CAS PS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Gnarls Barkley, American Psychiatric Association, Mental Disorder

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Ben Wormwood

Document Summary

Symptom: any characteristic of a person"s actions, thoughts or feelings that could be a potential indicator of a mental disorder. Syndrome: a constellation of interrelated symptoms manifested by a given individual: may or may not stem from the same cause but affect the same person. Cannot be a result of a voluntary decision to act in manner contrary. The continuum of mental disorders to societal norms. Mental disorder exists along a continuum from normal to abnormal without a disparate line of separation: context is relevant. To be of value, system of diagnosis must be: reliable: different diagnosticians reach the same conclusions when they independently diagnose the same individuals. It needs to produce the same results in the same situations over time: valid: the categories it identifies are clinically meaningful. First edition of the dsm was published in 1952. The co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual. 70% of people with diagnosable mental disorders do not seek treatment.