Defining, Classifying and Explaining Disorders

Unit 2 - Defining, Classifying and Explaining Disorders

Introduction using key terms and concepts

Normality is a type of behaviour normal for that person or the society, normality changes depending on the time and situation.

Deviation from the social norms is when someone does something not socially acceptable or approved. An example of someone deviating from the social norms is if a teacher goes to work naked and continues teaching. This would be classified as deviating from social norms, but if this was in another country like Namibia where they have a tribe named the Himba tribe were the girls only cover up their lower body and only cover the top when they get married, and the males only cover the front bottom and would be top less, for that culture, this is natural.

Failure to function properly means a person is unable to cope or function in thier daily life or as part of the community or society. An example of failure to function properly is a schizophrenic patient with delusional delusions that thinks the government, or some other organisation is after them, this can lead to them separating from family and loved ones ending up homeless or living in isolation. But in some cultures, a person with schizophrenic delusions will be prised as shamans or a priest and would be held in the highest regard.

Deviation from optimal mental health is when someone does something classified as abnormal for that society. The society would have to decide what is necessary for mental wellbeing, implying that a person who is identified in one society as having mental health issues would be classed as normal in another.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the DSM was created by the American Psychiatric Association and the main distribution was in 1952. It is the most legitimate and generally utilized indicative framework for mental problems. It is utilized decide a particular determination for patients, and in categorisation for research. In the USA, medical coverage organizations and emergency clinics as a rule require a DSM analysis for therapy to happen. The 2013 form of the DSM is known as DSM-5.

Clinics utilize the DSM to allocate an individual's classification of mental health. Every class at that point depicts the length and additionally seriousness of manifestations which are required for the side effect to fit the bill for an analysis.

The International Classification of Diseases and Related Health issues otherwise called the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is kept up by the World Health Organization (WHO). The main worldwide grouping release was distributed in 1893.

The ICD covers the wellbeing, not simply emotional wellness of people's mental health. While the DSM is more frequently utilized in the USA, the ICD will, in general, be in certain pieces of Europe and the remainder of the world. It's frequently applied to the assortment and introduction of infection measurements and is intended to permit global correlation. The ICD is presently on its eleventh version and it gives demonstrative codes to infections order, in view of indications and discoveries just as social conditions and reasons for illness and injury

The positive things about the classification system are that by making a diagnosis that help doctors in assessing what treatment is needed and the possible development of the condition. By receiving a diagnosis someone straggling with a mental health problem might feel relieved to get a name to what is wrong with them.

The weakness of using the classification system is that there are a lot of overlapping between different conditions as the symptoms can be grouped, meaning a person would receive a different diagnosis depending on who they went to. The other weakness of the classification system is that It can lead to a tunnel vision and trying to fit people into a clear disorder. The categorisation of mental health can lead to people becoming dehumanised and objectified, forced into a little box.

The biological model of abnormality states that mental disorders have a physical cause, the disorders can be described in the terms of the symptoms that a person is showing. The symptoms are mainly identified using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health issue, leading to a diagnosis of the disorder. Fuller Torrey and colleagues, 2000 says that Infections such as bacteria or viruses can cause an illness and there is some evidence that links the infections to mental health disorders. An example is that there is an incidence in schizophrenia in children who had mothers with the flue during the pregnancy.

There is also evidence that show that genetic factor in on whether someone will have mental health problems, an example of this is that people that are related that have an eating disorder are four or five times more likely to have the same disorder Strober and Humphrey,1987. This would be different for people with schizophrenia because the chances of the relatives would be 18 time more likely to have schizophrenia that someone not related to someone with schizophrenia kendle et al., 1985.

The studies done on twins has shown genetic influence in some disorders an example of the disorders are anorexia and alcoholism. Studies on gene mapping found that specific gene which may be implemented in some disorders such as bipolar.

Imbalance in chemicals in the brain is associated with some disorders and example schizophrenia is associated with an excessive amount of dopamine and studies done on drugs support this. An example of this is that a drug that increases serotonin activity like Prozac has been found to significantly reduce the symptoms of depression Hirschfeld, 1999.

Johnston et al., states that mental health disorders may be due to an abnormal brain structure an example of this is the post-mortem studies done on people with schizophrenia have shown that some differences between them and a person without schizophrenia such as larger cerebral ventricles.

The good thing about the models is that there is some evidence that show that the biology may account for some mental disorders, and that the models have a big on the treatment that someone with a mental health disorder may get. The models have been successful in treating some people with mental health problems.

The weakness of the biological is that it focuses on physical symptoms of other disorders and ignores psychological and social factors. Symptoms of most mental disorders are often subjective the model are more right for some but not all mental helth problems.

Atypic Behaviour is a psychological disorder or behaviour that diverges from the norm or is harmful and distressing to the people around them. Such types of behaviours normally contradict what society feels is acceptable. This can be caused by either a Biochemical or Genetic.

One hypothesis of schizophrenia is the dopamine hypothesis that states that people with schizophrenia have a high level of dopamine and that dopamine is thought to be the main cause for schizophrenia. This is because dopamine is responsible perception, and the excess level could be the explanation of the hallucinations that people with schizophrenia. 

The Genetic approach that schizophrenia could be due to genetic inheritance the methods used for this were twin studies, the studies involved pairs of non-identical to identify concordance rates, twins who share 100% of their genes are more alike in behaviour than non-identical twins who share only 50% of their genes. This provided the evidence for the role that genes in people with schizophrenia.  Gottesman, 1991

Monozygotic twins have a concordance rate of, 40.4%and the Dizygotic twins have a concordance rate of only 7.4%. This means that if one of the monozygotic twins has schizophrenia, then the other twin would then have a 40.4% chance of having it also. The higher the concordance rate monozygotic twins suggests that genetics have a strong influence in the development of schizophrenia.  joseph, 2004

Much of the evidence supporting the dopamine hypothesis comes from the successful of drug treatments that attempts to change levels of dopamine activity in the brain. the basic mechanism of antiseptic drugs is to reduce the effect of the dopamine and so reduces the symptoms of schizophrenia. An example of this is the experiments carried out by Leucht et al, in 2013 where he carried out meta-analysis off 212 studies that had analyze the effectiveness of different antipsychotic drugs compared with a placebo. they found that all drugs tested were significantly more effective than placebo in the treatment of positive and negative symptoms, achieve through normalization of dopamine.

A study done by Noll in 2009 claims there is a strong evidence against the original dopamine hypothesis the revised dopamine hypothesis.He argues that antipsychotic drugs do not alleviate hallucinations and delusions in about 1/3 of people experiencing the symptoms he also pointed out but in some people hallucination and delusion are present despite the level of dopamine being normal. This suggests that rather than dopamine being the only cause of positive symptoms other neurotransmitter systems acting in dependently may also produce processive symptoms associated with schizophrenia.

1,512 words

Bibliography  

Levels:AS,ALevelExamboards(2018)tutor2u,http://https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/failure-to-function-adequately-online-lesson,20/11/2020

BronwynPaxton,(2020)africaoverland,http://https://www.africanoverlandtours.com/overland-africa-blog/the-himba-tribe-of-namibia,20/11/2020

Saul McLeod, (2018) simplypsychology, http://https://www.simplypsychology.org/abnormal-psychology.html#:~:text=Abnormality%20can%20be%20defined%20as,this%20is%20regarded%20as%20abnormal. , 20/11/2020

Saul McLeod, (2018) simplypsychology, http://https://www.simplypsychology.org/abnormal-psychology.html#Deviation-from-Ideal-Mental-Health , 20/11/2020

American Psychiatric Association, (2020) American Psychiatric Association, http://https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/feedback-and-questions/frequently-asked-questions , 23/11/2020

WHO, (2020) world health organization, http://https://www.who.int/classifications/classification-of-diseases , 23/11/2020

SaulMcLeod,(2018) simplypsychology, http://https://www.simplypsychology.org/medical-model.html#:~:text=The%20biological%20approach%20to%20psychopathology,and%20functioning%20of%20the%20brain. , 23/11/2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exXyMJX-j-s

https://opentext.wsu.edu/abnormalpsychology/chapter/2-2-the-biological-model/

https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/schizophrenia-risk-around-80-genetic/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01690.x

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032934/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D_yOm6bjkw