Psychopathology Overview Quiz

Study Notes

The study of mental disorders, including their issues, causes, and processes.
Mental disorders must significantly impact a person's personal, social, or occupational life.
Biological changes may or may not be involved.
The DSM-V categorizes mental disorders, not individuals with them.
If there's no distress or dysfunction, there's no problem.

A psychiatric diagnosis serves two purposes: define clinical entities and determine treatments.
Patients with a particular diagnosis should present with specific cardinal symptoms (e.g., insomnia, diminished interest in pleasurable activities, diminished concentration) and have a similar natural history.
A diagnosis should reflect the origin and pathogenesis of the condition, including its typical age of onset and life course.
A diagnosis's validity and reliability determine its effectiveness in defining a disorder and guiding treatment.

Symptoms are experienced subjectively and cannot be observed. Examples include hallucinations, paranoid thinking, anxiety, and pain.
Signs can be observed and documented objectively. Examples include weight loss, phobic behavior, restless behavior, and paranoid speech.
People with mental disorders present with both symptoms and issues, while people with problems in living have only issues.
Issues contain ideas that symptoms do not.
Biological factors primarily cause symptoms, while psychosocial factors primarily determine issues.

The descriptive approach focuses on relatively objective phenomena like signs, symptoms, and natural history.
The psychological approach focuses on inferred causes and internal mechanisms behind behavior.
Both approaches are valuable because they address different aspects of psychopathology.

DSM-II was created to align with the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases.
However, DSM-II suffered from low inter-rater reliability and validity.
Its categories didn't define disorders with predictable signs, symptoms, natural histories, or responses to treatment.
The descriptive revival arose from the discovery of various medications that alleviated or eliminated symptoms of specific disorders.
The ability to correctly diagnose became crucial for selecting the right medication.