Mental Disorders: Types, Impact, and Crime

Mental Disorder

• A clinically significant disturbance in cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior characterizes mental disorders.
• Mental disorders are associated with distress or impairment in important areas of functioning.
• Mental disorders can also be referred to as mental health conditions, a broader term covering mental disorders, psychosocial disabilities, and mental states associated with distress, impairment, or risk of self-harm.
• 1 in 8 people worldwide has a mental disorder.
• There are a variety of mental disorders with effective prevention and treatment options available, though most people lack access to these treatments.

Mental Disorder and Crime

• The relationship between psychiatric illness and criminality has been a topic of intense debate, which is often conflated with importance.
• The popular belief suggests that people with mental illness are more prone to violence and aggression; however, data suggests otherwise.
• People with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators, but are more likely to be treated as criminals by the justice system.

DSM and DSM-5

• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is used by clinicians and psychiatrists in the U.S. to diagnose psychiatric illnesses.
• The DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), covers all categories of mental health disorders for adults and children.
• DSM-5 is the fifth edition, and DSM-5-TR (text revision) is the latest version used.
• The handbook contains descriptions, symptoms, and other criteria necessary for diagnosing mental health disorders.

Mental Disorder Causes

• There is no single cause for mental illness, the number of factors that can contribute include:
• Genes and family history
• Life experiences, like stress or a history of abuse, especially if they happen in childhood
• Biological factors such as chemical imbalances in the brain
• Traumatic brain injury
• Mother's exposure to viruses or toxic chemicals while pregnant
• Use of alcohol or recreational drugs
• Having a serious medical condition like cancer
• Having few friends and feeling lonely or isolated

Genetics

• Some mental health problems may run in families, but if that is due to genes, environment, or learned and adopted behaviors is not definitively known.

Anxiety Disorders

• Anxiety disorders are mental illnesses causing significant worry or fear that is fairly constant and negatively impacts an individual's quality of life.
• Experts now recommend that women and girls over age 13 be screened for anxiety disorders as part of routine medical care.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

• Each anxiety disorder is characterized by its symptoms and diagnostic criteria.
• Agoraphobia is an irrational fear of being in situations where escape is impossible, leading people to avoid situations where they may feel panicked, helpless, or trapped.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) involves excessive worry and anxiety related to various activities and events that are difficult to control and shift from one concern to another.
• Panic Disorder involves experiencing intense panic attacks with physical and emotional symptoms like rapid heartbeat, increased respiration, and extreme terror.
• Selective Mutism is an anxiety disorder occurring during childhood that prevents children from speaking in specific settings; fidgeting, lack of eye contact, and lack of expressions often accompany it.
• Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) involves a fear of social situations where people feel others scrutinize everything they do and experience physical and emotional symptoms of fear.
• Specific Phobias involve intense fear of a specific object or situation that is overwhelming and out of proportion to the threat, leading to avoidance behaviors.

OCD and PTSD

• Although the disorders have a commonality and are related, they are distinctly different.
• Anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders are now three different categories.
• While OCD and PTSD are no longer officially categorized as anxiety disorders, they share many characteristics, and anxiety symptoms are common in both conditions.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that create significant anxiety.

Personality Disorder

• Personality disorders are chronic patterns of emotions, cognitions, and behavior that cause enduring distress and difficulties with work and relationships.
• Paranoid Personality Disorder is characterized by excessive mistrust and suspicion of others without justification.
• Schizoid Personality Disorder involves a pattern of detachment from social relationships and a limited range of emotions in interpersonal situations.
• Schizotypal Personality Disorder involves psychotic-like symptoms, social deficits, and sometimes cognitive impairments or paranoia.
• Antisocial Personality Disorder is characterized by a history of failing to comply with social norms, performing actions that violate others' rights, and being irresponsible, impulsive, and deceitful.
• Borderline Personality Disorder involves unstable moods and relationships, poor self-image, feelings of emptiness, and a high risk of suicide.
• Histrionic Personality Disorder involves being overly dramatic, theatrical, vain, self-centered, uncomfortable when not in the limelight, and impulsive.
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder includes an unreasonable sense of self-importance, preoccupation with oneself, lack of sensitivity and compassion for others, and a need for admiration.
• Avoidant Personality Disorder involves extreme sensitivity to the opinions of others, anxiety-driven avoidance of social relationships, and low self-esteem.
• Dependent Personality Disorder involves relying on others to make ordinary and important decisions, leading to a fear of abandonment.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is characterized by a fixation on things being done "the right way," which prevents them from completing tasks.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a disruption of identity as evidenced by two or more distinct personality states.
• Those with DID have a disrupted sense of self and show alterations in behaviors, attitudes, and emotions when these alternate personality states occur.
• Host personalities attempt to hold identity fragments together, and alters are the term for the different identities or personalities in DID.
• Cross-gendered alters are common, with the transition from one personality to another is called a switch.

Somatoform Disorder

• Somatic symptom disorders involve an excessive or maladaptive response to physical symptoms or health concerns.
• People with somatic symptom disorder (SSD) feel weak and ill, report various physical complaints involving discomfort, gastrointestinal symptoms, sexual symptoms, and pseudoneurological symptoms.
• Illness Anxiety Disorder (hypochondriasis) is excessive worry about having or developing an undiagnosed medical condition, despite normal physical examination and lab test results.

Conversion Disorder

• Conversion Disorder (functional neurological symptom disorder) is a psychological condition with symptoms that appear neurological without obvious organic causes; these can include abnormal walking, blindness, deafness, loss of balance, or seizures.

Delusional Disorder

• Delusional disorder is characterized by one or more firmly held false beliefs that persist for at least one month.
• Delusions may involve situations that could occur in real life or situations that are very unlikely to occur.

Types of Delusional Disorders

• Erotomanic: belief that another person is in love with them, often leading to attempts to contact or stalk them.
• Grandiose: convinced of having some great talent or making an important discovery.
• Jealous: convinced that a spouse or lover is unfaithful based on incorrect evidence.
• Persecutory: belief that they are being plotted against, spied on, maligned, or harassed.
• Somatic: preoccupied with a bodily function/attribute, such as an imagined physical deformity or odor.

Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves; onset typically occurs between 16 and 30 years old.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

• Psychotic symptoms include changes in the way a person thinks, acts, and experiences the world; including hallucinations (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling things that are not there), delusions (strong, irrational beliefs), thought disorder (unusual/illogical thinking), and movement disorder (abnormal body movements).
• Negative symptoms include loss of motivation, loss of interest or enjoyment in daily activities, withdrawal from social life, difficulty showing emotions, and difficulty functioning normally.
• Cognitive symptoms include problems in attention, concentration, and memory, which can make it hard to follow conversations, learn new things, or remember appointments.

Sexual Disorder (Paraphilic Disorders)

• Paraphilias: frequent, intense sexually arousing fantasies/behaviors involving inanimate objects, children, nonconsenting adults, or suffering/humiliation of someone.
• Paraphilic disorders: paraphilias that cause distress/functioning problems or may harm another.
• Frotteuristic Disorder: rubbing against an unconsenting individual in a crowded place.
• Fetishistic Disorder: sexually attracted to non-living objects (e.g., women's undergarments/shoes).
• Voyeuristic Disorder: observing an unsuspecting individual undressing/naked.
• Exhibitionistic Disorder: exposing genitals to unsuspecting strangers.
• Transvestic Disorder: sexual arousal associated with dressing in clothes of the opposite sex/cross-dressing.

Sexula Sadism/Masochism AND Pedophilic Disorder/Incest

• Sexual sadism/masochism: inflicting pain/humiliation (sadism) or suffering pain/humiliation (masochism) to become sexually aroused.
• Pedophilic Disorder: sexual attraction to children.
• Incest: the pedophilia takes the form of incest when the person with the sexual disorder is related to children.

Suicide

• Suicide: a self-inflicted death in which the person acts intentionally, directly, and consciously.
• Risk Factors: More than 700,000 people a year die by suicide.
• Suicide Types can be Altruistic, Egoistic, Anomic, or Fatalistic.
• Suicide attempts are when people harm themselves with the goal of ending their life, but they do not die and are a major risk factor.
• Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among people ages 15-29. Many factors for suicide include:
• History of suicide attempts and/or mental disorders
• Family history with Violence
• Presence of dangerous items in a home
• Lack of help