Mental health articles
OF mental health care and mentally ill
January, 2013
Definition and diagnosis of Obsessive-compulsive disorder
A DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD is made if the person exhibits either obsessions or compulsions. Obsessions are indicated by the following: 1 The person has recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress. 2 The thoughts, […]
Tags: definition, diagnosis, disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder
Posted in mentally ill | No Comments »
Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is classed as an anxiety disorder in DSM-IV. OCD has two symptom clusters: Obsessional thoughts (ruminations) and compulsive actions (rituals). Most patients have a mixture of both symptoms. Approximately 1.5 per cent of the population at any given time will suffer from OCD. The condition affects people irrespective of class, race, culture […]
Tags: behavior, obsessive-compulsive behavior, symptoms
Posted in mentally ill | No Comments »
Treatment efficacy: phobias
Roth and Fonagy in their comprehensive review of anxiety disorders and ‘what works for whom?’ concluded: ‘There is little justification for using anything other than exposure treatments for specific phobias’. Undoubtedly, the most efficacy as demonstrated through randomized controlled treatment trials come from behaviour therapy using exposure and cognitive techniques. Such treatments can vary in […]
Posted in research report | No Comments »
Specific phobia case studies
Specific phobia (illness phobia of HIV/Aids) Michael was a 23-year-old final-year student nurse who lived at home with his parents. He developed a terrifying fear of ‘catching HIV’ and dying of Aids. He had intrusive unwanted thoughts and images when at work, that somehow the virus had entered his skin (although there were no cuts […]
Tags: case study, phobia, scpecific phobia
Posted in research report | No Comments »
Phobia case studies
John is a 27-year-old postman, married with three children and has a sixyear history of agoraphobia. John recalled having his first panic attack in a crowded shop five years earlier after returning from a two-week summer holiday. At the time of this first panic attack, it started with severe sweating, and then feeling dizzy, followed […]
Tags: case studies, phobia
Posted in research report | No Comments »
Phobia Names and Definitions
Prevalence studies on phobias suggest that 1–2 per cent of the general population suffer from agoraphobia, 1–2 per cent from social phobia and 7 per cent from specific phobias (ibid.). Phobia onset varies; specific phobias tend to develop in childhood and may be an exaggerated response of normal childhood developmental fears. For example, it is […]
Tags: definitions, phobia
Posted in mentally ill | No Comments »
Finitions of anxiety and symptoms
Marks suggests that fear can be seen as a ‘usually unpleasant response to realistic danger’, whereas anxiety is ‘similar to fear but without objective source of danger’. A phobia is fear of a situation, which is out of proportion to the actual danger and cannot be explained or reasoned away. Panic is a sudden upsurge […]
Tags: anxiety, body, depression, symptoms
Posted in mentally ill | No Comments »
Junk food and health
If a fair proportion of what you are eating is processed foods and “ready meals”, the assortment of extra salt, sugars, additives, and so forth can accumulate in your body. These types of food are fine occasionally: eating them all the time is really not a good idea—at all! I do not want to go […]
Posted in research report | No Comments »
Mental health orientation of the juvenile judge
The mental health orientation of the juvenile judge has been researched in only one study. This study found that, in theory, juvenile judges seem to have a rather positive orientation towards mental health issues by stating, for example, that the mental health status of the juvenile offenders should affect their decision. However, in reality, no […]
Tags: healthm, juvenile judge, mental
Posted in research report | No Comments »