The Brain Mental Disorders

The DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, lists all medically recognized mental disorders, along with standard criteria for diagnoses.

The DSM is now in its 5th edition (DSM-V)

A mental illness is a medical condition that involves disruption in a person’s thinking, behavior, mood, or social interaction, to the point of severely decreasing his/her ability to function in everyday life.

Psychosis is a general term for a mental state that involves a loss of contact with reality, generally involving hallucinations or delusions.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder whose main feature includes a loss of touch with reality, or psychosis.

Schizophrenia is extremely difficult to treat.

The major symptoms of schizophrenia include:

1. Delusions

2. Hallucinations

3. Paranoia

4. Reduced emotional expressiveness

5. Disorganized speech

6. Difficulty planning tasks or thinking through decisions

About 1% of adults in the United States suffer from schizophrenia at some point in their lives.

There are no known causes of schizophrenia.

There are, however, multiple possible schizophrenia correlates including:

A disconnection between brain regions
Issues with the neurotransmitters glutamate and dopamine
Brain abnormalities, although none are universal
Genetic predisposition
Experiencing a traumatic event

A mood disorder is any mental disorder in which disturbances in mood are the main feature.

1. Bipolar disorder

2. Major depressive disorder

3. Dysthymia

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mood disorder characterized by persistent low mood, feelings of worthlessness, and an inability to experience pleasure or find meaning in life.

People that have depression tend to show:

1. Reduced activity in several brain regions, particularly the prefrontal cortex

2. Overactive amygdala

3. Reduced volume of the hippocampus

About 16.5% of the adult population of the United States is afflicted with depression at some point in their lives.

Prolonged stress leads to a high level of glucocorticoids in the blood. In large amounts, glucocorticoids prevent neurogenesis (the formation of new cells) in the hippocampus, as well as other brain regions.

In effect, the more stress a person experiences, the more shrunken their hippocampus will become.

The reduced size of the hippocampus is a common brain abnormality among people with depression.

1. Serotonin

2. Norepinephrine

3. Dopamine

Dysthymia is a mood disorder characterized by chronic depression in which symptoms are not as severe as major depressive disorder.

Bipolar disoder is a type of mood disorder that is characterized by quick fluctuations between a depressed phase and a highly manic phase.

Symptoms of the manic phase of bipolar disorder include:

1. Racing thoughts

2. Extreme talkativeness

3. Reckless behavior

4. Little need for sleep

5. Elevated mood and/or extreme irritability

A personality disorder is a mental disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of rigid, inflexible behavior that deviates from the cultural norms or social expectations, particularily relating to others.

A person with a personality disorder tends to think his/her behavior is normal and appropriate.

Antisocial personality disorder is a type of personality disorder marked by a lack of empathy and a disregard for right and wrong.

People with antisocial personality disorder are often good at flattery and manipulation; they often lie, cheat, and steal, rarely showing remorse.

males

However, not much more is known because sufferers rarely feel the need to seek help.

1. An extreme impulse to set fires

2. A cruelty to animals

Avoidant personality disorder is a personality disorder marked by anxiety and reluctance to connect with others.

People with avoidant personality disorder exhibit feelings of inadequacy, shyness due to anxiety, and their feelings are easily hurt.

About 1% of the population suffers from avoidant personality disorder at any given time.

Avoidant personality disorder affects males and females equally.

Both are essentially synonymous with antisocial personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder, (BPD), is a personality disorder marked by extremely unstable mood and impulsive behavior.

People with BPD exhibit extreme distress in response to real or perceived abandonment, an intolerance of being alone, feelings of emptiness and boredom, and self-injury.

BPD is much more common in females than in males.

An anxiety disorder is a group of disorders characterized by intense and inappropriate anxiety, especially in response to neutral stimuli, to the point of interfering with daily functioning.

Five examples of anxiety disorders are:

1. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

2. Generalized anxiety disorder

3. Panic disorder

4. Social anxiety/phobia

5. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

A panic disorder is an anxiety disorder that involves frequent panic attacks, even when there is no immediate threat.

A panic attack is a brief (15-20 minute) burst of intense fear and anxiety felt by people that suffer from panic disorder.

During a panic attack the person might experience dizziness, chest pain, nausea, sweating, shaking, and the feeling that one is about to die.

Panic attacks are almost entirely unpredictable, or they are set off by neutral stimuli that are associated with previous panic attacks.

Agoraphobia is a subtype of panic disorder; it is marked by a fear of being in places or situations where escape might be difficult, even if the situation is harmless.

Often, agoraphobia includes the fear of leaving one's house at all.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, (PTSD), is an anxiety disorder triggered by and closely related to a past traumatic event.

Four symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder include:

1. Flashbacks to the traumatic event

2. Nightmares

3. Emotional numbness or excessive irritability

4. Avoidance of things associated with the traumatic event

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder marked by unwanted repetitive thoughts, feelings, or ideas (obsessions), and ritualized actions triggered by those ideas (compulsions).

People with an anxiety disorder tend to show:

1. Larger, more active amygdala

2. Smaller hippocampus

In people with OCD there is a overactivity of central grey nuclei in the brain, the structure responsible for involuntary movement.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that appears within the first 3 years of a child's life.

Whether or not autism should be described as a "mental illness" is up for debate.

Some of the major symptoms associated with autism include:

1. Difficulty with social interaction

2. Slow development of speaking ability

3. Repetition of overheard phrases

4. Heightened or decreased sensitivity to external stimuli

5. Distress in response to changes in routine

An overgrowth of the brain is observed in prenatal and early postnatal development of some, but not all, people with autism.