psychopathology Flashcards
(23 cards)
mental disorders
persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment.
* interferes with daily functioning
dsm-v
lists specific criteria that must be present to diagnose with a disorder
comorbidity
co-occurrence of two or more disorders
most common disorders
- anxiety & mood disorders
- impulse-control & substance abuse
the medical model
conceptualizes abnormal psychological experiences as illnesses that have biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms, and possible treatments
diagnosis
determine nature of the illness
signs
objectively observed indicators of a disorder
symptoms
subjectively reported behaviors, thoughts, and emotions
consequences of labels
- negative stigma associated with mental disorders (e.g., dangerous)
- 60% do not seek treatment
- education is not enough to reduce the stigma
- those with mental disorders are no more likely to be violent than the average person
- may affect how the individual sees themselves
use first person language
individual with schizophrenia, NOT schizophrenic
negative symptoms of schizophrenia
- reductions in typical functioning
- emotional and motivational impairments, flat affect, anhedonia
positive symptoms of schizophrenia
- abnormal behavioral states that have been gained
- hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thoughts/speech,
excited motor behavior
cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia
- difficulties with processing external information
- memory, attention span, decision-making, social cognition
heritability of schizophrenia
- likely the result of both genetic and environmental factors
- not attributable to any specific gene
adoption studies
- examine children raised by non-biological parents
- biological parents more likely to also have schizophrenia than adopting parents
twin studies
- examine incidence rates between monozygotic (identical) and dizygotic (fraternal) twins.
- concordance rate is 50% in monozygotic twins versus 17% in dizygotic twins
ventricular changes
- enlarged lateral ventricles,
likely at the expense of brain tissue - limbic system structures likely
affected (e.g., hippocampus & amygdala) - may be related to DISC1 gene
hypofrontality hypothesis
- frontal lobes are underactive
- reduced density of synaptic spines
- drug treatments to reduce symptoms are associated with increased activity in the frontal lobe
cortical abnormalities
- thinning of cortical gray matter, a result of synapse rearrangement
- differences in structure and function in corpus callosum
- abnormal activity reduction in the frontal cortex
treatment of schizophrenia
- First Generation Antipsychotics (typical antipsychotics)
- ex: Chlorpromazine (Thorazine), Haloperidol (Haldol)
- Dopamine Hypothesis: an excess of dopamine causes the symptoms of schizophrenia
- Second Generation Antipsychotics (atypical antipsychotics)
- ex: Clozapine (Clozaril), Risperidone (Risperdal)
- CBT
