Mental disorder

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A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture. The recognition and understanding of mental disorders has changed over time and across cultures. Definitions, assessments, and classifications of mental disorders can vary, but guideline criteria listed in the ICD, DSM and other manuals are widely accepted by mental health professionals. Categories of diagnoses in these schemes may include dissociative disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders, developmental disorders, personality disorders, ambulatory disorders and many other categories. In many cases there is no single accepted or consistent cause of mental disorders, although they are often explained in terms of a diathesis-stress model and biopsychosocial model. Mental disorders have been found to be common, with over a third of people in most countries reporting sufficient criteria at some point in their life. Services for mental disorders may be based in hospitals or in the community. Mental health professionals diagnose individuals using different methodologies, often relying on case history and interview. Psychotherapy and psychiatric medication are two major treatment options, as well as supportive interventions and self-help. Treatment may be involuntary where legislation allows. Several movements campaign for changes to services and attitudes.

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News tagged with psychiatric disorders

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Book demystifies psychiatry for the general public

Book demystifies psychiatry for the general public

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Psychiatric disorders are underdiagnosed, poorly treated and highly stigmatized, according to psychiatrists Charles F. Zorumski, M.D., and Eugene H. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D. So these Washington University physicians ...


In cancer-ridden rats, loneliness can kill

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Socially isolated female rats develop more tumors -- and tumors of a more deadly type -- than rats living in a social group, according to researchers at Yale University and the University of Chicago.


Acute stress leaves epigenetic marks on the hippocampus

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are learning that the dynamic regulation of genes -- as much as the genes themselves -- shapes the fate of organisms. Now the discovery of a new epigenetic mechanism regulating genes in the brain ...


Could drugs for mood disorders, pain and epilepsy cause psychiatric disorders later in life?

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Young animals treated with commonly-prescribed drugs develop behavioral abnormalities in adulthood say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center. The drugs tested include those used to treat epilepsy, mood disorders ...


Bridging the divide

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: Bridging the divide

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Oct 16, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sufferers of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are being brought together in a major new study to determine the diseases? common genetic causes.


Post-traumatic stress disorder primary suicide risk factor for veterans

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Aug 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

August 25, 2009—Researchers working with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have found that post-traumatic stress disorder, the current most common mental disorder among veterans returning from service in the Middle East, ...


Common variation in gene linked to structural changes in the brain

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

An international group of researchers is the first to show that common variations in a gene - previously shown to be associated with Retts Syndrome, autism, and mental retardation - are associated with differences in brain ...


Preschool depression may continue into childhood

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Aug 04, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Depression among preschoolers appears to be a continuous, chronic condition rather than a transient developmental stage, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.


New links between lucid dreaming and psychosis could revive dream therapy in psychiatry

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jul 29, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 2

Similarities in brain activity during lucid dreaming and psychosis suggest that dream therapy may be useful in psychiatric treatment, a European Science Foundation (ESF) workshop has found. This is strengthened by the potential ...


Weight loss improves mood in depressed people

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jul 27, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, finds that after a 6-month behavioral ...


Nature or nurture? New epigenetic model blurs the line in the debate

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Jul 21, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A research report published in the July 2009 issue of the journal Genetics complicates the debate over whether nature or nurture plays the most important role in complex diseases such as psychiatric disorders, heart diseas ...


Review provides new insights into the causes of anorexia

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jul 21, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New imaging technology provides insight into abnormalities in the brain circuitry of patients with anorexia nervosa (commonly known as anorexia) that may contribute to the puzzling symptoms found in people with the eating ...


Dips and Swells of Your Brain May Reveal Early Mental Disorders

Dips and Swells of Your Brain May Reveal Early Mental Disorders

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jul 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- John Csernansky wants to take your measurements. Not the circumference of your chest, waist and hips. No, this doctor wants to stretch a tape measure around your hippocampus, thalamus and ...


Brown professor continues debate over recovered memory

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jul 07, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Fueling the debate over the controversial psychiatric disorder known as dissociative amnesia, or repressed memory, Brown University political scientist Ross Cheit is challenging claims by two Harvard University psychiatrists. ...


Family history predicts presence and course of psychiatric disorders

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jul 06, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A family history of depression, anxiety, alcohol dependence or drug dependence is associated with the presence of each condition and also may predict its course and prognosis, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of ...