Schizophrenic disorders These are the mental illnesses traditionally treated by psychiatry to which all psychoses (severe mental pathologies in which there is no awareness of illness) refer.
Personality Disorders
Personality disorders represent a pattern of inner experience and behavior that markedly deviates from the expectations of the individual’s culture; it is pervasive and inflexible, begins in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time and causes discomfort or impairment. By definition, a personality disorder is a constant way of thinking, feeling, and behaving that is relatively stable over time.
Personality disorders in turn are divided into:
– borderline personality disorder: characterized by instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and affects, and marked impulsivity. It includes, in a variable way from case to case, a bit of all the personality disorders described below.
Anxiety disorders
In the context of many of these disorders, panic attacks and agoraphobia occur
which according to the DSM IV criteria correspond to:
– panic attack corresponds to a precise period during which there is the sudden onset of intense apprehension, fear or terror, often associated with a feeling of impending catastrophe. During these attacks there are symptoms such as dyspnoea, palpitations, chest pain or discomfort, feelings of suffocation or suffocation, and fear of “going crazy” or losing control.
– Agoraphobia is anxiety or avoidance of places or situations from which it would be difficult (or embarrassing) to get away, or in which help may not be available in the event of a panic attack or panic-like symptoms.
Somatoform disorders
The common feature of somatoform disorders is the presence of physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition, hence the term somatoform, but which are not justified by a general medical condition, the direct effects of one substance, or another. mental disorder. Symptoms must cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other areas of functioning. Physical symptoms are not intentional (i.e. under the control of the will). Somatoform disorders differ from psychological factors affecting medical conditions in that there is no diagnosable general medical condition to which the physical symptoms can be fully attributed.
Eating disorders
Eating disorders are characterized by the presence of gross alterations in eating behavior. This section of disorders includes two main categories, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Alongside these, eating disorders not otherwise specified, such as binge eating disorder and night eating disorder.
– anorexia nervosa: characteristic of anorexia nervosa is the refusal to maintain body weight above the minimum normal weight. It is possible to identify essential common criteria to be able to assert that it is anorexia nervosa: refusal to maintain a normal weight generally below 85% of what is expected in relation to height and age.
Summary
The essential feature of dissociative disorders is the disconnection of the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity or perception of the environment. The changes can be sudden or gradual, transient or chronic. The trans-cultural perspective is particularly important in the assessment of dissociative disorders, as dissociative states can be common and accepted expressions of cultural activities or religious experiences in many societies.