Psychological Disorders. What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?

Psychological Disorders - - - What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?: OCD is characterized by uncontrollable, intrusive thoughts, beliefs, and ideas with negative emotions such as guilt/anxiety and repetitive/ritualistic behaviors/actions Two main symptoms obsessions (intrusive and recurring thought, ideas, mental images, and beliefs that are often disturbing and cause significant emotional distress or dysfunction) and compulsions (behaviors or rituals that a person feels driven to do) Can be due to genetic factors, psychological factors (if you have another mental illness, you are more likely to develop OCD), illnesses during childhood, or even other illnesses/injuries Medications used to treat OCD are classified as antidepressants What is post traumatic stress disorder?: If a person has trouble recovering and their feelings about the experience remains present or worsens as time passes, they may have PTSD (extreme reaction to trauma that can change how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, which causes considerable distress or affect their ability to function normally) Common symptoms that last at least one month: Reliving the event: repeatedly re-experiencing the trauma in the form of nightmares or upsetting dreams, flashbacks, and uncontrollable thoughts Avoidance: the person avoids anything related to trauma, which includes avoiding situations that could trigger flashbacks/uncontrollable thoughts while avoiding places, people, and activities that remind them of what happened Hyperarousal: heightened physiological arousal and increased reactivity to stress and trauma Changes in thoughts, feelings, and beliefs like feeling sad, anxious, emotionally numb, losing interests in activities/relationships, thinking of themselves as a bad/guilty person The medications used to treat PTSD are a type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) Introduction to Mental Disorders: Mental disorders are simply disorders of the mind Two approaches: Biomedical approach: focuses on on the physical and biological abnormalities Biopsychosocial approach: focuses on physical and even psychological/social factors Categories of Mental Disorders: People that are weird are NOT mentally ill Two systems that categorize mental disorders: ICD and DSM-5 DSM-5 has 20 top level categories Delirium is the name for a reversible episode of abnormalities of cognitive and other higher brain functions for many potential causes, such as drugs, abnormalities of certain components of the blood, or even infections Mood is referred to a long term emotional state (positive or negative) while emotions are thought of brief experiences often related to brief stimuli Affect refers to how an emotional state appears to others (i.e. crying) Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia is often caused by elevated dopamine levels in the brain but can only be diagnosed clinically (their behavior is altered in the way they think and act) → hallucinate and have delusions (abnormal beliefs) and they act in differing ways (selfisolate, disorganized, and “flat affect”) Prodrome refers to the period of time before Schizophrenia is fully present and is referred to as a deterioration in a person’s behavior/function (i.e. poor school performance,relationships suffer, paranoia, delusions, and start to act differently) Higher risk of homelessness and going to jail/prison 1. 2. 3. Biological Basis of Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia is categorized as a psychotic disorder (abnormal perceptions of reality) Symptoms are split into 3 main categories: Cognitive symptoms: abnormalities of attention, organization, or planning Negative symptoms: blunted emotions or loss of enjoyment in activities Positive symptoms: hallucinations and delusions Size of the cerebral cortex seems to be thinner than other subjects (especially in the frontal/temporal lobes) Another cause has to do with an error in the dopamine pathway The ventral tegmental area (VTA) has neurons that project to multiple areas of the brain transmitting dopamine and it is also produced here as well (mesocorticolimbic pathway) Biological Basis of Depression: Major Depressive Disorder is categorized as a depressive disorders Depression has shown to have decreased activity in the frontal lobe and increased activity in the limbic structures Cortisol is increased in those with depression (hypothalamus produces more than you should have) Anxiety Disorders & Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Generalized anxiety disorder refers to individuals whose general state is tense and uneasy (i.e. tense, worry constantly, etc.) and must last 6 months or more. Physical symptoms are furrow brow, twitching eyelids, finicking, etc. ⅔ are women and there is an unclear source. If this keeps occurring, it can lead to high blood pressure and other comorbidities People with GA commonly have depression Panic disorder refers to sudden bursts of shear panic and intense fear and manifest in panic attacks (i.e. heart palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath, they are also sudden and tense) Phobias are cases where an individual is irrational afraid of certain situations or things (can be debilitating). They tend to follow a pattern and are towards specific things (i.e. animals, insects, blood, enclosed spaces, heights, etc.). They typically get by by avoiding these situations. Social phobias include fear of different social settings (i.e. leads to shyness) OCD is characterized as unwanted thought (obsessions) and unwanted actions (compulsions) PTSD refers to bad memories, nightmares, and insomnia; occurs if it continues for 4 weeks or more Dissociative Identity Disorder: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) describes cases where 2 or more distinct identities persist in one individual (i.e. different mannerisms, emotional responses, “physical changes” such as handedness, and denial of the other identities) Can be caused from child abuse or even extreme stress (your consciouence distances itself from a trauamtic experience) There is a lot of controversy with this disease because of how rare it is and can perhaps be therapist induced. It could also be due to some extreme form of role-playing Somatic Symptom Disorder & Other Disorders: Medical conditions often show themselves with physical symptoms (or even sometimes psychological symptoms as well) Mental disorders often result in psychological symptoms (or even physical symptoms) Somatic symptom disorder is when any symptom arises from a mental disorder and may or may not be able to medically explain Conversion disorder is when you look for neurological symptoms (i.e. speech, swallowing, seizures, paralysis, etc.) and cannot be explained Factitious disorder occurs when the patient wants to be “sick” through falsification of signs/symptoms leading to diagnosis treatment (people do this in order to be in the “sick” role) Personality Disorders: Personality has to do with how we experience the world and how we behave outwardly Therefore a personality disorder is a marked deviation and is distressful/functionary A. a. b. c. B. a. b. c. d. C. a. b. c. 10 Personality Disorder separated into 3 big clusters with a pretty big overlap between them “Odd” and “eccentric” (3) Paranoid Personality Disorder: profound distrust and suspiciousness Schizoid Personality Disorder: detached emotionally and from relationships Schizotypal Personality Disorder: magical/odd beliefs “Dramatic”, “emotional”, and “erratic” (4) Antisocial Personality Disorder: little or no regard for others (often involved with legal issues) Borderline Personality Disorder: unstable relationships/emotions, variable self image, and are very impulsive Histrionic Personality Disorder: very attention seeking (i.e. bright clothes), attention seeking, and display a lot of emotion Narcissistic Personality Disorder: HUGE egos and need admiration and praise, hate criticism, and think very highly of themselves “Anxiety” and “fear” Avoidant Personality Disorder: inhibited and avoid situations where they can be criticized Dependent Personality Disorder: submissive and clingy Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder: focused on order, perfection, and for them to be in control of everything going on (different from OCD because they are more concerned with mental processes rather than physical things → i.e. here you want to be in control of situations and in OCD you are more obsessed with checking the locks) Sleep Wake Disorders Breathing Related Sleep Disorders: Apnea means an absence of airflow Obstructive sleep apnea means when there are blockages in airflow during sleep and can lead to snoring, gasping, pauses in breathing. It can also lead to individuals being tired/sleepy and unrefreshed during the daytime Central sleep apnea arises from issues within the brain where there are presence of the apnea without any obstruction Hypoventalation sleep disorder occurs with issues with the lungs expanding or depressing; can increase [CO2] levels and decrease [O2] levels. Can be caused by issues with lungs, chest wall, medications, or even obesity. Increase CO2 levels are often associated with R sided heart failure as well Reward Pathway in the Brain: Serotonin has a lot to do with satience, meaning that it tells you that you are satisfied. When dopamine levels increase and serotonin levels therefore go down (so prolonged activation of the dopaminergic circuit will lead to lower serotonin levels, leading to less satiation) Biological Basis of Parkinson’s Disease: Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive, neurological disorder involving motor abnormalities and mental dysfunction as well. Most common motor abnormalities include slowed movements, a type of tremor, a type of abnormal walking, a type of increased muscle tone, and poor balance leading to falls Dopamine is decreased as well in Parkinson’s due to loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (a part of the basal ganglia) Basal ganglia is important for motor control as well as motor learning, executive functions, behaviors, and emotions Depression & Bipolar Disorder: Bipolar disorder is very related to depression (describes a condition where an individual goes from extreme highs to extreme lows) Bipolar I: this is when you have elevated mani as well as depressive episodes Bipolar II: this is when you have depressive episodes and hypomania (not as high as you would with bipolar I)