Mental Health

A pattern of thought, feelings and behaviour that conforms to a usual, typical or expected standard

When thoughts, feelings and behaviour become dysfunctional, deviant or show distressq

• 1. Socio-cultural: defined by what a particular society or culture views as acceptable or unacceptable behaviour
• 2. Functional: By how well an individual can cope and function within society
• 3. Historical: by the time period or era in which the behaviour is performed. What is normal changes over time.
• 4. Situational: defined by the 'situation' or context in which a behaviour is occurring
• 5. Medical: defined on a physiological basis- a doctor defines your mental health
• 6. Statistical: normality is based upon calculating the behaviour of the majority

A state of emotional and social wellbeing where an individual can interact with others and the environment, cope with normal stresses and achieve optimal development and wellbeing.

• A psychological dysfunction that involves the impaired ability to cope with everyday life
• Typical characteristics are distress, unusual thoughts, feelings and inappropriate behvaiour

• A set of symptoms that interfere with daily functioning. Symptoms are reasonably consistent between patients but causes may differ
• eg. Major depression

A particular profile of symptoms. The origins and clinical severity may vary. eg dyslexia

A condition with a known cause, predictable course and standard protocols for treatment. Eg. Alzheimer's dementia

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: A system for classifying and identifying mental disorders.
• It is descriptive- it does not specify causes or treatment
• Categorical approach: Has 5 axis

• Cultural variation: the DSM is based on American culture, tradition and mores, and thus may not always be appropriate.
• Validity of the categories: It is possible that a very precise and specific description may not truly reflect the disorder (e.g. homosexuality was considered a mental disorder).
• Writing by committee: Committee members may have a disproportionate influence on the committee listing the diagnostic criteria for a particular disorder.
• Subjectivity: People may not disclose subjective feelings (these feelings are the symptoms that classification is based on), such as intense anxiety, unhappiness or distress.

• Based on ongoing scientific research and regularly revised.
• Very comprehensive in terms of the number of disorders included and amount of information.
• Useful for planning treatment.
• Provides user-friendly guidelines that help in the diagnosis of disorders with the ‘yes/no’ approach, thus assisting the decision making process, i.e. if treatment is needed.
• Assists communication between mental health professionals and their peers.

• Only looks at whether the patient has a disorder or not—does not address the severity or provide an evaluation of the symptoms present.
• Some disorders do not have the same symptoms (e.g. personality disorders).
• High degree of overlap between symptoms for various disorders, this does not account for that
• Stigmatisation (e.g. shame due to labelling).
• Substantial loss of information (e.g. overlooks unique combinations of symptoms for each individual).

• Organises mental disorders into groups or categories and sub-categories, each with specific symptoms and characteristics.
• It uses a ‘yes/no’ approach in that you either have a mental disorder or you don’t
• Used to classify the symptoms.

Quantifies a person’s symptoms and other characteristics with numerical values on one or more scales or continuums to determine the severity of these symptoms, rather than assigning them to a mental disorder category.

• Doesn’t use single diagnostic labels, therefore no loss of information about unique combinations of symptoms.
• Can generate a profile and provide a detailed description of client’s mental condition.
• Does not lump people into single diagnostic categories, instead describes different dimensions.
• Quantifying and grading can provide richer and more detailed description of a client’s mental condition.
• Reduces possibilities of stigmatisation.

• Can’t be applied to most disorders in the DSM-IV and ICD-10, e.g. mostly personality disorders.
• Time consuming for mental health professionals to rate clients on dimensions.
• There is not necessarily agreement on the number of dimensions and what they are.
• The wide range of symptoms people experience leads to a large number of potential dimensions associated with disorders.
• No specific system that can be used