment of disability- importance
Note that in assessing burden, disability is most relevant marker.
It is necessary to allocate appropriate care.
Describe considerations for help-seeking
- for what
- for whom
- from whom: GP? psych? social? – affected by time, money, wait times
- at what time i.e. before seeking treatment: stigma,
- for how long - will vary based on case
List some issues with mental health assessment
- prevalence- may be low, or falsely low due to a lack of response also known as non-response bias. Makes it difficult to assess clinical significance
- disability: effect on productivity, social function, ADLs
- help-seekingd
List some risk factors
- family hsitory
- genetics
- social isolation e.g. rural, elderly
- physical health
- trauma esp child sexual abuse
Describe how the mental health burden may be reduced
- health promotion
- prevention
- early intervention
- treatment
- relapse prevention
Describe mental disorders in primary care
- screening
- discussion
- setting up MCHP
Define treatment options for mental health
medications
- CBT
- lifestyle modifications including exercise
Describe factors affecting treatment outcime
- compliance
- therapeutic relationship
- cost
List some medical vs non-medical approaches
vFrom the perspective of the medical model, all mental disorders are
diseases. The persons afflicted with these diseases are patients;
they need treatment from doctors; diagnosis is an essential first step
if one is to prescribe the best therapy and to predict the natural
course of the patient’s disorder. Severely disturbed patients need
medication and perhaps hospitalization; their care should be paid
for by health insurance policies”
Considerations of mental disorders as brain disorders to alleviate stigma, and physical health provlems for soame reasons
Provide examples of alternative approaches to mental health
- Aborigianl social and emotional wellbeing framework
- social prescribing
Describe what consitutes a disorder
as defined by DSM
some under consideration
