Mental and Behavioral Disorders
Introduction to Mental and Behavioral Health
• One of every four American adults and children has been diagnosed with a mental condition.
• More than 30% of the 20 top-selling medications are for psychiatric disorders.
• The fourth most common diagnostic category for inpatient admissions is substance-related mental disorders.
• Approximately 40 million Americans are diagnosed with anxiety.
• The number of discharges for patients with substance-related mental health disorders has sharply escalated, from 20,000 in 1998 to 110,000 in 2008.
• Approximately 7.5 million Americans are classified as mentally retarded.
• Given these statistics, the terminology related to mental and behavioral disorders is content that cannot be ignored.
Similar to previous chapters, this chapter examines disorders that result when an individual has a maladaptive response to his or her environment (internal or external). (See Chapter 11 for an explanation of the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nervous system.) However, even though some mental illnesses have organic causes in which neurotransmitters and other known brain functions play a role, there is no mental “anatomy” per se. Instead, behavioral health is a complex interaction among an individual’s emotional, physical, mental, and behavioral processes in an environment that includes cultural and spiritual influences.
Pathology
Terms Related to Signs and Symptoms Involving Cognition, Perception, Emotional State, and Behavior and Speech and Voice (R4Ø-R49)
Affect is observable demonstration of emotion that can be described in terms of quality, range, and appropriateness. The following list defines the most significant types of affect encountered in behavioral health: |
• Blunted: moderately reduced range of affect. • Flat: the diminishment or loss of emotional expression sometimes observed in schizophrenia, mental retardation, and some depressive disorders. • Labile: multiple, abrupt changes in affect seen in certain types of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. • Full/wide range of affect: generally appropriate emotional response. |
Term | Word Origin | Definition |
amnesia | Inability to remember either isolated parts of the past or one’s entire past; may be caused by brain damage or severe emotional trauma. | |
anhedonia | an- no, not, without hedon/o pleasure -ia condition |
Absence of the ability to experience either pleasure or joy, even in the face of causative events. |
confabulation | Effort to conceal a gap in memory by fabricating detailed, often believable stories. Associated with alcohol abuse. | |
dyscalculia | dys- difficult calcul/o stone -ia condition |
Difficulty with performing mathematical calculations. |
dysphoria | dys- abnormal phor/o to carry, to bear -ia condition |
Generalized negative mood characterized by depression. |
echolalia | echo- reverberation -lalia condition of babbling |
Repetition of words or phrases spoken by others. |
euphoria | eu- good, well phor/o to carry, to bear -ia condition |
Exaggerated sense of physical and emotional well-being not based on reality, disproportionate to the cause, or inappropriate to the situation. |
hallucination | Any unreal sensory perception that occurs with no external cause. | |
hyperkinesis | hyper- excessive -kinesis movement |
Excessive movement and activity. |
stupor | From the Latin term for “numbness,” a stupor is a state of near unconsciousness. |
8. condition of without pleasure ____________________________________________________________________
9. excessive movement _____________________________________________________________________________
Terms Related to Mental Disorders Due to Known Physiological Conditions (FØ1-FØ9)
Term | Word Origin | Definition |
dementia | de- down, lack of ment/o mind -ia condition |
Lack of normal mental functioning due to injury or disease. May include changes to personality as well as memory and reasoning. |
Terms Related to Mental and Behavioral Disorders Due to Psychoactive Substance Use (F1Ø-F19)
Term | Word Origin | Definition |
delirium tremens (DTs) | Acute and sometimes fatal delirium induced by the cessation of ingesting excessive amounts of alcohol over a long period. | |
dependence | Difficulty in controlling use of a drug. | |
intoxication | in- in toxic/o poison -ation process of |
Episode of behavioral disturbance following ingestion of alcohol or psychotropic drugs. ICD-10-CM provides a code for blood alcohol level. |
withdrawal state | Group of symptoms that occur during cessation of the use of a regularly taken drug. |
Terms Related to Schizophrenia, Schizotypal and Delusional, and Other Non-Mood Psychotic Disorders (F2Ø-F29)
Term | Word Origin | Definition |
catatonia | cata- down ton/o tension -ia condition |
Paralysis or immobility from psychological or emotional, rather than physical, causes. |
catatonic schizophrenia | cata- down ton/o tension -ic pertaining to schiz/o split phren/o mind -ia condition |
Also called schizophrenic catalepsy. This form of schizophrenia is dominated by prominent psychomotor disturbances that may alternate between extremes, such as hyperkinesis and stupor, and may be accompanied by a dreamlike (oneiric) state and hallucinations. |
delirium | Condition of confused, unfocused, irrational agitation. In mental disorders, agitation and confusion may also be accompanied by a more intense disorientation, incoherence, or fear, and illusions, hallucinations, and delusions. | |
hebephrenia | hebe goddess of youth phren/o mind -ia condition |
Although more often referred to as disorganized schizophrenia, hebephrenia was named for its original association with initial occurrence at the time of puberty. It is characterized by prominent affective changes, fleeting and fragmentary delusions and hallucinations, and irresponsible and unpredictable behaviors. Shallow, inappropriate mood, flighty thoughts, social isolation, and incoherent speech are also present. |
oneirism | oneir/o dream -ism state |
A state of a dreamlike hallucination. |
paranoia | para- abnormal -noia condition of the mind |
A type of delusional disorder, paranoia includes the inaccurate perception of suspicious thinking. Also called delusional disorder, or late paraphrenia. |
psychosis | psych/o mind -osis abnormal condition |
Disassociation with or impaired perception of reality; may be accompanied by hallucinations, delusions, incoherence, akathisia (the inability to sit still), and/or disorganized behavior. |
schizophrenia | schiz/o split phren/o mind -ia condition |
A group of disorders characterized by fundamental distortions of thinking and perception, coupled with affect that is inappropriate or blunted. The patient exhibits characteristic inability to recognize an appropriate perception of reality, although his/her intellectual capacity is usually intact (Fig. 12-1). |
schizotypal disorder | Unlike the other forms of schizophrenia, patient exhibits anhedonia, eccentric behavior, cold affect, and social isolation. Also called borderline schizophrenia, latent schizophrenia and prodromal schizophrenia. |
Terms Related to Mood (Affective) Disorders (F3Ø-F39)
Term | Word Origin | Definition |
bipolar disorder (BP, BD) | bi- two pol/o pole -ar pertaining to |
Disorder characterized by swings between an elevation of mood, increased energy and activity (hypomania and mania), and a lowering of mood and decreased energy and activity (depression). |
cyclothymia | cycl/o recurring -thymia condition of the mind |
Disorder characterized by recurring episodes of mild elation and depression that are not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. |
dysthymia | dys- difficult -thymia condition of the mind |
Mild, chronic depression of mood that lasts for years but is not severe enough to justify a diagnosis of depression. Euthymia is a normal range of moods and emotions. |
major depressive disorder | Depression typically characterized by its degree (minimal, moderate, severe) or number of occurrences (single or recurrent, persistent). Patient exhibits dysphoria, reduction of energy, and decrease in activity. Symptoms include anhedonia, lack of ability to concentrate, and fatigue. Patient may experience parasomnias (abnormal sleep patterns), diminished appetite, and loss of self-esteem. SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is caused by decreased exposure to sunlight in autumn and winter. | |
mania | mania from the Greek term for “madness” | A state of an unstable, inappropriate mood. |
17. schizophrenia __________________________________________________________________________________
18. paranoia _______________________________________________________________________________________
19. psychosis ______________________________________________________________________________________
20. cyclothymia ____________________________________________________________________________________
21. oneirism _______________________________________________________________________________________
Terms Related to Anxiety, Dissociative, Stress-Related, Somatoform, and Other Nonpsychotic Mental Disorders (F4Ø-F48)
Term | Word Origin | Definition |
acrophobia | acro- heights, extremes -phobia condition of fear, sensitivity |
Fear of heights. |
agoraphobia | agora- marketplace -phobia condition of fear, sensitivity |
Fear of leaving home and entering crowded spaces. |
androphobia | andr/o man, men -phobia condition of fear, sensitivity |
Fear of men. |
anthropophobia | anthrop/o man -phobia condition of fear, sensitivity |
Fear of scrutiny by other people; also called social phobia. |
anxiety | Anticipation of impending danger and dread accompanied by restlessness, tension, tachycardia, and breathing difficulty not associated with an apparent stimulus. | |
claustrophobia | claustr/o a closing -phobia condition of fear, sensitivity |
Fear of enclosed spaces. |
delusion | Persistent belief in a demonstrable untruth or a provable, inaccurate perception despite clear evidence to the contrary. | |
dissociative identity disorder | Maladaptive coping with severe stress by developing one or more separate personalities. A less severe form, dissociative disorder or dissociative reaction, results in identity confusion accompanied by amnesia, oneirism, and somnambulism. Formerly termed multiple personality disorder. | |
dyslexia | dys- difficult lex/o word -ia condition |
Inability or difficulty with reading and/or writing. |
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) | Anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable, and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. | |
gynephobia | gyn/e female, women -phobia condition of fear, sensitivity |
Fear of women. |
illusion | Inaccurate sensory perception based on a real stimulus; examples include mirages and interpreting music or wind as voices. | |
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) | Disorder characterized by recurrent, distressing, and unavoidable preoccupations or irresistible drives to perform specific rituals (e.g., constantly checking locks, excessive handwashing) that the patient feels will prevent some harmful event. | |
panic disorder (PD) | Anxiety disorder characterized by recurring, severe panic attacks. Common symptoms of an attack include rapid heartbeat, perspiration, dizziness, dyspnea, uncontrollable fear, and hyperventilation. |