Mental illness disorders

There is a widespread policy trend to use the term mental health and to focus only on mental illness, disorders, or problems. When this occurs, mental health is de facto defined as the absence of problems, and there is a lack of emphasis in practice on promoting positive social and emotional development. This has resulted in an mh field that is primarily focused on problems. This focus has carried over into policy for mh in schools. 

Bipolar disorder or manic depressive illness, refers to a severe mental illness characterized by recurring episodes of mania and depression. 

Evaluation of the economics of mental illness in primary care is an ongoing initiative of the UK Department of Health (Lloyd and Jenkins, 1995). A similar American study in Washington State included sub-threshold anxiety or depression, but these imposed relatively little economic load compared with disorder-level anxiety or depression (Simon et al, 1995). Mental health treatment accounted for only a small part of overall utilization, approximately 5%. Nevertheless, most patients with anxiety or depressive disorders showed considerable improvement. This was accompanied by only modest reductions in cost. 

Hudson, Christopher G., Socioeconomic Status and Mental Illness Tests of the Social Causation and Selection Hypotheses , American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 75, no. 1 (2005) 3-18 The Humble Humbug , The Lancet 2 (1954) 321 Hunter, Aimee M., Andrew F. Leuchter, Melinda L. Morgan and Ian A. Cook, Changes in Brain Function (Quantitative EEG Cordance) During Placebo Lead-in and Treatment Outcomes in Clinical Trials for Major Depression , American Journal of Psychiatry 163, no. 8 (2006) 1426-32 Hyland, Michael E., Do Person Variables Exist in Different Ways , American Psychologist 40 (1985) 1003-10 Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group, Effect of Hypericum Perforatum (St John s Wort) in Major Depressive Disorder A Randomized Controlled Trial , Journal of the American Medical Association 287 (2002) 1807-14... 

Eccleston D (1973). Adenosine 3 5 -cyclic monophosphate and affective disorders Animal models. In LL Iversen and SPR Rose (eds), Biochemistry and Mental Illness (pp. 121-126). Biochemical Society, London. 

Drevets WC, Krishnan KR. Neuroimaging studies of mood disorders in Neurobiology of Mental Illness (Charney DS, Nestler EJ, Bunney BS, Eds) Oxford University Press, New York 1999, pp 394-418... 

Tsuang, M. T. and Faraone, S. V. The inheritance of mood disorders. In Genetics and Mental Illness. Evolving Issues for Research and Society. Ed. Hall L. L. New York Plenum Press, 1996, pp 79-109. 

Mann, J. J. and Arango, V. Abnormalities of brain structure and function in mood disorders. In Neurobiology of Mental Illness. Ed. Bunney, B. S. New York Oxford University Press,... 

Determining the division between normal and abnormal behavior has historically been a difficult task. Some of the more recently debated diagnoses include homosexuality (Spitzer, 1973), self-defeating personality disorder, sadistic personality disorder (Holden, 1986), and premenstrual syndrome (DeAngelis, 1993). Some have argued that these difficulties stem from a failure to adequately define mental illness (Gorenstein, 1984). 

Definitions of mental illness tend to contain two aspects a normative element and a functional element. Normative definitions delimit abnormal behavior in light of what is typical, usual, or the norm. Some degree of deviance from the norm is necessary for a behavior to be considered abnormal. Deviance alone, however, is never sufficient for a label of abnormality. High IQ is just as deviant as low IQ, but only mental retardation is labeled abnormal. This leads us to the functional element of the definition. Typically, the label of abnormality requires deviance plus maladaptation. Maladaptation suggests some diminished capacity to function relative to an average. For example, the DSM defines mental disorder as a syndrome that is associated with distress or impairment in functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, pp- xxi-xxii). 

The DSM is careful to recognize that culture also determines definitions of mental illness. In the DSM, unusual and distressing behaviors such as culturally sanctioned responses to the death of a loved one are excluded from diagnosis. Most current conceptualizations of mental illness recognize that societal values play an important role in establishing whether something is a mental disorder (Lilienfeld Marino, 1995 Wakefield, 1992). The result is that the boundaries of mental illness are believed to shift as a function of culture, both across cultures and within cultures, over time. One important implication of cultural relativism is that definitions of mental illness will necessarily vary. 

The process of classification in terms of each method of discrimination among diagnostic entities rests on two assumptions. First, the diagnostic entity or subtype is presumed to be a mental disorder. Second, the diagnostic entity is presumed to be discriminable from other mental disorders on some basis. Evaluation of this first assumption returns us to the earlier discussion of what constitutes a mental illness, so we do not need to consider this further. The second assumption raises a new question relevant to classification. Is this condition significantly unique from all other diagnostic categories An answer to this question should be empirically based, but the type of answer received may depend on the methods used to obtain the answer. Next, we consider different methods of classification. 

Terri courageously disclosed that she suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental illness which her physician attributes to MCS. It was not the first time I had heard of this theory. Terri had no history of mental illness prior to the onset of her chronic fatigue and MCS. 

US National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety (in particular generalized anxiety disorder or GAD) and depression are the most prevalent mental illnesses. In the United States alone, an estimated 4 million adults suffer from GAD and nearly 19 million adults are affected by depressive disorders. As GAD and depression are often present together, most patients suffering from these disorders are treated with the same drugs [1]. 

A variety of kinds of evidence have linked emotional behavior to hormones. Two conditions, the menstrual cycle and menopause, have been the focus of a great deal of research on human behavior. In addition, gender differences in the prevalence of mental illnesses have been used as indirect evidence for possible hormonal effects on emotional disorders. For example, depression is more common in women than in men. In contrast, a pubertal onset of schizophrenia is more common in males than females (Hafner, et al., 1993), although the lifetime occurrence of schizophrenia is approximately equal in men and women (Seeman, 1996). Effects of hormones on emotional lability in men are described above in the context of aggression. 

The discovery of psychopharmacological medications was revolutionary because they provided a means of treating illnesses that were otherwise intractable. With the exception of electroconvulsive treatments for severe depression, there were no medical treatments for disorders that did not respond to psychotherapy. Once established, the drugs led to an ongoing search for more effective and safer medications. A second reason for their revolutionary status is that they furthered understanding of mental illnesses and normal brain function. Investigations of their therapeutic mechanisms led to theories of the neurochemical bases of mental illnesses. 

Faulty Wiring and/or Developmental Delay. Remember that neurotransmission moves through brain circuits. Some mental illnesses may be caused by misconnections in the circuitry that can result in the brain s equivalent of crosstalk that occurs when telephone lines are crossed. Examples of this problem are the so-called neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, certain forms of mental retardation, and possibly schizophrenia. 

Disorders of the brain affect a very large number of people. It is estimated that about one in five women and one in seven men in the UK suffer from mental illness. The biochemical causes include the following ... 

Schizophrenia is a psychotic illness and is one of the most common psychotic disorders (a mental illness in which the sufferer loses contact with reality). About half a million people in the UK suffer from schizophrenia. It affects mainly adolescents and young adults, and there is a genetic component to the disease. Lay terms that have been used for the disorder are insanity, lunacy and madness. Hospitals that catered for such patients were formerly known as lunatic asylums. 

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