Psychology in Credo: Psychological Disorders

Bipolar disorder, formerly manic-depressive disorder or manic-depression, severe mental disorder involving manic episodes that are usually accompanied by episodes of depression. Any of several psychological disorders of mood characterized usually by alternating episodes of depression and mania.

Disorder best defined as a collection of psychological symptoms including sadness; unhappy thoughts characterized by worry, poor self-image, self-blame, guilt and low self-confidence; downbeat views on the future; and a feeling of hopelessness. As a diagnosis, depression is part of a cycle or syndrome (also called a depressive illness) which used to be called melancholia because of its association with low spirits. Depression is commonly used as a definition of an emotion like despondency, dejection, or gloom.

From Encyclopedia of Women's Health
Dysthymic disorder is a chronic mood disorder characterized by depressed mood (extreme irritability in children and teenagers) almost every day for most of the day for at least 2 years in adults and 1 year for children and teenagers.

Shortly after the birth of a child, many women experience a period of dysphoria known as postpartum blues. It has been estimated that up to 80% of postpartum women experience symptoms of negative mood and affect that sharply contrast with expectations of feeling happy and a sense of accomplishment.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Any of various symptoms experienced by women of childbearing age in the days immediately preceding menstruation. It is most common in women in their twenties and thirties.

Recurrent fall or winter depression characterized by excessive sleeping, social withdrawal, depression, overeating, and pronounced weight gain.

Lack of desire to eat, or refusal to eat, especially the pathological condition of anorexia nervosa, most often found in adolescent girls and young women.

The eating disorders are characterised by overvalued beliefs about the importance of body weight and shape. The term ‘eating disorders’ covers many different issues including obesity, feeding problems in childhood, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa.

From Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults
Echolalia is a strong, almost mandatory, tendency to repeat spontaneously what has been said by another person (Benson & Ardila, 1996).

The wagering of either money or material goods of value on the outcome of a chance happening, such as roulette or dice-throwing, or where an element of skill can be used to judge the likelihood of an outcome, such as in horse racing or football.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a chronic, disabling anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive, persistent thoughts and repetitive behaviors. While obsessions and compulsions are fairly common mental phenomena that most people have experienced, when they become severe enough to interfere with one's functioning it may be OCD. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is defined in the DSM-IV as the presence of either obsessions or compulsions (or both). Obsessions are defined as recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress.

Tourette syndrome is a complex debilitating neurological disorder that arises during childhood or adolescence mostly affecting people under the age of 21.

Common manifestation of dementia , thought to afflict 1 in 20 people over 65. After heart disease, cancer, and strokes it is the most common cause of death in the Western world. Attacking the brain's ‘grey matter’, it is a disease of mental processes.

From Encyclopedia of Special Education
Everyone with the diagnosis of aphasia has an acquired language disorder, but the type of language disorder and the severity of these difficulties vary.

From Encyclopedia of Nursing Research.
Delirium is an acute, fluctuating disturbance of attention with disorganized thinking and altered psychomotor activity (Meagher, MacLullich, & Laurila, 2008). It frequently accompanies acute physical illness and is found in all care settings and all ages.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
progressive deterioration of intellectual faculties resulting in apathy, confusion, and stupor. In the 17th cent. the term was synonymous with insanity, and the term dementia praecox was used in the 19th cent. to describe the condition now known as schizophrenia.

A chronic disorder of cerebral function characterized by periodic convulsive seizures. There are many conditions that have epileptic seizures.

Below average level of intellectual functioning, usually defined by an IQ of below 70 to 75, combined with limitations in the skills necessary for daily living. Daily living skills include such things as communication, the ability to care for oneself, and the ability to work.

Degenerative disease of the brain characterized by a progressive loss of mobility, muscular rigidity, tremor, and speech difficulties. The condition is mainly seen in people over the age of 50.

Agoraphobia is a psychiatric illness in which individuals are anxious about being in situations where escape may be difficult or embarrassing.

Anticipatory tension or vague dread persisting in the absence of a specific threat. In contrast to fear, which is a realistic reaction to actual danger, anxiety is generally related to an unconscious threat. Anxiety is an unpleasant affect accompanied by a myriad of physiologic manifestations (quickened heart beat, gastrointestinal distress, ‘butterflies’ and diarrhoea, a tightening in the chest, tremulousness, sweating, muscle tension) as well as psychological manifestations (a sense of dread and impending danger, of helplessness, of insecurity and uncertainty).

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) has been one of the most controversial diagnostic categories in the history of psychiatry. According to conventional definitions, it occurs when an individual acquires separate, multiple identities, some of which may be amnesic for others and some of which may have full awareness of the others.

In psychology, a disorder commonly known today as conversion disorder, in which a psychological conflict is converted into a bodily disturbance.

A panic attack is the sudden onset of intense apprehension, fearfulness, or terror, often associated with feelings of impending doom.

From Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Psychology
A phobia involves intense fear, triggered by the presence or anticipation of a particular stimulus. Many different kinds of phobias have received special names, including acrophobia (fear of heights), agoraphobia (fear of public places), and claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces).

Mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, or serious accident.

Group of severe mental disorders characterized by reality distortions resulting in unusual thought patterns and behaviors.

In psychiatry, a broad category of mental disorder encompassing the most serious emotional disturbances, often rendering the individual incapable of staying in contact with reality.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Mental state generally characterized by statuesque posturing, muscular immobility, mutism, and apparent stupor. The muscles are held in a pliant state called waxy flexibility, and the catatonic person obediently permits himself to be rearranged into awkward positions that he may subsequently hold for hours.

From Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Psychology
Thought disorder is typically diagnosed when a patient’s speech is incoherent and unintelligible to the listener. Eugen Bleuler, (1911/1950), who coined the term ‘schizophrenia’, believed it to be the consequence of ‘loosening of the associations’, which he argued is a fundamental symptom of the disorder.

(ADHD), formerly called hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction, a chronic, neurologically based syndrome characterized by any or all of three types of behavior: hyperactivity, distractibility, and impulsivity.

One of a spectrum of disorders defined by problems with communication, imagination, and social interaction. The symptoms may be present from birth or may develop in early childhood, around the third year. In rare cases, autistic individuals may show extraordinary talents in some areas. A condition of neurodevelopment, autism is more common in males, with onset typically in infancy. It is diagnosed when a child or adult has abnormalities in a ‘triad’ of behavioral domains: social development, communication, and repetitive behavior / obsessive interests.

Disability caused by brain damage before or during birth or in the first years, resulting in a loss of voluntary muscular control and coordination.

From Encyclopedia of Special Education
A term representing an umbrella category referring to a diverse group of physical, cognitive, psychological, sensory, and speech impairments that begin anytime during an individual’s development up to 22 years of age.

From Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development
Although the majority of children learn to read without difficulty, a substantial minority (between 4 and 10 percent) have significant problems.

From Encyclopedia of Special Education
Children and adults classified as learning disabled (LD) are those individuals who are of normal intelligence but suffer mental information processing difficulties.

From Encyclopedia of Special Education
Selective mutism is a psychological disorder of childhood characterized by total and persistent lack of speech in at least one specific environment (such as the classroom), despite the presence of normal speech in other environments.

State of dependence caused by frequent and regular use of drugs, alcohol, or other substances. It is characterized by uncontrolled craving, tolerance, and symptoms of withdrawal when access is denied. Habitual use produces changes in body chemistry and treatment must be geared to a gradual reduction in dosage.

Disease characterized by impaired control over the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Any one of a group of drugs that are powerful central nervous system stimulants. Amphetamines have stimulating effects opposite to the effects of depressants such as alcohol, narcotics, and barbiturates.

Psychoactive substances obtained from Cannabis sativa or Indian hemp are the oldest euphoriants. Also called marijuana, these substances do not usually result in physical DEPENDENCE, but chronic abuse leads to passivity, apathy and inertia

Alkaloid drug derived from the leaves of the coca shrub. A commonly abused illegal drug, cocaine has limited medical uses.

From The Encyclopedia of Addictions and Addictive Behaviors
Although there is a long list of drugs that are banned by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as Schedule I illegal drugs, underworld chemists constantly seek to develop new drugs that create the same effects of stimulants or hallucinogens or other drugs, but whose chemical formulation has not yet been banned. These are called “designer drugs.”

An illegal recreational drug in increasing use since the 1980s. It is a modified amphetamine with mild psychedelic effects, and works by releasing large a mounts of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) from the brain.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Any substance that acts on the central nervous system to produce changes in perception and mood and often hallucinations. Hallucinogens include LSD, peyote, and mescaline. Their effects are unpredictable and they are illegal in most countries.

Opiate drug synthesized from morphine (see narcotic). Originally produced in 1874, it was thought to be not only nonaddictive but useful as a cure for respiratory illness and morphine addiction, and capable of relieving morphine withdrawal symptoms.

lkaloid synthesized from lysergic acid, which is found in the fungus ergot (Claviceps purpurea). It is a hallucinogenic drug that intensifies sense perceptions and produces hallucinations, mood changes, and changes in the sense of time.

From Black's Medical Dictionary, 42nd Edition
Derived from the Mexican peyote cactus, Anhalonium lewinii, this is a hallucinogen used for many centuries by Indian tribes in Mexico as an intoxicant to produce ecstatic states for religious celebrations. In recent times its ability to produce temporary psychotic symptoms has been used to investigate the mechanism of PSYCHOSIS.

Methamphetamine, or “meth,” is an addictive central nervous system (CNS) stimulant with limited medical value.

Following an increase in the prevalence of chronic pain and campaigns denouncing inadequate treatment of pain, the past two decades have culminated in what researchers and healthcare advocates are calling an “opioid epidemic” in Canada and the United States where prescription opioid consumption is highest worldwide.

Substance derived by collecting and drying the milky juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. Opium varies in color from yellow to dark brown and has a characteristic odor and a bitter taste.

From Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health
An overdose is the accidental or intentional use of a drug or medicine in an amount that is higher than normally used or prescribed.