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Mental Disorders

Anger Disorder (Part Two): Can Bitterness Become a Mental Disorder?

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To fellow PT blogger, literary professor Christopher Lane--and the American PsychiatricAssociation's DSM-V Task Force-- I say, yes, you bet, as to whether bitterness can become problematical enough in some cases to warrant being deemed a mental disorder. Emphatically yes.

Bitterness, which I define as a chronic and pervasive state of smoldering resentment, is one of the most destructive and toxic of human emotions. Bitterness is a kind of morbid characterological hostility toward someone, something or toward life itself, resulting from the consistent repression of anger, rage or resentment regarding how one really has or perceives to have been treated. Bitterness is a prolonged, resentful feeling of disempowered and devalued victimization. Embitterment, like resentment and hostility, results from the long-term mismanagement of annoyance, irritation, frustration, anger or rage. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche noted that "nothing consumes a man more quickly than the emotion of resentment."

Most mental disorders stem either directly from--or secondarily generate--anger, rage, ...

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The Stigma Of Childhood Mental Disorders: A Conceptual Framework

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Abstract

Objective

To describe the state of the literature on stigma associated with children’s mental disorders and highlight gaps in empirical work.

Method

We reviewed child mental illness stigma articles in (English only) peer-reviewed journals available through Medline and PsychInfo. We augmented these with adult-oriented stigma articles that focus on theory and measurement. 145 articles in PsychInfo and 77 articles in MEDLINE met search criteria. The review process involved identifying and appraising literature convergence on the definition of critical dimensions of stigma, antecedents, and outcomes reported in empirical studies.

Results

We found concurrence on three dimensions of stigma (negative stereotypes, devaluation and discrimination), two contexts of stigma (self, general public), and two targets of stigma (self/individual, family). Theory and empirics on institutional and self stigma in child populations were sparse. Literature reports few theoretic frameworks and conceptualizations of child mental illness stigma. One model of help-seeking (the FINIS) explicitly acknowledges...

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Parent and Child Contributions to Diagnosis of Mental Disorder: Are Both Informants Always Necessary?

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Abstract

To examine the unique cases contributed by parent and child informants to diagnostic classification, with the goal of identifying those diagnoses for which either or both informants are needed. The authors examined survey data from the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study, a 4-community epidemiology survey of 9- to 17-year-old children and their parents. Parent-child dyads (1,285 pairs) were independently interviewed by lay persons with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children; a subset of these pairs (n = 247) were also interviewed by clinicians. Agreement between parents and children was examined with respect to levels of impairment, need for/use of services, and clinicians' diagnoses. Parents and children rarely agreed on the presence of diagnostic conditions, regardless of diagnostic type. Nonetheless, most child-only- and parent-only-identified diagnoses were similarly related to impairment and clinical validation, with...

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Sexual Orientation and Its Relation to Mental Disorders and Suicide Attempts: Findings From a Nationally Representative Sample

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Abstract

To compare the rates of all Axis I and II mental disorders and suicide attempts in sexual orientation minorities with rates in heterosexuals using a nationally representative sample. Data used were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Wave 2 (n = 34 653, response rate = 70.2%). Cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine differences in rates of mental disorders and suicide attempts by sexual orientation. All analyses were stratified by sex. Compared with their heterosexual counterparts, lesbians and bisexual women demonstrated a 3-fold increased likelihood of substance use disorders, and gay and bisexual men showed twice the rate of anxiety disorders and schizophrenia and (or) psychotic illness, even after accounting for mental disorder comorbidity. Suicide attempts were independently associated with bisexuality, with odds 3 times higher than in heterosexuals. Findings from our study emphasize the fact that sexual orientation...

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Why Are Religious Delusions And Hallucinations So Prominent In Patients With Serious Mental Health Diagnoses, Especially Schizophrenia?

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In patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, often delusions exist that either exalt the status of the patient (eg, the patient is God's representative on earth) or denigrate the patient (eg, God is sending messages to the patient specifying his/her sinfulness and need to be punished). Are there sociological or neurological explanations for the high prevalence of religious delusions and hallucinations?

Popular Answers

The schizoid constellation comprises a number of typical symptoms, present in greater or lesser amounts, further mitigated through numerous indiosyncratic aspects of each case, the time of onset, the number of years, and of course the individual triggers. The easiest way to answer that question - employing Occams razor for the least-words-being-the-best - would go to the essense of the communication with God business. Think of what would happen igf the pipeline from experience to memory suddenly developed leaks - the continuity of your memory...

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