Abnormal Behaviour in Historical Context (PL3236)

yes i took almost 3 weeks to trot back here from my textbook. :X thanks to test on monday. :( ANYWAY.
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There are 3 main components attributing to a psychological disorder. Firstly, there has to be psychological dysfunction, ie. a breakdown in cognitive, emotional or behavioural functioning (layman: you think, feel and act weirdly). These dysfunctions are not simply present or absent, but rather vary along a continuum. Secondly, the disorder/behaviour has to result in personal distress (layman: upsets you). Lastly, the response is atypical or culturally unexpected (layman: deviating from average). This last attribute tends to be rather vague and controversial because what is unusual or unacceptable to one may not be so to others. An issue of relativity again. Hence, the diagnosis of psychological disorder is often ambiguous (so stop thinking that all psychologists own a crystal ball).

In sum, the accepted definition of a psychological disorder from the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible of all psychopathologists :X) is behavioural, emotional or cognitive dysfunctions that are unexpected in their cultural context and associated with personal distress or substantial impairment in functioning.

Psychopathology is the study of psychological disorders, commonly referred to as clinical psychology. Associated fields of occupation are clinical and counseling psychologists, as well as psychiatrists and psychiatric social workers. The main difference between a psychologist and psychiatrist is that the latter goes through medical school first before specializing psychiatry as post-grad. The latter is also more concerned with the biological view of psychological disorders and treatments. Psychiatric social workers earn a social work degree and focus more on disorders related to family problems.

Mental health professionals adopt a scientist-practitioner model. As a scientist, they have to be updated with the latest developments on diagnosis and treatment, evaluate the effectiveness of their own methods and produce their own research to discover new information on disorders and treatments. In practice, they describe psychological disorders, determine their causes and treat them.

A clinical description, which is the unique combination of behaviours, thoughts and feelings that form a specific disorder, begins with the presenting problem. The primary function of a clinical description is to distinguish clinically significant dysfunction from common human experience (layman: depression/sadness is common in everyone so how do we determine if they are actually symptoms of a disorder?). Statistical data come in useful in terms of prevalence, ie how many people in the entire population have the disorder, and incidence, ie the number of new cases that occur during a given period. Sex ratio and age of onset can be useful as well.

Identifying the course (layman: individual pattern) of the disorder is also important. Disorders can follow a chronic course, which is long lasting; episodic course, which recovery is rather quick but relapse(s) may occur later on; time-limited course, where the disorder improves without treatment within a short period.

Similarly, there are also differences in onset. Acute onset refers to a sudden attack while an insidious onset refers to a gradual one over an extended period. Knowing the typical course and onset of a disorder, one can then be prepared and deal with the problem appropriately.

The anticipated course of a disorder is known as the prognosis. If it is “good”, chances of recovery is high. If it is “guarded”, outcome is probably not too optimistic.

Etiology is the study of origins of a disorder, which includes biological, psychological and social aspects. Treatment then becomes crucial since if a new drug or treatment successfully treats a disorder, it may suggest the nature and causes of the disorder. However, it is not always the case, because effect does not always imply cause. For instance, you may take charcoal pills to relief your diarrhea after eating too much trash. But when you feel better, it does not mean that the diarrhea was caused by a lack of charcoal pill intake.

Ok I need a break.