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Behavioral health: Comprises mental/emotional well-being and the choices people make that affect their well-being. Issues in behavioral health include substance abuse and addiction, mental disorders and psychological distress, and self-harm and suicide.
Intervention: Action intended to interfere with and stop or modify a process, as in treatment undertaken to halt, manage, or alter the course of the pathological process of a disease or disorder.
Mental disorder: Any condition characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances, abnormal behaviors, impaired functioning, or any combination of these. Such disorders cannot be accounted for solely by environmental circumstances and may involve physiological, genetic, chemical, social, and other factors.
Mental illness: A term that refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders.
Mental health: A state of successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity. Mental health is indispensable to personal well-being, family and interpersonal relationships, and contribution to community or society.
Positive mental health: High levels of life satisfaction and positive affect (emotional well-being) and psychosocial functioning (psychological and social well-being).
Recovery: A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness from mental disorders and substance use disorders, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential. The four major dimensions that support a life in recovery are health, home, purpose, and community.
Self-Harm: When a person hurts his or her own body on purpose.
Suicide: The act of taking one's own life on purpose.
Suicidal behavior: Any action that could cause a person to die, such as taking a drug overdose or crashing a car on purpose.
Anxiety disorder: People with anxiety disorders respond to certain objects or situations with fear and dread. They have physical reactions to those objects, such as a rapid heartbeat and sweating
Bipolar Disorder: A disorder associated with episodes of mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.
Compulsive Gambling: Unable to resist impulses to gamble with can lead to severe money problems, job loss, crime or fraud, and damage to family relationships.
Depression: A mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life.
Eating Disorders: Extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors involving weight and food. The most common eating disorders include Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating and Bulimia
Mood Disorders: Also called affective disorders, they may involve feeling sad all the time, losing interest in important parts of life, and fluctuating between extreme happiness and extreme sadness. The most common mood disorders are depression, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Excessive thoughts (obsessions) that lead to repetitive behaviors (compulsions).
Panic Disorder: An anxiety disorder that causes panic attacks, which are sudden feelings of terror for no reason.
Personality Disorders: Long-term patterns of thoughts and behaviors that are unhealthy and inflexible that cause serious problems with relationships and work. Ten types of personality disorders have been identified grouped into 3 clusters.
Phobias: A type of anxiety disorder associated with a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A disorder in which a person has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event.
Psychotic Disorders: Losing contact with reality and experiencing a range of extreme symptoms that usually includes hallucinations (hearing or seeing things that are not real, such as voices) and delusions (believing things that are not true). Schizophrenia is the most common example.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): A type of depression that occurs during the winter months, when there is less natural sunlight.
Schizophrenia: A disorder that affects a person's ability to think, feel, and behave clearly.
Eating Disorders
Mood Disorders
Psychotic Disorders
Personality Disorders
Behavioral Guide to Personality Disorders (DSM-5) by
Behavioral Guide to Personality Disorders is the first behaviorally-based reference guide on Personality Disorders and their applicability in vocational, therapeutic, and other rehabilitation service agencies. Chapters cover each personality disorder from a learning theory perspective; the "Do's and Don'ts" on how to manage personality types in service delivery systems (called "personality management"); and predictors of each personality disorder for vocational, therapeutic, and rehabilitation outcomes. The objective of the book is simply to provide practical and ready-to-use clinical information for practitioners and advanced students facing the high demand for triage and treatment decisions. It helps the paraprofessional and professional measurably identify individual behavior problems in clients and consumers, and predict their trajectory of outcome success or failure under certain circumstances or when provided a litany of rehabilitation services. The text also culls from evidence-based research and application to ensure the viability and acceptability of the analysis. For simplicity of reading and rapid reading comprehension, the design of this book is called a PowerPoint book. It allows for self-paced learning with PowerPoint (graphic-visual) reminders embedded in the text with study questions listed afterwards. Like some predecessors, this guide offers a return to the behavioral framework to understand the intricacies of psychopathology. It explains the behavioral underpinnings of each personality disorder, both to debunk mythical reasons or reifications distorting the etiologies, and to advance a more respectful scientific outlook on personality disorders. With this resource, professionals in the allied health fields can more confidently predict the outcome success or failure of individuals with personality disorders, who receive mental health treatment, vocational rehabilitation, or other allied health services.
Deconstructing Psychosis by
Deconstructing Psychosis: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V provides an all-important summary of the latest research about the diagnosis and pathophysiology of psychosis. This volume gives the reader an inside look at how psychotic phenomena are represented in the current diagnostic system and how DSM-V might better address the needs of patients with such disorders. The book presents a selection of papers reporting the proceedings of a conference titled "Deconstructing Psychosis" convened by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The conference was designed to be a key element in the multiphase research review process for the fifth revision of DSM. This book is one in a series of ten that reflects some of the most current and critical examinations of psychiatric disorders and psychotic syndromes. APA published the fourth edition of DSM in 1994 and a text revision in 2000. DSM-V is scheduled for publication in 2013. Deconstructing Psychosis: Refining the Research Agenda for DSM-V examines the current evidence regarding the diagnosis and pathophysiology of common psychotic syndromes including: * Schizophrenia* Bipolar disorder* Major depressive psychosis* Substance-induced psychosis It also addresses broad issues relating to diagnosis such as the ways in which psychosis cuts across multiple diagnostic categories. Beyond merely summarizing the current state of the science, the authors of these papers critique the current research and clinical evidence, and raise questions about gaps in our knowledge. The book provides recommendations for the most promising areas of research in psychosis, which may lead to more refined treatments based on a better understanding of what biological and environmental factors contribute to its development and symptoms. In the learned editors' selection of papers for inclusion in this volume, they have exhibited their conviction that DSM-V is a "living document" that will reflect the pace of progress in multiple areas, ranging from molecular genetics and brain imaging to social, behavioral, and anthropological science. As a book on the narrowly defined topic of linking the classification of psychotic syndromes with their underlying pathophysiology and potential etiology, there is no other writing of comparable content available today.
DSM-5® Guidebook: The Essential Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders by
DSM-5® Guidebook provides a roadmap to the many changes in this living document, DSM-5®, and will prove invaluable to psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, neurologists, social workers, and all who strive to understand mental illness as it is conceived today.
Major Depressive Disorder by
Depressive disorders are among the most common conditions in the world and are the leading causes of disability, affecting millions of people. Depression is also a common secondary condition, occurring at increased rates alongside virtually any illness that impacts brain function. Because itis so common, people suffering from depression seek help from a wide variety of clinicians, including: family doctors, pediatricians, gynecologists, psychiatrists, internists, psychologists, social workers and other therapists.In fact, depression is so common that the demand for care far exceeds the availability of psychiatrists, so that most depression is treated by other professionals in other specialty fields. For clinicians without significant experience treating depression, managing the condition can be confusing.This pocket-sized guide was specifically written with this diverse group of clinicians in mind. It provides a concise, practical and current overview of depressive disorders, including making a diagnosis, identifying important medical and psychiatric comorbidities, and describes our currentunderstanding of the epidemiology, genetics and neurobiology of the condition. In addition to these topics, most of this book is focused on a programmatic approach toward managing depression, including subpopulations such as children or women who are pregnant. This book may also be of interest forpeople experiencing depression and their families to help guide treatment seeking and provide education.Dr. Stephen Strakowski and Dr. Erik Nelson are internationally recognized and trusted experts in the study and treatment of mood disorders whose own extensive clinical experience working with people with depression guides this book.
PTSD by
Post-traumatic stress disorder--and its predecessor diagnoses, including soldier's heart, railroad spine, and shell shock--was recognized as a psychiatric disorder in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The psychic impacts of train crashes, wars, and sexual shocks among children first drew psychiatric attention. Later, enormous numbers of soldiers suffering from battlefield traumas returned from the world wars. It was not until the 1980s that PTSD became a formal diagnosis, in part to recognize the intense psychic suffering of Vietnam War veterans and women with trauma-related personality disorders. PTSD now occupies a dominant place in not only the mental health professions but also major social institutions and mainstream culture, making it the signature mental disorder of the early twenty-first century. In PTSD, Allan V. Horwitz traces the fluctuations in definitions of and responses to traumatic psychic conditions. Arguing that PTSD, perhaps more than any other diagnostic category, is a lens for showing major historical changes in conceptions of mental illness, he surveys the conditions most likely to produce traumas, the results of those traumas, and how to evaluate the claims of trauma victims. Illuminating a number of central issues about psychic disturbances more generally--including the relative importance of external stressors and internal vulnerabilities in causing mental illness, the benefits and costs of mental illness labels, and the influence of gender on expressions of mental disturbance--PTSD is a compact yet comprehensive survey. The book will appeal to diverse audiences, including the educated public, students across the psychological and social sciences, and trauma victims who are interested in socio-historical approaches to their condition. Praise for Allan V. Horwitz's Anxiety: A Short History "The definitive overview of the history of anxiety."--Bulletin of the History of Medicine "A lucid, erudite and brisk intellectual history driven by a clear and persuasive central argument."--Social History of Medicine "An enlightening tour of anxiety, set at a sensible pace, with an exceptional scholar and writer leading the way."--Library Journal
Youth Mental Health by
This book looks at the prevalence of mental health problems for young Australians and offers general advice on how to maintain good mental health. Tips include advice for parents and friends on how to help someone with a mood disorder, as well as options for mental health assessment, treatments and therapies for teenagers who are not coping as well as they would like. A key focus of the book is self-harm and suicidal behaviours, revealing the latest approaches to reducing youth suicide.