Mental health articles
OF mental health care and mentally ill
definition
dual diagnosis definition
Overview of dual diagnosis Dual diagnosis, the coexistence of mental health and substance misuse disorders, is widely seen as a major challenge to mental health services and the staff working in them. While this definition may seem straightforward, the range of people who might be categorized in this way is very diverse. The Department of […]
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schizophrenia spectrum disorders definition
Schizophrenia is a familial disorder and that genetic influences are involved in the clustering of schizophrenia in families. The liability to schizophrenia seems to be manifested in families not only through the occurrence of the classical disorder, but through other related phenotypes as well. That is, the predisposition to schizophrenia may be expressed in a […]
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dsm-iii-r criteria definition
The DSM-III-R defining features (impaired social interaction, communication, and stereotyped patterns of behavior) are retained in DSM-IV, but the individual items and the overall diagnostic algorithm have been modified to (1) improve clinical utility by reducing the number of items from 16 to 12 and by increasing the clarity of individual items; (2) increase compatibility […]
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dementia definition medical
The Alzheimer’s Society defines dementia as: The loss of intellectual functions (such as thinking, remembering, and reasoning) of sufficient severity to interfere with a person’s daily functioning. (Alzheimer’s Society 2006a). Dementia is not a disease itself but a group of symptoms that may include changes in personality, mood and behaviour. Dementia is irreversible when caused […]
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amenorrhea definition
In females, one of the first questions a nurse or doctor may ask is whether theperson’s periods have stopped; usually this is the case. Sometimes, the periods stop before significant weight loss occurs. This can then motivate the person with anorexia nervosa to continue with the weight loss (there is a belief that one of […]
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child maltreatment definition
Child maltreatment There are wide variations in the reported incidence of child abuse and neglect based on variation in definition and methods used to estimate prevalence. Types of abuse include: •physical abuse – non-accidental injury, burns, fractures, bruises; •emotional abuse – threats, hostility, failure to protect; •sexual abuse – penetrative, non-penetrative; and •neglect – lack […]
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Definition and diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder is diagnostically classed as an anxiety disorder. A DSM-IV (APA 1994) diagnosis of PTSD is made after a person has been exposed to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self […]
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generalized anxiety disorder definition and diagnosis
Definition and diagnosis Generalized anxiety disorder is diagnosed using DSM IV (APA 1994) criteria if the following are seen: 1Excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation), occurring more days than not for at least six months, about a number of events or activities (such as work or school performance). 2The person finds it difficult to control […]
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Psychology definition of abnormal behavior
Defining Abnormal Behavior. Attempts to define abnormal, deviant, disordered, or psychopathological behavior in psychology have largely been disastrous, although this process is necessary to develop a classification system. Any number of attempts ranging from statistical to theoretical positions have been made; all cause more confusion than clarification. One possible solution to this problem is Wakefield’s […]
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Anorexia nervosa medical definition and diagnosis
Anorexia nervosa First identified in the late nineteenth century, anorexia nervosa involves behaviours intended to keep the individual as thin as possible. Indeed, the defining characteristic of anorexia is being signifi cantly underweight. DSM-IV-TR suggested a weight-based cut-off point for a diagnosis of anorexia as being 15 per cent below the normal weight for age […]
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