...Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Susan Harvey Psy/240 June-8-2014 Autumn Harrell Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Discuss any associated theories behind the disorders and diseases. * Schizophrenia * Depression * Mania * Anxiety Disorder * Tourette Syndrome The first disorder I am going to discuss is Schizophrenia, this is defined as “the splitting of psychic functions.” There are positive as well as negative symptoms to determining schizophrenia. Some of these symptoms include for the positive, delusions of being controlled, delusions of persecution or delusions of grandeur, hallucinations (voices), inappropriate affect “failure to react with the appropriate emotion to positive of negative events”, incoherent speech or thought, and odd behavior. The negative symptoms are, affective flattering, alogia “reduction or absence of emotional expression” avolition “lack of motivation” anhedonia “inability to experience pleasure.” The recurrence of any two of these symptoms “positive or negative” for one month is sufficient for diagnosis of schizophrenia. (Tamminga & Holcomb, 2005; Walker et al 2004) 1% of the population develops schizophrenia. If a family member has this disorder, then the parents, or siblings have a greater chance (10%) to develop the same disorder (Kendler & Gruenberg, 1984; Rosenthal et al 1980) Dopamine theory of schizophrenia is the theory that schizophrenia is caused by too much dopamine and conversely...
Words: 852 - Pages: 4
...Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs By Stacy Davis Psych 240 Week 8 Stephanie Neuhring There are many psychological disorders and diseases that affect many people in this world and some of the people with these diseases are being treated with certain medications. Some of the disease most commonly treated is schizophrenia which means the splitting of psychic functions. Antipsychotic drugs are the cornerstone in the management of schizophrenia. Although, these medications don’t cure this disease they greatly reduce the symptoms and allow the patient to function better. The first antipsychotic drug was Thorazine, it was made by accident and was used to treat schizophrenia. The first antischizophrenic drug, chlorpromazine. Chlorpromazine was originally developed as an antihistamine. Soon after other medications such as; Haldol, Prolixin, Navanem Loxapine, Stelazine, Trilafon, and Mallaril were used also. These drugs are known as “neuroleptics” (meaning, “take the neuron”) because these treat positive symptoms they cause cognitive dulling and involuntary movements, among other side effects. The older drugs are not as effective against negative symptoms such as apathy, decreased motivation, and lack of emotional expressiveness. In 1989, new antopsychotics were developed, these were called atypical antipsycoltics, and these had fewer side effects which include, muscular rigidity, painful spasms, restlessness, and tremors. The first new drug, Clozaril is the only one shown...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
...Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Psychiatric disorders and diseases are those conditions defined by the presentation of abnormal behavior. Abnormal behavior is often defined by the mental health profession as behavior which is unusual or atypical. In addition, the individual suffering from a psychiatric disease or disorder may have difficulty with perception of reality or the hindered ability to interpret reality which may cause significant personal distress, self defeating behavior or otherwise dangerous behavior to oneself or others. Often times these behaviors are also socially unacceptable to ones specific culture (Nevid & Rathus, 2005). Schizophrenia is one of the most complex psychiatric diseases of all time. The disease name means “the splitting of psychic functions” (Pinel, 2007, p.481). The individual diagnosed with schizophrenia will commonly present symptoms which include bizarre delusions, inappropriate affect, hallucinations, incoherent thoughts and odd behavior with these symptoms varying in severity (Pinel, 2007). Various theories on schizophrenia have come to fruition over time. It is the belief of some researchers that schizophrenia has a genetic predisposition and that combined with experiences involving immense trauma or stress the disease can be triggered for development. In addition, those individuals with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia who suffer hindered neurodevelopment at...
Words: 1222 - Pages: 5
...Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases and Drugs PSY 240 Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases and Drugs There are a multitude of different psychiatric disorders and diseases that affect millions of people every year. These disorders and diseases interfere with the person sufferings everyday lives, emotions, productivity, physical well being and personal relationships. We will discuss theories associated with disorders and diseases such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorder, mania, and tourettes syndrome. We will also discuss the drugs that can remedy these disorders and diseases or lessen the symptoms of them so people can live their daily lives as well as looking at the negative sides of these drugs. Schizophrenia is a very damaging mental disorder. Anyone that has this disorder can lose all sense of reality and can cause delusions, hallucinations and possible chances of extreme paranoia. The ages of those with the first signs of schizophrenia does range. According to (NIMH Schizophrenia, n.d.) males in their late teens, early twenties and women in their twenties to early thirties are the average age range of sufferers. A person suffering from schizophrenia normally makes some recovery, but will likely deal with some of the symptoms of this disorder for the rest of their lives. Many people with schizophrenia become quite suspicious of others and summon a story in their minds of paranoia, like others are out to get them. This type of behavior of paranoid schizophrenia can...
Words: 1236 - Pages: 5
...PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS, DISEASES, AND DRUGS Assignment: Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Mental illness has a detrimental effect on psychosocial functioning of individuals, but Schizophrenia is among the worst. There are many other forms of psychiatric disorders these include, depression, mania, anxiety disorders, and Tourette syndrome. Psychiatrists or clinical psychologists typically treat such disorders (Pinel, 2007, p. 481). Each disorder is unique, and symptoms vary from one individual to the next. In fact, as psychiatrists and psychologists continue to discover new facts about these disorders as they encounter different cases. This paper will discuss the serious mental illness of Schizophrenia; the symptoms, treatment, and medications. The symptoms of Schizophrenia are bizarre and frightening. Persons who suffer from Schizophrenia face a loss of reality, strange behavior, social withdrawal, hallucinations and delusions (Pinel, 2007, p. 482). MSN Encarta (2009) points out that, "A person with Schizophrenia may have difficulty telling the difference between real and unreal experiences, logical and illogical thoughts, or appropriate and inappropriate behavior." These symptoms are sometimes genetically based, which will leave the person with a possible ten per cent chance of developing the disorder is a close relative was afflicted with schizophrenia. Additionally, jumbled thinking is another symptom of Schizophrenia. The person is described as speaking in...
Words: 850 - Pages: 4
...Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Barb Parker PSY/240 April 7, 2012 Rebecca Gazda Psychiatric disorders and neuropsychological disorders were, in the past, thought to be caused by two different abnormalities (Pinel, 2009). Now there is enough evidence to qualify both disorders as disorders of dysfunctional brains (Pinel, 2009). There are a few differences in the causes; psychiatric disorders are more influenced by experience and are harder to diagnose (Pinel, 2009). This summary will briefly describe the different theories with the psychiatric disorders of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, bulimia nervosa, and Tourette syndrome, as well as drug therapies used to treat them. Schizophrenia in itself has no clear definition because of its relationship with other brain disorders (Pinel, 2009). Because of the various symptoms produced by schizophrenia, such as delusions, hallucinations, inappropriate reactions to events, illogical thinking, and periods of catatonia, many professional refer to the disorder as schizophrenias (Pinel, 2009). There are several abstract thoughts behind the causes of schizophrenia including the developmental, genetic, and dopamine theories. The genetic theory suggests that people can be predisposed genetically to schizophrenias when certain environmental experiences interact, but it is not known how (“Schizophrenia: Current Theories”, 2011). The developmental hypothesis is based on complications occurring during...
Words: 1240 - Pages: 5
...Psychiatric disorders, diseases, and drugs Tylicia Bell Psy/240 Beth PepMiller 01/27/13 1 Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is characterized as a person having a split of psychic functions. It was found in the early years and is the breakdown of emotion, thought and actions. Schizophrenia is associated with madness and attacks about 1% of people. It doesn’t discriminate because it can affect all races and cultures. It starts in the early adulthood stage. Schizophrenia has positive and negative symptoms. Some positive symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and odd behavior. Some negative symptoms include alogia (reduce of speech, and anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure). Drugs that lesson these effects are chlorpromazine, haloperidol, Prolixin, Navane. These drugs work by altering the activity of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. They transmit signals from one brain cell to another. These drugs have side effects like many other drugs. Such side effects can include muscle spasms, tremor, dry mouth, blurred vision, and drowsiness. There are some symptoms that are more on the negative side. A person can have a long term side effect called TD (Tardive Dyskinesia). This is where a person can have involuntary movements which can affect the lips, mouth, tongue and sometimes the trunk of the body. It occurs in 15 to 20 percent of patients who are taking the old antipsychotic drugs. The symptoms are so mild...
Words: 878 - Pages: 4
...Psychiatric disorders are defined in our text as disorders of psychological function sufficiently severe to require treatment. The clinical psychologist or the psychiatrist has their work cut out for them when it comes to diagnosing psychiatric disorders. Each disorder has its own diagnosis, treatment method, and medication. Schizophrenia can make it hard to live everyday life without treatment. Schizophrenia can affect how you think, react, and just live in the world. With schizophrenia they have two categories for symptoms, positive and negative. Positive symptoms represent an excess or distortion of normal function. Negative symptoms represent a reduction or loss of normal function. Some positive symptoms include; delusions, hallucinations, inappropriate affect, incoherent speech or thought, and odd behavior. The negative symptoms include; affective flattening, alogia, avolition, and anhedonia. One way that clinical psychologist and psychiatrist determine if a person has schizophrenia is if they have any two of the symptoms occur for one month. The main symptoms that are looked for are delusions that are bizarre or an hallucination that includes voices. One of the biggest treatments for schizophrenia are antipsychotic drugs. The antipsychotic medication is effect because it changes the balance of chemicals in the brain and can help control symptoms. The negative effects of these drugs are that they are many side effects. Common side effects are; dizziness, feelings of restlessness...
Words: 973 - Pages: 4
...The Disease of Drug Addiction Joanne Frye HSER 340 Abstract Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive seeking and use of addictive substances despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her. Introduction Dramatic advances in science over the past 20 years have shown that drug addiction is a chronic relapsing disease that results from the prolonged effects of drugs on the brain. (Leshner, 1997) It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain structure and how the brain works. (Volkow and Schelbert, 2007) As with many other brain diseases, addiction has embedded behavioral and social-context aspects that are important parts of the disorder itself. Therefore, the most effective treatment approaches will include biological, behavioral, and social-context components. Recognizing addiction as a chronic, relapsing brain disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use can impact society’s overall health and social policy strategies and help diminish the health and social costs associated with drug abuse and addiction (Leshner, 1997). Addiction as a Disease For decades, the orthodox view in neuroscience and psychiatry has been that addiction is a psychiatric disease (Jellinek, 1960). In 1968 it was included in the second revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, positioning it explicitly as a mental illness for the purpose diagnosis and treatment...
Words: 1701 - Pages: 7
...Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Many people suffer from some form of a psychiatric disorder, which affects a person’s ability to behave in way that is deemed normal by society. Several mental disorders have extreme effects on the mental health of those who suffer from them. It is estimated that as much of 3.3 percent of the U.S. population is found in a thirty day period to suffer from extreme psychological distress (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Schizophrenia, depression, mania, anxiety disorder, and Tourette syndrome are the top five psychiatric disorders, and the effects of each on a person’s mental health range from mild to severe. Schizophrenia is a common psychotic disorder; however it is complicated to diagnose because some neurological disorders share the same symptoms (Pinel, J.P.J. 2009. p. 457). The symptoms that are linked to this disorder are delusions, inappropriate affect, hallucinations, incoherent thought, and odd behavior. Diagnosis is made when a person has experienced at least one or more of the indicators in a consistent time frame. People who suffer from this have trouble organizing their thoughts into logical connections (WebMD, 2012). The statistic rate for people who suffers from this disorder is extremely low; and the cause is relatively unknown. The percentage rate for the amount of people at risk is considerably low; on the other hand the probability is higher on the inheritance rate. This disorder is not curable;...
Words: 1199 - Pages: 5
...epidemic of frightening proportion, taking place primarily in children. Cases of a psychiatric deficiency known as Attention Deficit Disorder, or “ADD,” have been popping up in young kids and teenagers all over the country. What’s causing this? The American Psychiatric Association, often referred to as the “APA,” claims that the disorder has always been this prevalent, but it was only recently discovered, hence the increasing number of diagnoses, but there seems to be more to this “disorder” than meets the eye. As the number of cases continues to grow, many believe that the number of people with ADD is actually unchanging, and is in fact, zero. While the APA would like you to think otherwise, ADD and ADHD are fictitious disorders. The cause for question in this conversation of the reality of Attention Deficit Disorder has many aspects. Of them, are the facts that ADD and ADHD are only recognized as psychiatric disorders in the United States of America, the suspicious timing of the entrance of these disorders into the APA’s psychiatric journal: the DSM, and the pharmaceutical industry’s role in treatment. These factors, some big, some small, build the often criticized argument against the authenticity of ADD and ADHD as mental disorders. The United States has been home to many unique and wonderful things, but rarely is any one country the sole victim of a disease, let alone one psychiatric in nature. Of all the countries in the world, the United States is the only one claiming...
Words: 1272 - Pages: 6
...carries a mental health disorder along this journey, it can become an even more treacherous and dangers path. These are indeed two very complex struggles for one human being. The combination of a person suffering an alcohol or substance abuse disorder and a mental illness disorder are identified has having a dual diagnosis. Dual diagnosis has different causes, difficulty in trying to diagnose and difficult to treat and it affects many in our world today. Most importantly, a dual diagnosis is most difficult on the individual who suffers with the disease. Dual Diagnosis Definition and Types What does dual-diagnosis actually mean? A dual diagnosis disorder occurs when an individual is affected by both chemical dependency and an emotional or psychiatric illness. Both chemical dependency and psychiatric illness may affect an individual physically, psychologically, socially and spiritually (The Dual Diagnosis Recovery Book, 1993). The most common mental health issues that coincide with addictions are ADHD, anxiety, depressions, bi-polar, schizophrenia, personality disorders, eating disorders and PTSD. The combination of a mental health illness and an addiction can exasperate the symptoms and triggers of the individual’s illness to dangerous physical and mental levels. These disorders combined can effect each disease and interact with each other dramatically because they are closely intertwined. It is difficult to determine which of the co-occurring disease is happens. Alcohol...
Words: 1349 - Pages: 6
...Psychiatric disorders differ from neuropsychological disorders. A psychiatric disorder is a type of psychological function or lack of, relating to common functionality in an individual. A neuropsychological disorder is different yet hard to separate due to defining difficulties leading to unclear differences between the two types of disorders. Researchers show that the main difference between the two disorders begins with the archaic mind-brain. In other words the neuropsychological disorders are thought to be a product of a dysfunctional brain. Psychiatric disorders are those assumed to be products of dysfunctional minds, absent in the brains pathology. In recent studies we have learned these two types of disorders are closely related however, there tends to be some differences between them such as experiential factors. Some common psychiatric disorders are schizophrenia, depression, mania, anxiety disorders, and tourette syndrome. No matter what research shows us as far as relation of two types of disorders, it is important to remember how serious some of them can be. In order to understand some of the disorders one should know about what they do and what happens to the individual who suffers from them including drugs that can help or negative effects of association by certain drugs used in common psychiatric disorders. The term schizophrenia was coined in the early 20th century, meaning- splitting of psychic functions. Schizophrenia is the disease which most commonly...
Words: 1397 - Pages: 6
...Analyzing Psychological Disorders 3/8/2013 Psy/240 Dr. Elizabeth Kindell Biopsychology is the study of the central nervous system and how it affects mental health or illness. In this paper I will discuss the psychological disorder known as Schizophrenia. I will evaluate the brain areas that are affected by this disorder, some of the possible casual factors, the characteristics symptoms, the neural basis and the drug treatment that works. The case studies I have chosen to review are Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Anorexia Nervosa, the eating disorder. I will use the nature vs. nurture theories to analyze these two disorders. I will also discuss the accepted drug therapies and alternative treatment for these two disorders. Part A: Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is known as a “splitting of psychic functions” (Pinel 2001, pg. 467). It is a chronic brain disorder that affects close to 2.5 million Americans and more than 24 million people worldwide. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it hard for the person suffering to tell the difference between what is real and not real. They have a difficult time having normal emotional responses and acting normally in social situations. A person that has Schizophrenia has a significant loss of brain gray matter. Neuroscientist have detected up to 25% loss of brain...
Words: 1907 - Pages: 8
...Addiction is specifically concern with the process by which drug-taking behavior, in certain individuals, evolves into compulsive patterns of drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior that take place at the expense of most other activities and the inability to cease drug-taking. THERE ARE FIVE THEORIES OF ADDICTION NAMELY; * MEDICAL MODEL * PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL * SOCIAL MODEL * MORAL MODEL * BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL MODEL MEDICAL MODEL This involves * Addiction as a “brain disease” * Neurotransmitter imbalance * Disease model: * Agent: drug * Vector: dealers * Host: addict PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL This involves the following * Drug abusers who are self-medicating * Drug abuse which is a symptom of underlying psychological problems * Drug use is also a maladaptive psychological coping strategy * Drug abusers also need to resolve internal conflict, and when they do, drug use will be unnecessary. SOCIAL MODEL This involves * Drug use as a learned behavior * People using drugs because drug use is modeled by others * Peer pressure * Environmental effects leading to drug use MORAL MODEL * Addicts are usually weak and can overcome a compulsion to use with willpower * Drug abusers are anti-social and should be punished for that * Drug are generally evil BIO-PSYCHO-SOCIAL MODEL * All the above are true, to greater or lesser degrees * Each person’s drug use is a result of some aspects of some or all the other models...
Words: 3596 - Pages: 15
