MENTAL

DISORDERS
DEFINITION : CONDITIONS THAT AFFECT ONE’S
THINKING, BEHAVIOUR OR/AND EMOTION.

As specified by DSM-5(Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders), there

are 16 principal categories regarding the accurate diagnosis and treatment of mental
illnesses :
1.Neurodevelopmental 10.Feeding/Eating
2.Psychotic and schizophrenia spectrum 11.Sleep-wake
3.Bipolar 12. Disruptive and impulse-control
4.Depressive 13.Substance related and addictive
5.Anxiety 14.Neurocognitive
6.Obsessive-compulsive 15.Personality
7.Trauma and stressor related 16. Paraphilic
8.Dissociative 17+. Adverse effects of medication
9.Somatic
• It is a handbook used by trained clinicians in the United
States of America, and much of the world, which INFORMATION
contains the classification of mental disorders and ABOUT DSM-5
associated criteria designed to facilitate more reliable
diagnoses.
• It took more than 12 years to complete the process of its
creation, involving hundreds of people who put much
thought and deliberation to achieve its main purpose:
the enhancement of the clinical usefulness of the guide.
• Its first edition was published by APA(American
Psychiatric Association) in 1844 as a statistical
categorization of institutionalized mental patients. The
current edition, printed in 2014 and holding almost
1000 pages, builds on the goal of its predecessors of
providing guidelines for diagnoses that result in
treatment recommendations.
 SCHIZOPHRENIA
• In ancient greek ‘skhizo’ meant ‘to split’ and ‘phren’ meant ‘spirit/mind’, therefore its name.
• It was first identified in 1887 by the german psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin.
• Usual onset : age of 16 to early twenties for men and late twenties to early thirties for women; onset
prior adolescence is rare .
• 0.9% - 1% of the population is diagnosed with this disorder; 5% of them died because of suicide and
20% had one or more suicide attempts.
• Children or siblings of people diagnosed are 10 times likelier to possess it .
• Exposure to multiple viruses in early infancy and birth in late winter or early spring might increase
the chance of developing schizophrenia.
• It holds 3 types of symptoms : positive (they occur only in people with schizophrenia) – including
hallucinations, delusions, disordered speech or behaviour, negative – anhedonia (inability of
experiencing pleasure), asociality and lack of speech, motivation or express of emotion, cognitive –
difficulty concentrating, derailment(switching from one topic to another), remembering information
and making decisions.
• Schizophrenia has strong links with one’s genetic structure and multiple genes play a role, but it
remains unknown which ones .
• Traditional antipsychotic drugs block dopamine (hormone
responsible for the feeling of pleasure)receptors, thus reducing
efficiently positive symptoms- linked to an excess of dopamine in
particular brain pathways.
• The same antipsychotics might aggravate negative symptoms due
to their association with dopamine deficiency in other brain
pathways.
• New antipsychotics aim to target multiple hormones/ TREATMENT OF
SCHIZOPHRENIA
neurotransmitters such as serotonin in addition to dopamine in
order to suppress the negative effect on signalling throughout the
brain and body.
• These drugs can be very effective, especially when combined with
other interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy.
• ECT(ElectroConvulsive Therapy) is also a successful form of
treatment , even though it provides relatively short relief.
• Some individuals with schizophrenia show a loss of neuronal tissue
, the cause of this atrophy is still ambiguous. Is it from the disease
itself or from the drug-induced suppression of neurotransmitters ?
 BIPOLAR DISORDER
• The word ‘bipolar’ means 2 extremes, the life of patients (with bipolar disorder) being split in 2
different realities : elation and depression.
• 1%-3% of the adult population possesses the disorder.
• Usual onset : 18-20 years
• Close relatives of diagnosed patients are 10 times likelier to develop it.
• The risk of suicide in individuals with this disorder is 15 times higher than in general citizens.
• 75% have an anxiety disorder as comorbidity
• 90% of people who have one manic episode go on to have them recurrently/repeatedly
• There are 3 types of episodes (only 2 are mandatory): manic (must be present for at least 1
week)-including grandiosity, psychomotor agitation, racing thoughts, distractability,
hypomanic (mainly same symptoms as for manic episodes) –less need for sleep, more
talkative than usual, major depressive (must be present for at least 2 weeks) – fatigue,
depressed mood, loss of interest in everyday activities, persistent thoughts of suicide, insomnia
or hypersomnia, changes in appetite;
• For people with this affection, their brain’s ability to remove
faulty neural connections are disrupted, meaning that their
neurons go haywire creating a network that is impossible to
navigate.
• The overabundance of dopamine causes extreme phases
which result in psychotic symptoms, such as delusional
thoughts, hallucinations, paranoia,disorganized speech and
behaviour.
TREATMENT OF
• Lithium capsules can help manage risky thoughts and
behaviours by stabilizing moods. This medication works by BIPOLAR DISORDER
strengthening viable neural connections.
• Antipsychotics alter the effects of dopamine ,thus their
effectiveness.
• ECT, which works like a carefully controlled seizure in the
brain, is used only as an emergency treatment.
• Nevertheless, some patients reject treatment because they are
afraid it will dim their emotions and affect their creativity.
Faulty connections
 MAJOR DEPRESSIVE
• Because depression is the primary factor of suicide, the yellow ribbon signifies suicide prevention.
• Depression has affected almost 300 millions of people worldwide.
• Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed.
• Usual onset : 15-19 years
• Dysthymia is a severe type of depression lasting for at least 2 years.
• One major source of confusion is the difference between having depression and just feeling depressed.
Everyone feels down from time to time, but clinical depression is different : it’s a medical disorder and
it won’t go away just because one wants to.
• The main symptoms are : low mood, diminished interest in activities once enjoyed, recurrent
thoughts of suicide, feeling worthless or excessively guilty, changes in appetite, loss of energy,
insomnia or hypersomnia, restlessness or slowness and poor concentration.
• Must be present for at least 2 consecutive weeks and significantly interfere with one’s ability to work
and engage in social circumstances/situations.
• It has physical manifestations inside the brain : smaller volumes of frontal lobe and hippocampus.
• It is associated with hormonal abnormalities such as high cortisol and deregulation of the thyroid.
• On a microscale, depression is determined by the depletion
/lack of certain neurotransmitters : serotonin (the ‘feel-good’
chemical that helps regulate one’s mood), dopamine (helps
regulate emotion, motivation, reward, memory, thinking) and
norepinephrine (a chemical that makes your heart pump
harder during a ‘fight or flight’ situation or stressful time).
• Medications and therapy complement each other in order to
boost brain chemicals forming an effective form of treatment. TREATMENT OF
• In extreme cases, ECT is used due to its helpfulness/avail.
MAJOR DEPRESSIVE
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation is being investigated in
order to find out if it is adequate for patients with depression.
• If you haven’t encountered depression yourself, avoid linking
it to times you’ve felt down. Comparing what they’re
experiencing to normal, temporary feelings of sadness will
make them feel guilty for struggling.
 OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE (OCD)
• About 0.8% of the adult population is diagnosed (with it)
• Usual onset : 19-20 years
• First degree relatives of patients with onset in childhood or adolescence are 10 times likelier to
develop de the disorder.
• 25% of the individuals report suicide attempts
• In the United States, there are as many children with OCD as there are children with diabetes.
• Obsessions are repetitive and persistent thoughts ,images or urges, that are not pleasurable or
experienced as voluntary. They are intrusive and unwanted , causing significant distress or
anxiety in most individuals.
• Compulsions are repetitive behaviours or mental acts (ex: counting, repeating words silently) that
the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession. They aim to reduce the
distress/anxiety triggered by obsessions or to prevent a feared event (ex: becoming ill) .
• The diagnostic criteria consists of the presence of obsessions and compulsions altogether. They
must be time-consuming, taking at least 1 hour/day, or cause impairment in social, occupational
or other important areas of functioning.
• Research has implicated 3 regions of the brain variously
involved in: social behaviour and complex planning –
Orbitofrontal Cortex , voluntary movement-Caudate
Nucleus (located in the basal ganglia), emotional and
motivational response – Cingulate Gyrus.
• OCD is associated with low levels of serotonin, which
helps regulate vital processes such as mood, aggression,
impulse control, sleep, appetite, body temperature and
pain. TREATMENT
• Medications that increase serotonin levels in the brain by OF OCD
limiting its reabsorption by brain cells are an effective
treatment.
• Another option is behavioural therapy that gradually
desensitizes patients to their anxieties.
• When the disorder doesn’t respond to other forms of
treatment, the patients can opt for ECT or even surgery.
THANK YOU !