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70-1: How do psychotherapy, biomedical therapy, and eclectic appprach to therapy differ?

Psychotherapy: A therapist uses psychological techniques to help people achieve growth or overcome difficulties

Biomedical therapy: offers medicaiton or other biological treatment

Eclectic approach: A blend of psychotherapies which might also involve medication

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Schizophrenia: Thorazine

Depression: Prozac, Zoloft

Bipolar: Lithium

Anxiety: Valium

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Personality Disorders: Inflexible, exaggerated & maladaptive ways of thinking. Behavior (not due to external factors) causes distress to person & conflicts with others

Cluster A: Person seems odd or eccentric

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Long term and persistent pattern of indifference detachment from society and very limited range of emotions. Seldom marry (have few relationships

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Odd thought, speech and emotional reactions

Impaired social functioning and w society sort of

Can listen to what others say or reality unlike schizophrenia

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Inappropriately suspicious and mistrustful of others

Refuse to accept blame or criticism

Cluster B: Person seems dramatic, emotional, or erratic

Borderline Personality Disorder

Tend to act impulsively

Self destructive

Unstable self image, mood

Mostly women

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Pattern of violent, criminal, or unethical behavior

Inability to feel affection for others

No remorse for actions

Mostly men

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Very dramatic and reassurance

Attention seeking

Needs praise

Wants people to love them

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Grandiose view of themselves

Constant attention and admiration

Already love themselves

Cluster C: Person appears anxious or fearful

Dependent Personality Disorder

Inability to make decisions on their own

Can't live independently

Can't tolerate being alone

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Fears of rejection

Leads to isolation

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Needs orderliness (obsessed) Personal control, rules, schedules

Unreasonable perfectionism

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73-2: How are brain stimulation and psychosurgery used in treating specific disorders?

Electroconvulsive Therapy

ECT used to involve jolting a patient w electric current w/o anaesthetic which was seen as barbaric but now is different as it is w anesthetic and muscle relaxant to keep from injury from seizures

Though memory of treatment goes away, the person actually comes out a lot better and could be good for those who cannot be treated for depression in any other way

We don't really know how it works but maybe it calms overactive parts that make depression? but we do know it makes new brain cells

One explanation from skeptics is that it works as a placebo effect and that it can help a lot in the short run

Now it has briefer pulses and on right side to stop memory disruption but still seems barbaric and not always the solution but most say it is the lesser of the two evils

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73-1: What are the drug therapies? How do double-blind studies help researchers evaluate a drug's effectiveness?

The best treatments have been drug therapies w the use of psychopharmacology in how drugs affect the mind and behavior of people and has allowed many to be able to live alone, but some to be driven to homelessness

Although it is liked at first, it must be tested for normal recovery for untreated persons and recovery due to the placebo effect which needs a double blind study

Anti-psychotic Drugs

These drugs were found by accident in that they helped patients ignore irrelevant stimuli and are called antipsychotic drugs and have helped a lot

The molecules are antagonists meaning they are similar enough to molecules of dopamine to block it

Antipsychotics do have powerful side effects like sluggishness, tremors, or twitches and also long term involuntary movements of facial muscles

The newer drugs are not more effective but have less side effects though they could increase risk of obesity and diabetes

These drugs w life skills programs and family support have helped people w schizophrenia and allowed many to live alone in almost normal lives

Antianxiety Drugs

Antianxiety drugs depress nervous system activity and have been used in therapies to help get rid of fears and relieve PTSD and OCD

A criticism is though that this is only reducing symptoms and not real problem but it creates a learned response that would happen every time

But they can also be addicting and thus not the best

Over the last few years there have been double outpatient treatment of these disorders and medication rose by using antidepressants

Antidepressants

These drugs help keep people happy by being agonists and increasing availability of neurotransmitters to elevate arousal and mood

Some also treat anxiety to strokes and are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Older ones work by blocking reuptake of both norepinephrine and serotonin which could lead to side effects avoided by patches

After their introduction, SSRI drugs have been used more and more and so have antidepressant drugs as well

Patients who do get antidepressants don't change immediately and takes a bit of time as there is neruogenesis as new brain cells are formed to stop stress induced loss of neurons

Drugs are not the only way though as you can also do aerobic exercise and change how you think to then go from bottom up and top down to attack the problem

Those with severe depression actual need medicine because of how placebos work for mild or moderate and there are other ways to help

Mood-Stabilizing Medications

One way to help stabilize mood found in the 1940s is lithium as it helps 7/10 of those w bipolar disorder and can have them being normal

Lithium is actually quite good in calming as seen w lower crime rates and suicide wherever there is higher lithium quantities in water but we don't know how it works

Also there is Depakote that used to treat epilepsy but now works well for bipolar

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Dissociative Disorders

Amnesia-two

Psychogenic

Memory loss fo rboth distant and recent past

Lost personal identity

Usually ends within hours or days

Organic

Memory loss for recent past only

Lose personal and general knowledge

Memory may return, may not

Dissociative Identity Disorder

MPD

Personality "breaks"

Usually due to severe trauma/abuse

Fugue

Reversible amnesia for personal identity

Schizophrenia

Disordered thoughts, inappropriate actions, bizarre behavior

Genetic

Excessive dopamine

Hallucinations (false senses)

Delusions (false beliefs)

Positive:

Hallucinations are added to persoinality

Negative

Behavior is reduced

Flat Effect

Paranoid: Preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations

Disorganized: Disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion

Catatonic: Immobility (or excessive, purposeless movement), extreme negativism, and/or parrotlike repeating of another speech or movements

Undifferentiated or residual: Schizophrenia symptoms without fitting one of the above types

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68-4: Are there genetic influences on schizophrenia? What factors may be early warning signs of schizophrenia in children?

Though there is a fetal virus cause there is also genetics as chances increase when a family member has schizophrenia

But this could be refuted w how twins share placentas and thus could be up to environment for schizophrenia and not entirely their genes

Adoption studies do back it though as kids adopted by those w schizophrenia don't catch it and its more based on biological parents

Researchers are looking for genes that cause abnormalities in the brain like bad dopamine receptors and neurotransmitters and myelin production as well

But this isn't too easy as there is also the chance of it being an epigenetic problem due to the virus faced in the womb

This all leads to the question of what to do once we do know the gene sequence that causes schizophrenia and what will happen to those that are found to have it

Psychological Factors:

These two causes might not be alone as it might also be due to family or social factors as well

In an experiment tracking those that have relatives w schizophrenia, it was seen that high risk kids had warning signs of:

A mother whose schizophrenia was severe and long lasting

Birth complications, often involving oxygen deprivation and low birth weight

Separation from parents

Short attention span and poor muscle coordination

Disruptive or withdrawn behavior

Emotional unpredictability

Poor peer relations and solo play

Though we can relate more to mood disorders, there are still many people searching for an answer to find out everything about Schizophrenia

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68-3: How do abnormalities and viral infections help explain schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia might be due to strange chemical causes as seen in many other areas like British hatmakers being crazy as they ingested mercury

Dopamine Overactivity

Researchers found that Schizophrenia patients had many more Dopamine receptors than normal people and thus to help a drug blocking them would help and one that would increase dopamine levels would intensify

Abnormal Brain Activity and Anatomy

The frontal lobe of these people is not very active and have out of sync neural firing thus causing symptoms

When hallucinating, the brain is very active in the thalamus and when paranoid the amygdala goes off

There has also been brain shrinkage found which could point this out, smaller cortex and corpus callosum, and thalamus which all show how schizophrenia is a combination of many problems

The cause could be in prenatal development or delivery as low birth weight, maternal diabetes, older paternal age, and oxygen deprivation during delivery are risk factors including famine as well

Maternal Virus During Midpregnancy

Another possible cause is a viral infection during pregnancy and is tested by:

How when fetal development is during flu epidemic there is an increased chance of it

How being in a densely populated area, w more viral spread leads to higher schizophrenia risk

How those born during winter and spring months, after flu season are at a slightly increased risk as well

In the Southern Hemisphere, the chances are higher in reverse time due to the difference of seasons between North and South

Mother who report being sick w influenza during pregnancy are more likely to have kids like this and usually during second trimester

Women who get blood drawn while pregnant and show more antibodies than usual are more at risik as well

Also possible because of retrovirus HERV found in half of those w Schizophrenia and not at all in healthy people

This shows that prenatal development is big and that pregnant women should get flu shot if they are pregnant during flu season

There are still questions like why does this cause risk but will be answered eventually

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68-2: How do chronic and acute schizophrenia differ?

Schizophrenia hits young people as they become adults and gets 1/100 people w no national or gender boundaries though men get it earlier, more severely and barely more often

For some it comes out of no where but others it develops gradually from bad social and school life which makes sense how they get in lower class

There are varieties of schizophrenia w positive symptoms like experiencing hallucinations, disorganized talk, and inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage

Negative is expressionless faces and rigid bodies showing how positive=presence of behaviors and negative= abscence

Chronic schizophrenia is more persistent w low chance of recovery and have negative symptoms while acute is more likely to recover and has positive symptoms that can be taken out w medicine

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68-1: What patterns of thinking perceiving ,and feeling characterize schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia means split mind as they are split from reality w disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking, speech, and weird emotions

It is the best example of psychosis, a psychotic disorder marked by irrationality and lost contact w reality

Disorganized Thinking and Disturbed Perceptions

Thinking of person w schizophrenia is fragmented, bizarre, and distorted by delusions and those who are paranoid think they are persecuted

Their jumbled ideas make sentences that are a word salad by saying studd like "a little more allegro in the treatment"

These people might also have hallucinations which are usually voices giving them orders like some being to burn themselves w a lighter

They also don't have the ability for selective attention as anything can distract them

Diminished and Inappropriate Emotions

Expressed emotions are split off from reality like laughing about deaths and some have emotionless state of flat affect and most have difficulty reading facial emotions and reading states of mind

Motor behavior can also be weird like rocking or rubbing arm or catatonia where they remain motionless for hours and become then agitated

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69-4: What are the three clusters of personality disorders? What behaviors and brain activity characterize the antisocial personality?

Some dysfunctional patterns don't bring up depression which are personality disorders that impair social functioning through disruptive, inflexible, and enduring behavior patterns

Anxiety is one feature of them such as avoidant personality disorder that sees people being withdrawn as they are scared of rejection

One that shows odd or eccentric behaviors is schizoid personality disorder

Those that have impulsive or dramatic behaviors like histrionic personality disorder and self focused and self inflating narcissistic personality disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder

The most troubling is antisocial personality disorder that usually is a male w a lack of conscience b4 age 15 and gets worse over time and if smart can lead to terrible results

This involves care for no one and not most criminals as they at least care for their families and loved ones

They usually act impulsively and feel and fear little which can lead to horrible cases like Henry Lee Lucas who killed many as he did not regret

Understanding Antisocial Personality Disorder

This is seen in both genetics and psychological causes as there might be genes for this and can be seen with how these people do not fear life, having no autonomic nervous system arousal and that they have lower stress hormones

This can lead to boys being impulsive, uninhibited, unconcerned w social rewards, and low in anxiety and could lead to good but if not can be very bad and also leads to risk for substance use disorders

Genetic influences w child abuse can wire the brain for smaller prefrontal cortex that makes decision making worse and also less empathy as well

These factors help explain a family of 2 sisters and a brother who found themselves in jail because of the inherited fearlessness

This is not it though as environments also have a big role and when both connected can have a huge effect on how the person and how bad or good they become

To see this effect, researchers showed people like this different evocative pictures and saw less of a physical response and a hyper reactive dopamine reward system that predisposes them to do things w/o thinking of consequences

Thus as usual, it can be seen that everything psychological is also biological

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69-3: How do anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder demonstrate the influence of psychological and genetic forces?

Our bodies are used to keeping a natural weight but sometimes psychological influences can take over the usual syste as seen in eating disorders:

Anorexia nervosa: Starts as diet to lose weight and happens when people drop to a very low weight yet still see themselves as fat and want to lose more weight and exercise excessively too

Bulimia nervosa: This involves trying to get slim but by eating a lot and then purging to not gain weight and might exercise a lot and fast but can be hidden easier due to more normal weight ranges

Those who just binge eat followed by just remorse have binge eating disorder

A very small percentage .6%-2.8% of people suffer these but how are they explained?

Eating disorders do not come from childhood sexual abuse but fam environment can have an effect on them like:

Moms who worry about their own weight and their daughters weight

Families that have more obesity in them and negative self eval

Fams that are more competitive, high achieving and protective

Those w eating disorders have low self evals, set perfectionist standards, fret about falling short of expectations, and are intensely concerned w how other see them

Similar to how teen boys' want to get big

Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to both have it so thus it could be genetic and the culprit is being searched for

Culture has to do with it as in Africa this would not happen as bigger women are better there unlike in the US where it is the opposite

Therefore the most vulnerable are women and possibly gay men trying to be skinny and seen w how women feel ashamed of their bodies when they see supermodels that are so skinny

It seems clear that eating disorders are partly caused by the weight obsessed culture we live in and that people need to show women how weight isn't everything

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69-2: What are dissociative disorders and why are they controversial?

Some crazy disorders are dissociative disorders that have a person experience sudden loss of memory or change in identity in response to a overwhelming situation

This has led some people to totally leave their lives as they think they are someone else and forget family as well

Dissociation is not too rare as people may feel like they are watching themselves do things which could be useful in facing trauma to protect them

Dissociative Identity Disorder

This is when a person has two or more distinct identities that switch off and can be totally different in how they control the body

These people are usually not violent but they might have an aggressive personality housed within them as there is good and bad

Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder

Skeptics of DID say that it is just an extension of normal personality shifts as Nicholas Spanos looked at college students hypnotized and they had a different personality

So therefore it is questioned whether or not the thing is real but Spanos saw it could be a connection as those that are highly hypnotizible are also DID and vice versa

Skeptics also highlight how it doesn't really seem real as its mostly just in America and popped up mostly during a certain time before

Therefore, it could not be real especially as psychologists seem to sometimes try to look for these and cause them

Others though believe it is real due to distinct body and brain traits that associate w the differing personalities

Researchers have used perspectives and psychodynamic says that it is to avoid anxiety caused by bad wants to them be expressed in other personality and learning says that it is reinforced by anxiety reduction

Other clinicians try to put DID w PTSD as a natural protective response to histories of childhood trauma but others wonder whether therapist suggestion and vivid imagination actually causes this

So the debate continues and if the skeptics win then it will be like end of salem witch hunt

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69-1: What are somatic symptom and related disorders?

Somatic symptom disorder is when distressing symptoms take a bodily form without apparent physical causes and can have a variety of complaints like vomiting, dizziness, blurred vision, or difficulty swallowing or even intense pain

Culture has an effect on these physical complaints as people in China don't see it as much psych but more physical and also seen in Africa as well

Even people int he west feel this but it does not help to be told that it is just in one's head as it is actually felt by that person

One rare disorder now is conversion disorder in which a person might lose feeling for no psych reason but actual physical symptom and indifferent to it

These send people to the physician especially those with illness anxiety disorder who mistake symptoms for bad diseases and keep going to physicians to try to find illness but just in their head

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Mood Disorders: Disturbances in mood or prolonged emotional state

Depression:

Major Depressive Disorder

Intense sadness (can last months to forever)

Dysthmia/Persistent Depressive Disorder

Involves less intense sadness

2 years or more

Biological origin

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Depression which occurs at specific times of the year with less sunlight

Causes of Depression

Biological Factors

Chemical Imbalances

Serotonin - low levels

Linked w Chromosome 11

For bipolar, both..

Low level of Serotonin

Higher levels of Norepinephrine

Bipolar Disorder aka. Manic Depression

Involves both depressed and manic episodes

Bipolar 1 most intense mania

Bipolar 2 is less intense mania compared to bipolar 1

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67-3: What factors affect suicide and self-injury, and what are some of the important warning signs to watch for in suicide prevention efforts?

Each year, 1 mill despairing people elect a permanent solution to a temporary problem and comparisons have shown:

national differences as countries vary a lot on how much this happens

Racial differences as whites kill themselves twice as often as black people

Gender differences as women are more likely to attempt but men more likely to die since they use more lethal methods

Age differences and trends: In late adulthood, rates increase peaking a middle age and beyond and the global rate doubled in the last half of 1900s

Other group differences: much higher rates among the rich, nonreligious, and those who are single widowed or divorced and w/o support gay people might do so as well w increased risk

Day of the week differences: 25% of suicides happen on wednesdays

Risk of suicide is higher for those who have had depression but only when rebounding and 3% of those w alcohol abuse disorder do so which is quite high

Since this is such an impulsive decision, restrictions can help these suicidal feelings subside

Social suggestions could drive people to suicide by seeing it TV programs or other areas that could then increase risk

Suicide isn't of hostility or revenge but to stop suffering based on no pain or not being a burden to others and could also happen when people are made to reach a goal or standard that they can't do

There are signs that could help someone out as if they are telling you about it this is a huge red flag and also other signs are verbal hints, giving things away, or withdrawal and preoccupation w death

Nonsuicidal self injury

Teens might hurt themselves by cutting, burning, pulling hair out, inserting objects under nails or skin or self tatooing

People that do this do it because they are less able to tolerate emotional distress, extremely self critical, and have poor communication and problem solving skills

They do this to:

Gain relief from intense thoughts w pain

Ask for help or gain attention

Relieve guilt by self punishment

Get others to change their negative behavior

To fit in w a peer group

Doesn't necessarily lead to suicide but can if things get worse w/o any help

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67-2: How do the biological and social-cognitive perspectives explain mood disorders?

Many studies have tried to find new ways of treating and preventing mood disorders and a theory about them would have to explain:

Many behavioral and cognitive changes accompany depression: People who are depressed also have other things as well like negative thoughts and other disorders like substance abuse

Depression is widespread: its commonality means causes should be common

Women's risk is nearly double men's based on a 2009 gallup poll and usually starts in adolescence

Women are at more risk due to how they are vulnerable to inner disorders while men are more vulnerable to outer disorders as men get more mad than women and women get more sad than men

Major depressive episodes self-terminate:These episodes will most likely end after a while but this can be affected by other factors like how late the first episode is, the longer the person is well, the fewer the previous episodes, the less stress experienced and the more social support received

Stressful events related to work, marriage and close relationships often precede depression: Having any one of these stressful events happen can increase the chance of depression by a lot

The new generation is getting depression earlier and gets more people which is hidden at times but might also not be 100% legit

The Biological Perspective

Genetic Influences:

Mood disorders run in families as seen in studies of twins of both types and big correlations for both of the disorders

Adopted people show the same thing as they have relatives who have mood disorders if they have it

Linkage analysis is being done to see what causes it as they look in families with it at those who don't have it and who do to see what causes it and if found could lead to drug therapy

The Depressed Brain

Using brain scans on swimmers seeing replays of when they didn't make it to the olympics, researchers saw it looked the same as depressed patients

Studies have seen that brain activity speeds up and slows down in bipolar people and the left frontal lobe and reward center are active during positive emotions but less active in depressed states

For those w severe depresssion, MRI scans found frontal lobes smaller and that the hippocampus is vulnerable to change w stress

Bipolar disorder seen in brain structure as there is less white matter or there are enlarged fluid filled ventricles

Neurotransmitters like norepinephrine could be a part of it as its amount can change mood and seen in smoking as it goes up w smoking so depressed people might use it for that

Also seen w serotonin as a study in New Zealand showed that young adults w a life stress and a variation in a serotonin controlling gene had depression and from the two not just one

Drugs help to increase the two neurotransmitters by blocking reuptake and exercise can help for serotonin which leads to recovery by stimulating hippocampus neuron growth

What good for the heart helps the mind as seen with food and alcohol that doesn't help either

The Social-Cognitive Perspective

Depression is all around the body and biology doesn't fully explain, but social cognitive does help

Depressed people see life w low self esteem and negatively think about themselves and their situation as they minimize good and maximize bad

Research shows that self defeating beliefs and negative explanatory style feed into a vicious cycle

Negative Thoughts and Negative Moods Interact

People feel learned helplessness when they are overwhelmed or have no control but women are more susceptible because of overthinking

Susan Nolen-Hoeksma called it Rumination which women usually do more than usual which leads to thinking of things that aren't life tasks and is harmful

People feel depressed or not depending on their explanatory style of what happened as they blame external then they are mad but if internal they feel stupid and depressed

Depressed people explain things as stable (will last forever) global (will affect everything) and internal (its all my fault) as they self blame and only focus on them

Their self esteem can also fluctuate a lot based on threats and boosts

Therefore, with a pessimistic thinking style, there is a much higher chance to have depression as seen in college study

Seligman says this happens more in the west as there is more focus on them instead of in the east where it is more on the other people

But then there is a chicken and egg problems which we really don't know how to explain and thus could be that it has to do with state dependent memories and how that can change mood

Depression's Vicious Cycle

The depression that one has can make a cycle as it will lead them to then have more life stressful events that could further the hole they are in and making the depression longer

So then there is a cycle w first stressful events, then a ruminating, pessimistic explanatory sytle to make then a hopeless depressed state that interferes the way a person thinks and acts to then get back to more stressful events

Nobody is immune to these feelings though as people may feel this way over small things and can change up how they feel about their own future

The cycle can be broken by moving to a new place, reversing self blame and negative attributions, by turning attention outward or by engaging in more pleasant activities and more competent behavior

Though depression can haunt us all, people can get through it

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67-1: What are mood disorders? How does major depressive disorder differ from bipolar disorder?

Mood disorders come in two forms: Major Depressive disorder w prolonged hopelessness and lethargy and bipolar disorder when a person alternates between depression and mania, an overexcited, hyperactive state

Major Depressive Disorder

As high schoolers and college kids, there are actually many others that experience the struggles of not feeling good about life like depression

Though phobias are more common, depression is the #1 reason people go to mental health services and it plagues many around the world

Anxiety is a response to the threat of future loss and depression is a sign that things might need to change as life's purpose is not happiness but survival and reproduction so therefore depression could be of use

The difference between this being normal and not is a momentary hard breath compared to always being out of breath

Major depressive disorder is when at least five signs of depression last two or more weeks

Adults w persistent depressive disorder have a mildly depressed mood for more than at least two years showing two of:

Problems regulating appetite

Problems regulating sleep

Low Energy

Low self esteem

Difficulty concentrating and making decisions

Feelings of hopelessness

Bipolar Disorder

Depression usually ends, but Bipolar disorder is when people switch from mania and depression week to week

Could be seen in teens if for too long and is quite popular to diagnose since companies can make drugs to help but this will be combatted by classifying regular moodiness or mood swings as disruptive mood dysregulation disorder

The manic phase shows people that are overtalkative, overactive and elated but easily irritated and not very good judgment though not down for advice

Some have been able to use the creative energy of mania to then make songs and such but doesn't happen much in uncreative fields

What goes up must come down and the mood does eventully change and though much less common than major depressive disorder, it takes more days of work away

It also affects both men and women equally

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66-4: How do the learning and biological perspectives explain anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD?

Anxiety is both a feeling and cognition but how does it come up? Freud thought repression but today we look at it through learning and biological perspectives

The Learning Perspective

Classical and Operant Conditioning

When a traumatic event happens, we get anxious around where the even happened due to classical conditioning

Conditioning can make human fears much more common

Two learning processes contribute as stimulus generalization occurs when a dog attacks you and then you're scared of all dogs

And reinforcement as when you try to get away from your phobia and do so successfully you feel better which reinforces the phobia more

Observational Learning

We learn fears by observing others like monkeys who are very fearful of snakes and pass this by showing the young

Cognition

Cognition is a big part as what you perceive stimuli as will lead to you showing fear or not and anxiety is common when people can't stop intrusive thoughts that make us think bad things will happen and makes perception of loss of control and sense of helplessness

The Biological Principle

Biology can help us understand why we learn some fears more readily,  why few people get lasting phobias, and why some individuals are more vulnerable

Natural Selection

Biologically, we fear some things as it would've lowered our chance or survival like snakes, spiders, or storms

This is also why modern fears are not so big as we tend not to learn this sort of fears as they have not been around a lot of time

Just as phobias focus on dangers faced by ancestors, so do our compulsive acts as they exaggerate behaviors that helped our species survive

Genes

Some people are more anxious than others and react differently to different things so one trauma can affect two people differently

In monkeys, fearfulness runs in families and also similar in humans as twins can develop the same phobias when raised apart

Researchers have found genes that contribute to anxiety disorders and those that are of OCD

Genes that influence disorders have control over neurotransmitters like serotonin that controls sleep and mood and glutamate which regulates how alarmed we are

The Brain

In the brain, these anxiety disorders are just hiccups in the brain that repeat thoughts or actions and can create circuits that lead to disorder

Fears can be blunted w drugs that can erase the associated emotion w the experience

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66-3: What is posttraumatic stress disorder?

Our memories help us to not make the same mistakes in the future but sometimes goes too far as seen w PTSD

This includes recurring haunting memories and nightmares, a numbed social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and insomnia which depends more on the trauma still there than the event

PTSD can also be seen in survivors of accidents, disasters, and violent or sexual assaults as seen in 9/11

The frequency was checked by comparing combat and noncombat vets and saw 32 and 19 percent respectively and also checked w victims or natural disasters, those who have been kidnapped, held captive, tortured,  or raped

The toll seems just as high for recent vets as well as 1/4 was diagnosed w a psychological disorder, usually PTSD

What determines whether someone gets PTSD or not is usually the amount of trauma the person experienced as more trauma=higher risk

Some PTSD symptoms maybe be genetically predisposed as studies between military and non military twins has shown and hormones could be a part of it as well

Some psychologists think it has been overdiagnosed as there is a broad definitions of trauma and also debriefing could be hurting and not actually helping

Those that do not have PTSD and go through the same thing are noted as impressive for their survivor resiliency as they reacted just fine

Psychologist Peter Suedfield got through the Holocaust and studied the resilience of survivors showing how they lived well and what doesn't kill you might not make you stronger but show how strong you are

Traumatic growth is when people get better due to trauma as seen with people possibly appreciating life more than before and getting better overall and seen in religions as well

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66-2: What is obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Aspects of OCD are seen in everyday behavior like how we might get obsessed w thought or get into compulsive behaviors

This becomes bad when it interferes with life as though the person knows it irrational, anxiety fueled obsessive thoughts are so haunting that compulsive rituals begin to take control of life

OCD is most common among teens and young adults and over time lessens seeing 1/5 totally recovering from it

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66-1: What are the different anxiety disorders?

Anxiety is a normal part of life and though sometimes might make us shy, its not too intense of persistent

Some are more prone to notice and remember threats which increases risk of anxiety disorders adding distress, persistent anxiety, or dysfunctional anxiety reducing behaviors

Some are:

Generalized anxiety disorder: a person is unexplainably and continually tense and uneasy

Panic disorder: a person experiences sudden intense episodes of intense dread

Phobias: a person is intensely and irrationally afraid of a specific object or situation

Two others involve anxiety too, but classified separately by DSM-5

Obsessive-compulsive disorder: a person is troubled by repetitive thoughts or actions

Posttraumatic stress disorder: a person has lingering memories, nightmares, and more a long time after a threatening or uncontrollable event

Generalized Anxiety Disorder:

Tom, bothered by dizziness, sweating palms, heart palpitations, and ringing in his ears and feels edgy and shakes at times

This is generalized anxiety disorder as marked w pathological worry and the symptoms are common but not for that  over 6 months

People with this worry all the time and can't concentrate as their attention keeps moving on many different worries

The worst part is that one might not be able to identify to then solve the problem and its also free floating as it can come w depression but even on its own can be disabling

Most w this were maltreated and inhibited as children but over time, the emotions tend to mellow and it becomes rare by age 50

Panic Disorder:

This is an anxiety tornado when panic strikes suddenly in panic attacks that have intense fear, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensations, trembling or dizziness and can be misperceived as heart attack

Smokers have a higher chance to have this and smoking more doesn't relieve it

One woman felt like she was about to die and went to emergency room but when she got there she felt ok just washed out

Phobias:

Phobias are anxiety disorders in which an irrational fear makes a person avoid an object activity or situation and though many accept it, some are incapacitated by their efforts to avoid it

Specific Phobias include lightning, animals, insects, heights, blood, or closed spaces and people avoid the stimulus that causes the fear

Not all phobias are specific though, like social anxiety disorder that sees someone having intense fear of being scrutinized by others, avoiding potentially embarrassing social situations, or sweating or trembling when doing so

Being anxious about something could bring about anxiety and if intense enough can bring agoraphobia or the fear of being outside the home and not able to get help

Charles Darwin showed this as at age 28 he got panic disorder and moved away to the country only w his wife and even helped him think of evolution

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Stigma: A mark of disgrace associated with particular circumstance, quality, or person

In order to be classified with a psychological disorder, the behavior must be:

Unjustifiable- doesn't make sense to most people

Maladaptive-Makes everyday life difficult and interferes w normal life

Atypical- Is not just quirky it is considered extremely odd

Disturbing to self or others- A behavior that people may feel uncomfortable about

The definition of these vary w culture and time period

Neurosis: Emotional disturbance characterized by excessive anxiety but can function in life

Psychosis: Emotional disturbance characterized by inability to cope in the world and can't function in life

Perspectives for explaining disorders Big Three:

Biological:

Abnormal behavior is caused from Physiological malfunctions

Psychodynamic:

Unconscious, internal causes

Cognitive- Behavioral Model

Abnormal behavior is result of LEARNING + THOUGHT PROCESS

Diathesis Stress Model

Combination of Psychological predisposition+ STRESS+SOCIAL RISK FACTOR=Abnormal Behavior

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65-6: How many people suffer, or have suffered from a psychological disorder? Is poverty a risk factor?

To find out who and when people are most vulnerable to psych disorders, many countries have interview representative samples of their people asking ?s

The US national Institutde of Mental Health estimates that 26% of adult Americans suffer from diagnosable mental disorders

Based off a WHO study, there were estimated number of mental disorders in 20 countries which also showed the immigrant paradox of how recently immigrated people are at lower risk for disorders that natives

It has been seen that poverty is closely connected to mental disorders but what causes what? Its both ways as seen w many studies

There are a lot of factors that can lead to disorders and most usually come up by early adulthood which gives more strength to the idea that people need help to diagnose and understand what is happening to them

But it is not the end of the world to have a disorder as people can overcome it and get around it as there is hope

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65-5:Why do some psychologists criticize the use of diagnostic labels?

Other critics of DSM say that the labels are at best arbitrary and at worst judgments that could change how we see others

In a classic study, David Rosenhan and 7 researchers went to a hosptial saying they heard voices and gave false names and occupations answering other questions truthfully and got wrongfully diagnosed w disorders

Though it is not entirely the doctor's fault as they did not really know, it still is not too right as doctors "discovered" the causes of the disorders from past which was all misinterpreted

Labels matter though as in another experiment people saw an interview and were told it was a job applicant or cancer or psychiatric patient which led to different perceptions

Stigmas do have a lot of power but this has been getting weaker as people have been speaking out about it and acceptance has gone up but also there is a lot of sympathy for gender atypical disorders

Stereotypes still linger and though some media shows it well, other sources change it up and make things seem bad or not in the way they actually are and can even lead to these people becoming victims

Labels can become self fulfilling if the other person acts in a way to elicit the behavior they have been warned about

There are benefits though as labels can help communicate cases, understand causes, and find treament while also helping patient understand

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65-4: How and why do clinicians classify psychological disorders?

Classification is used in psych w disorders to give a shorthand description of a complex disorder

Like Schizophrenia involves talking incoherently, hallucinates, shows little or inappropriate emotion or is socially withdrawn

To diagnose what someone is, psychologists and psychiatrists use the DSM-5 to find if the person has symptoms of any sort of disorder and how to treat

In the new DSM labels have changed like autism and aspergers has become autism spectrum  or mental retardation has changed to intellectual disability

Some new diagnoses can be controversial as it could diagnose the wrong people

Some say the DSM defined everything too broadly and included a lot of behaviors as disorders though they weren't but others say that some things are genuine disorders even if they need careful definitions

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65-3: How do the medical model and the biopsychosocial approach  understand psychological disorders?

People in earlier times would explain weird behaviors as being caused by strange forces like movements of stars, gods, or evil spirits

They would also treat mad people in ways of being caged or beating, burning, castration, pulling teeth, removing intestines, or even giving transfusions of animal blood

The Medical Model

Philippe Pinel went against old unusual treatment of the mad by trying to use moral treatment by talking to patients which didn't cure but was humane

During 1800s the discovery that syphilis messed w the head led to hospitals instead of asylums and physical causes were being looked for

Medical Model- mental health movement that says that mental illness needs to be diagnosed based on symptoms and treated through therapy which may be found in a psychiatric hospital

Gained more credibility with discoveries that abnormalities in brain structure or biochem lead to disorders but also psych factors do too

The Biopsychosocial Approach

Psychologists say that behavior comes from interaction of nature and nurture and that mentally ill need to have sickness identified and cured

Another part can be the person's environment w interpretations of events, bad habits, or poor social skills

Links between cultures show that anxiety might cause them all but they are expressed differently based on the culture around the person

But not all disorders are just in culture as depression and schizophrenia are seen in various cultures around the world

The biopsychosocial model helps to see how mind and body are connected and affect each other in how we act

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65-2: Why is there controversy over attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?

Someone that is hyperactive, extremely inattentive, and impulsive would be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Some skeptics believe it just describes boys who are bored in school and are energetic and could just be because of that environment

Many children are being treated for this and it is said that mostly students that are a pain in class are like this but others say its because they're stuck inside all day which isn't natural

On the other side, there are results that show how the brain can be different in those that do have ADHD instead of those that do not

It may be caused by early environment like too much TV or video games or genetics as well and can be treated by medicine or therapies

Though ADHD is real, there is the debate over whether normal rambunctiousness is diagnosed as ADHD

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65-1: How should we draw the line between normality and disorder?

Psychological disorder is a syndrome w clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior

Dysfunctional behaviors are maladaptive and interfere w normal life and usually bring about distress over this

Definitions of what a significant disturbance is has changed over time as homosexuality used to be but now isn't

Now ADHD seems to be the same as kids are diagnosed with it a lot