Definition
Psychiatric disorders, also called mental disorders, are a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant impairment of personal functioning. Such disorders may be diagnosed by a mental health professional and the feature of psychiatric disorders may be persistent, relapsing and remitting. According to available data, psychiatric disorders are relatively common in the general population and primary care populations. Ongoing signs and symptoms of psychiatric disorders include confused thinking, reduced ability to concentrate, deep sadness, or feeling "down", inability to manage, day-to-day stress and problems, trouble understanding, withdrawal from others, extreme tiredness, low energy, sleeping problems, strong feelings of fear, worry, or guilt, extreme mood changes, from highs to lows, often shifting very quickly detachment from reality, marked changes in eating habits, drug or alcohol abuse, excessive anger, hostility or violence, etc.
Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders
Psychiatric disorders are quite prevalent in the United States population. In 2001–2003, 26.2% of Americans per year suffer from a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. The most prevalent psychiatric disorders during 12 months are anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder (18.1%), followed by mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia (9.5%), and impulse-control disorders (8.9%). In the United States population, the lifetime prevalence of any diagnosable psychiatric disorder is 46.4%. While in Europe, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders is also very high like in the United States. Based on assessments during the 1990s, the 12-month and lifetime prevalence rates of any psychiatric disorder in the Norwegian adult population are 32.8% and 52.4%, respectively, similar to United States rates.
Types of Psychiatric Disorders
A large number of psychiatric disorders have been identified. The main types (often called classes or categories) are listed as follows. Serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, a number of medical illnesses and trauma, may result in the symptoms of psychosis. Psychosis may be temporary or transient, and can be caused by medications or substance abuse. While neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders, one of the differences between psychosis and neurosis is that the individual with neurotic symptoms has a firm grip on reality, and the psychotic patient does not.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders
When a patient presents to the clinic with a set of symptoms, one task is to make a diagnosis that explains these symptoms. In somatic medicine, the diagnosis usually fulfills this explanatory role by indicating the cause of the patient's symptom presentation. As in other medical disciplines, psychiatry disorders are treated as distinctive disease kinds that can be invoked in causal explanations of patients' symptoms. At present, it is unclear whether many of our current diagnostic categories do find stable and distinctive causes. Studies on the genetics and neurochemistry of psychiatric disorders have tended to indicate high degrees of heterogeneity, and while recent advances in cognitive neuroscience and functional neuroimaging have yielded compelling insights into the mechanisms involved in psychopathology, it is disputed whether they on their own could supply individual disease definitions. Therefore, the possibility that many of the major psychiatric disorders could turn out to be causally heterogeneous at every level of analysis should be considered.
Psychiatric medications don't cure mental illness, but they can often significantly improve symptoms. Psychiatric medications can also help other treatments, such as psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is the treatment of psychiatric disorders provided by a trained mental health professional. Psychotherapy in combination with medication is the most effective way to promote recovery.
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Reference
- Maung, H.H. Diagnosis and causal explanation in psychiatry. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 2016, 60:15-24. Distributed under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.
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