Chapter at a Glance

Use the list of word parts and key terms to assess your knowledge. check off the ones you have mastered.

Key Terms

Introduction to Mental and Behavioral Health

Recent national statistics reveal the following:

Given these statistics, behavioral health is a content area that cannot be ignored.

The term behavioral health reflects an integration of the outdated concept of the separate nature of the body (physical health/illness) and the mind (mental health/illness). Advances in research continually acknowledge the roles of culture, environment, and spirituality in influencing physical and behavioral health. The use of the term behavior refers to observable, measurable activities that may be used to evaluate the progress of treatment.

Similar to previous chapters, this chapter examines disorders that result when an individual has a maladaptive response to his or her environment (internal or external). (See Chapter 12 for an explanation of the anatomy and physiology of the brain and nervous system.) However, even though some mental illnesses have organic causes in which neurotransmitters and other known brain functions play a role, there is no mental “anatomy” per se. Instead, behavioral health is a complex interaction among an individual’s emotional, physical, mental, and behavioral processes in an environment that includes cultural and spiritual influences.

Mental health may be defined as a relative state of mind in which a person who is healthy is able to cope with and adjust to the recurrent stresses of everyday living in a culturally acceptable way. Thus mental illness may be generally defined as a functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities for a significant duration.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) publishes the official listing of diagnosable mental disorders: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The codes that are used within the DSM are coordinated with the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which provides acceptable billing codes in the United States. Major revisions to the DSM occur at approximately 10-year intervals, with minor updates about every 5 years. The current edition as this book goes to press is DSM IV-TR (text revision), published in the year 2000. DSM-V is scheduled for release in 2013.

Specialties/Specialists

Psychologists work with the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders. Most psychologists will have a doctoral degree (PhD or PsyD). Their specialty is psychology. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who specialize in the treatment of mental health disorders. Their discipline is psychiatry.

Pathology

 Exercise 1: Symptoms, Affects, and Moods of Mental Illness

Matching.

Circle the correct answer.

Build the term.

 Exercise 2: Disorders Usually First Diagnosed In Childhood

Choose the correct answer from the following list.

attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, mild mental retardation, severe mental retardation, autistic disorder, Rett disorder, Asperger disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, moderate mental retardation, Tourette syndrome

Schizophrenic, Schizotypal, and Delusional Disorders

These disorders are not always easy to classify but carry with them some common characteristics. Roughly, these disorders can be grouped as follows:

acute and transient psychotic disorders: heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by the acute onset of psychotic symptoms, such as delusions, hallucinations, and perceptual disturbances, and by the severe disruption of ordinary behavior. Acute onset is defined as a crescendo from a normal perceptual state to a clearly abnormal clinical picture in about 2 weeks or less. For these disorders, there is no evidence of organic causation. Perplexity and puzzlement are often present, but disorientation to time, place, and person is not persistent or severe enough to justify a diagnosis of organically caused delirium. The disorder may or may not be associated with acute stress (usually defined as stressful events preceding onset by 1 or 2 weeks).

persistent delusional disorders: variety of disorders in which long-standing delusions constitute the only, or the most conspicuous, clinical characteristic and cannot be classified as organic, schizophrenic, or affective.

schizophrenia: disorders characterized by fundamental distortions of thinking and perception, coupled with affects that are inappropriate or blunted. The patient exhibits characteristic inability to recognize an appropriate perception of reality (Fig. 13-1). The patient’s intellectual capacity is usually intact. Symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder.

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