Case Studies: Name That Disorder
An 11-year boy instituted the following ceremonial before going to bed. He did not sleep until he told his mother every last detail of the events that occurred that day; there must be no scraps of paper or other rubbish on the carpet of the bedroom; the bed must be pushed right to the wall; three chairs must stand by it and the pillows must lie in a particular way. In order to get to sleep he must first kick out a certain number of time with both legs and then lie on his side.
What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?
While she was on a visit to the Midwest, Samantha’s residence was demolished by a tornado. Ever since, she has been plagued by terrible nightmares and occasional flashbacks.
What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
A therapy developed by Freud that emphasizes unconscious mental processes in explaining human thought, feelings and behavior.
What is Psychoanalytical Therapy?
Anorexia Nervosa
1. Starvation or restriction of food
2. Unhealthy obsessions and compulsions regarding weight
3. Malnutrition
4. Usually maintain a starvation diet, even though they are underweight.
This neurotransmitter is linked to Schizophrenia. Increased levels can lead to positive symptoms and decreased levels can lead to negative symptoms.
What is Dopamine?
Mrs. M was first admitted to a state hospital at the age of 38, although since childhood she had been characterized by moods swings, some of which had been so extreme that they had been psychotic in degree. At one point she became depressed and asked to return to the hospital where she had been a patient. She then became overactive and exuberant in spirits and visited her friends, to whom she outlined her plans for reestablishing different forms of lucrative businesses. She purchased many clothes, bought furniture, pawned her rings, and wrote checks without funds. For a period thereafter she was mildly depressed. In a little less than a year Mrs. M again became overactive, played her radio until late in the night, smoked excessively, took out insurance on a car that she had not yet bought. Contrary to her usual habits, she swore frequently and loudly, created a disturbance in a club to which she did not belong, and instituted divorce proceedings. On the day prior to her second admission to the hospital she purchased 57 hats.
What is Bipolar Disorder?
Heather, a 19-year-old college junior, has an intense fear of speaking to people she does not know very well. During her first and second years, she chose large lecture courses, which allowed her to hide in the back of the lecture hall and not speak to other students or to participate in the class discussions. Heather received high marks in all of her courses, earning a place on the dean’s list and the honor roll. In her third year, Heather is now required to take some smaller upper-level courses in which class participation and small-group discussions are mandatory. She is sure that she will do something embarrassing, such as vomit, and others will judge negatively. Because of these fears, Heather has trouble sleeping at night and is considering dropping out of school.
What is a Specific Phobia?
Therapies which assume that our thinking influences our feelings, and that the therapist’s role is to change clients’ self-defeating thinking by training them to perceive and interpret events in more constructive ways.
What is Cognitive Therapy?
Boderline Personality Disorder
1. Intensely unstable relationships
2. Highly impulsive behaviors
3. Aversion to abandonment
4. Idealization and devaluation of people in relationships
5. Inappropriate anger or paranoid
What is congruence?
A married woman, whose life was complicated by her mother’s living in their home, complained that she felt tense and irritable most of the time. She was apprehensive for fear that something would happen to her mother, her husband, her children, or herself. She has no definite idea what it was that she fears might happen. She suffers from occasional attacks in which her heart pounds with irregular beats; she can not seem to catch her breath when this happens. Often she breaks out in a profuse perspiration. Her mouth seems to be always dry, even though she drinks a great deal of water, and because of this and her diffuse anxiety she cannot sleep
What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
Susan was a young woman placed by her school in a class for the emotionally disturbed. She talked at length about her interests and occupations. She said she made a robot in the basement that ran amok and was about to cause a great deal of damage, but she was able to stop it by remote control. She claims to have built the robot from spare computer parts, which she acquired from the local museum. When pressed on details of how this worked, she became increasingly vague, and when asked to draw a picture of one of her inventions, drew a picture of an overhead railway and went into what appeared to be complex mathematical calculations to substantiate the structural details, but which in fact consisted of meaningless repetitions of symbols (eg: plus, minus, divide, multiply). When the interviewer expressed some gentle incredulity, she blandly replied that many people did not believe that she was a super genius. She also talked about her unusual ability to hear things other people cannot hear, and said she was in communication with some sort of creature. She thought she might be haunted, or perhaps the creature was a being from another planet. She could hear his voice talking to her and asking her questions.
What is Schizophrenia?
Name an advantage of Group Therapy (versus individual)
1. Social Support
2. Opportunities to practice social skills
3. Realization that they are not alone and that their problems are not unique.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
1. Difficulties with social communication
2. Difficulties with social interaction
3. Restricted and repetitive patterns in behaviors, interests, and activities
Name one of three factors that have contributed to reduced inpatient populations of mental hospitals since the 1950s.
(Double points for naming two, triple for all three)
Deinstitutionalization policies
Emergence of new drug therapies
Anticipation of community mental health centers
During a routine physical examination, Nick, a 25-year-old single male, suddenly started crying and blurted out that he was extremely depressed and thinking about a suicide attempt he had made as teenager when he felt this way. He was referred to psychiatrist. He goes to the psychiatrist, dressed in a white suit with a red rose in the lapel. When asked why he has come for an evaluation, he replies laughingly that he has done it to appease his family doctor “who seemed worried about” him. He has also read a book on therapy and hopes that “maybe there is someone very special who can understand me. I’d make the most incredible patient.” He tells the psychiatrist that he plans on being a famous actor. He has had little previous acting experience, but he is sure that success is “only a matter of time.” When asked about his love life, Nick says he has no lover and this is because people are just “superficial.” He recently dated a woman that he “adored” but then realized she was ugly and was an embarrassment because she dressed too poorly. Nick then explains that he owns over 100 neckties and about 30 suits and is proud of how much he spends on “putting myself together.” He has no relationships with male friends, considering most other men as “mindless and without aesthetic sense.” The only people who have understood him, he says, are older men who have suffered as much as he has. Nick’s father was very critical of him and was rarely around. His mother was “like a friend.” She was chronically depressed about her husband and turned to her son. When he was 18, Nick’s mother started an affair of her own. Nick then felt abandoned and made a suicide attempt. At the end of the interview, Nick requested a referral to someone who would offer him free treatment, seeing no reason for paying anyone as the therapist “would be getting as much out of it” as he would.
What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?
It takes the greatest effort to get out of bed in the morning. I am tired all day, yet when night comes, sleep evades me. I stare at the ceiling, wondering what has happened to my life, and what will become of me. Nothing is getting done at work. I have projects to complete, but I can't think. I try to focus on my work, and I get lost. I keep wondering when the boss will discover how little I have accomplished. My wife does not understand. She keeps telling me to "snap out of it." I'm irritable all the time, and yell at the kids, then I feel terrible later. Nothing is fun any more. I can't read, and the music I used to enjoy so much does nothing for me. I am bored, but I feel like doing nothing. There are times, when I'm alone, that I think that life is hopeless and meaningless, and I can't go on much longer.
What is Major Depressive Disorder?
This type of psychological approach to treatment looks to intervene and create preventative programs for potential problems before they occur.
Community Psychologists
Dissociative Fugue
1. Temporary loss of sense of personal identity
2. Impulsive wandering or traveling away from homes or places of work
3. Often become confused about who they are and might even create new identities.
This psychologist created Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and, according to his cognitive model, cognitive distortions (thoughts that cause individuals to perceive reality inaccurately) can negatively impact someone's well-being.
Who is Aaron Beck?
An enlisted man in the Air Corps had some previous experience as a private pilot. After a disagreement with his wife, he decided to punish her by committing suicide. Choosing the most dramatic method he could think of, he took off in a large, unattended aircraft and made several passes at the local river, each time pulling up before he plunged in. Very soon, all other aircrafts were diverted to other cities, and the local control tower was concentrating on trying to persuade him to change his mind. He finally agreed, but then he discovered that although he knew how to take off, he did not know how to land the unfamiliar plane. After some tense interchanges with the tower control, however, he managed to get the plane down. When the military police arrived at the plane, he found himself unable to remember his name or anything about his identity, his present situation, or the events leading up to it.
What is Dissociative Amnesia?
Tuan has been arrested on numerous occasions for disturbing the peace and for illegally producing and selling alcohol and drugs to minors. Although a number of his clients have died from overdoses, he feels no remorse.
What is Anti-Social Personality Disorder?
This model of psychology argues that mental disorders are a function of both a genetic predisposition as well as aggravating stressors in daily life
What is the Diathesis-Stress Approach?
Dependent Personality Disorder
1. Excessive need to be taken care of by others.
2. Relies on people close to them for their emotional or physical needs
3. Believe they can’t take care of themselves. They may have trouble making everyday decisions, like what to wear or what food to eat, without others’ reassurance
This type of disorder is defined as a disorder in which there is physical pain that can't be traced to a physical cause.
What is Somatoform?