What is a measure of sweat gland activity controlled by the peripheral nervous system?

self-report questionnaires that assess personality traits

• Problem: time and tedious
  

Paul Meehl and Personal Inventories

they are important based on what answers predict

question makes sense when read

collect and evaluate data without room to interpret (T/F) and computer score

considers potential of people to downplay problems and fake answers

measures false claims or determines whether answers are random

Subtle Defensiveness Scale

assesses whether person sees self in unrealistically positive way

Psychophysiological Assessment

measure changes in nervous system reflecting events (anxiety, stress, sexual arousal, etc)

• Limitations: requires skill and technical experience, can be inconsistent

physiological responses (ex: blood pressure) is read and patient tries to regulate it

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

firing of a group of neurons reveals brain wave activity to be measured

Event-Related Potential (ERP)

recorded response from psychological or emotional factors

• Regular pattern of changes in voltage during waking activities associated with calm
• Stress-reduction treatments attempt to increase frequency of alpha waves

• Slow, irregular waves during deepest, most relaxed sleep (1-2 hours after falling asleep)
• Frequent delta wave activity during waking state may indicate dysfunction

measure of sweat gland activity controlled by the peripheral nervous system

What first added classification of mental disorders to a published tool?

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
• Published by American Psychiatric Association
  
• First came out in 1952
  

• Clinician opinions were included and many disagreed with these opinions
• Lacked of operational definitions

What influenced the change of the DSM II in the publishing of DSM III?

• Some countries (France, Russia) had individual classifications
• People thought diagnoses lacked biological causes (Kraepelin)

• Draft was viewed by both experts and consultants
• Identified disorders with atheoretical detail making it possible to study reliability and validity
• Multiaxial System: rated individuals with possible psychological disorders on five axes
• Information about functioning in many areas rather than just the disorder and scaled results

• More inclusive because changes were based on scientific data instead of opinions
• Eliminated distinction between organically and psychologically based disorders, present in previous
• Change axis coding for disorders

• Mostly unchanged with new disorders and reclassifications
• Removal of multiaxial system and instead describes disorders
• Expanded dimensional axes for uniformly rating severity, frequency, or duration of disorders

LeBeau et al: National Stressful Events Survey PTSD Short Scale

• In DSM
• 9-item self-report scale developed based on data from a national study of U.S. adults

monitor symptoms that present across disorders in almost everyone during treatment

• Cognitive/Behavioral Impairment → Negative Connotation → Stigma → Reduce Life Opportunities
• Hinshaw and Stier (2008): stigma of individuals with mental disorders is increasing
• Categorize intellectual disability based on level of support: intermittent, limited, extensive, or pervasive

all of the symptoms are too mild to impair functioning

• The minimum number of criteria required to meet the definition of a disorder
• Avoid health care system paying for people who aren’t sick

• Patients with mild issues were more impaired than chronic ones
• ICD-10 recognized this and created mixed anxiety-depression but did not define it

Questions to ask when considering adding a category to DSM

1. Would semistructured interviews reveal patients fit the new category? or existing disorder?
2. Is it more prevalent in medical primary care than outpatient mental health settings?
3. What set of criteria would identify the disorder?

• Anxious and depressed symptoms but not an existing disorder were common in primary care
• Too new for construct validity information: course, response to treatment, family aggregation
• DSM-IV placed the diagnosis in the appendix
• Research found it rare in the absence of a current or previous anxiety or mood disorder NO

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

• Severe emotional reactions from late luteal period phase
• For: need attention, care, research, and financial support based on impairment
• Against: little scientific information, could become stigmatized
• DSM-III-R and DSM-IV retained in appendix
• Name was not accurate because symptoms may not be exclusively endocrine state → premenstrual dysphoric disorder YES

• Comorbidity
  
• Heterogeneity
  
• Symptoms weighted equally for diagnosis
• NOS: Not Otherwise Specified (highest category)
• Emphasize reliability, sometimes forget validity
• Carson: methods of constructing a nosology of mental disorders assume old, flawed definitions
• Pharmaceutical companies want control because FDA approval is based on diagnosis

diagnosed with more than one psychological disorder at once → suggests related categories

possible to have different patterns of symptoms than the rules

NOS: Not Otherwise Specified

(highest category)
Person seem to fit a category but did not meet full criteria → suggest categories are not accurate

• Do not meet full criteria but still get a diagnosis
• Present in DSM 5

• Methods of constructing a nosology of mental disorders assume old, flawed definitions
• Might be better to start fresh and create a new system of disorders based on new info

Approach to organizing disorders by ordering them along a continuum

• Provides the nomenclature necessary for communication, development of theories, and guide research
• Consistent with classification system used for physical disorders

instead of saying: you’re schizophrenic say: you are a person with schizophrenia

does not tell what’s wrong just that there is a mental health issue

People will internalize views and start to believe them

• Protest
• Education
• Contact

People reduce stigma after encounters

• Equal status
• Personal
• Cooperation
• Pleasant

(semi effective)