Neurons are the cells of the nervous system that include four major parts of the cell body, dendrites, axons, and terminal buttons. The synapse is a gap between neurons where a nerve impulses to travel down the axon to the synapse. A neurotransmitter is a chemical that allows neurons to send a signal across the…
In the earlier decades of understanding psychopathology, it was primarily thought that psychopathology could be explained through supernatural or early biological means. It was thought was psychopathology could be explained based upon how displeased the gods seemed to be or the possession of an individual by demons that could only be treated through exorcism. Early biological explanations…
Delirium is a cloud state of consciousness with extreme trouble focusing attention, difficulty maintaining a coherent stream of thought, trouble answering questions, and disturbances in the sleep/wake cycle with the example of being drowsy during the day yet awake and agitated at night. Other signs include vivid dreams and nightmares being common, difficulty to engage…
Dementia is the deterioration of cognitive abilities causing impairment with the most common symptom of diminished memory especially for recent events. There are many different causes of dementia with a very high public health cost. Psychiatric symptoms secondary to dementia are 50% of people with dementia experience depression, sleep disturbances are common, delusions and hallucinations…
Conduct disorder is defined by the impact of the child’s behavior on people and surrounding and focuses on aggressive behaviors such as physical cruelty to people or animals, serious rule violations, property destruction, and deceitfulness. The diagnostic specifier is “limited prosocial emotions” where children who have callous and unemotional traits show a lack of remorse,…
The three primary eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Each come with their own physical consequences and prognosis. Anorexia nervosa is the restriction of behaviors that promote healthy body weight. Bulimia Nervosa is repeated episodes of binge-eating and repeated compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain such as purging (vomiting), fasting, excessive…
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder is a disorder characterized by the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions. The obsessions or compulsions are either time consuming of more than 1 hour per day or cause clinically significant distress and/or impairment. Other related disorders include body dysmorphic disorder and hoarding disorder. These disorders have a prevalence around 2% and exhibit very…
Posttraumatic stress disorder is an extreme response to severe stressor. It involves recurrent memories of trauma, avoidance of stimuli associated with trauma, negative emotions and thoughts, and increased arousal. PTSD is the response to a serious trauma as an event that involved actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation where 55% of people report…
Schizophrenia influences the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves. It involves disordered thinking where ideas are not logically related, faulty perception and attention, lack of emotional expressiveness, and disturbances in movement or behavior. Widespread disruptions in life occur that range from maintaining jobs, living independently, an having close relationships. Schizophrenia is one of the…
We all have our “good” days and our “bad” days. Or we just have our “days.” Some days we’re just breathing, and some days we’re living. Either way, whichever way we have it, it is important to take mental health days. A mental health day may be more than needed after a long exhausting stressful…