Neurochemicals
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Psychological Disorders
Diagnosis based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) DSM-IV published in 1994, ("text revision" in 2000) is presently used.
Dissociative disorders Mood disorders Anxiety disorders Psychotic disorders Eating disorders Personality disorders Many other categories.
Causes of disorders are complex, and interact and vary according to the particular disorder and individual. Genetics, early development, drugs, disease or injury, neurocognitive and psychological mechanisms, and life experiences, society and culture can all contribute to the development or progression of different mental disorders.
Biological Psychiatry
Biological psychiatry, or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system.
History
Sigmund Freud's mentor, Prof. Ernst Wilhelm von Brcke, strongly believed that thought and behavior were determined by purely biological factors. Freud initially accepted this and was convinced that certain drugs (particularly cocaine) functioned as antidepressants. Nearly 100 years ago, Prof. Harvey Cushing, noted that pituitary gland problems often cause mental health disorders.
Published in 1965 by Joseph Schildkraut associated low levels of neurotransmitters with depression. This conceptual framework has been challenged, though no alternative demonstrably superior hypothesis has emerged.
Today
Increasing evidence points to various mental health disorders as a neurophysiological problem which inhibits neuronal plasticity.
Schizophrenia
Psychiatric diagnosed condition that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Manifests commonly as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking in the context of significant social or occupational dysfunction.
A neurobehavioral developmental disorder affecting about 3-5% of the world's population and typically presents in children. Characterized by a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity, as well as forgetfulness, poor impulse control and distractibility.
Deficits in dopamine levels are implicated in (ADHD). Stimulant medications used to successfully treat the disorder increase dopamine neurotransmitter levels, leading to decreased symptoms.
Explains pharmacological antidepressant action, including the time lag from taking the drug to therapeutic onset, why down regulation (not just up regulation) of neurotransmitters can help depression, why stress often precipitates mood disorders, and why selective modulation of different neurotransmitters can help depression. May also explain the neurobiological mechanism of other non-drug effects on mood, including exercise, diet and metabolism.
Criticism
Some dispute biological psychiatry as a scientific concept or as having a proper empirical basis, for example arguing that there are no known biomarkers for recognized psychiatric conditions. Alternative theories and models view mental disorder as non-biomedical and may explain it in terms of emotional reactions to negative life circumstances or to acute trauma. Fields such as social psychiatry, clinical psychology, and sociology may offer non-biomedical accounts of mental distress and disorder for certain aliments and are sometimes critical of biopsychiatry. Social critics believe biopsychiatry fails to satisfy the scientific method because they believe there is no testable biological evidence of mental disorders.
Acknowledgements
Www.wikipedia.com Www.reference.com American Psychiatric Association U.S. National Library of Medicine U.S. National Institutes of Health Thomas Higher Education Publications
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