Please review these illnesses.
Name one medication used for each illness. Does any of the illnesses interlap?
Is a description of how the illness starts to provide? Any symptoms about the diseases that are not provided?
· What are the most common psychiatric illnesses?
· As we have said, within the world of Psychiatry, the branch of Medicine that studies the human mind and mental disorders, there are more than 400 recognized psychiatric pathologies. All of them deserve the same recognition, but, unfortunately, we cannot talk about all of them. For this reason, we have selected those that, by incidence, are most relevant. But whatever the situation, if you think you may be suffering from a mental problem, ask for help. A psychiatrist can help you.
· What are the most common psychiatric illnesses?
· 4. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
· 8. Borderline personality disorder
· 10. Neurodevelopmental disorders
· 12. REM sleep behavior disorder
1. Anxiety
Anxiety (and disorders related to anxiety) is a psychiatric illness in which the person feels very intense fears and worries in daily situations which, in principle, do not represent a real danger. This experimentation of emotions can lead to panic attacks that greatly affect the life of the affected person.
The causes are not too clear, since although the experience of traumatic events or emotionally painful events can stimulate their appearance, the truth is that the genetic factor (which does not mean hereditary) seems to be very important.
Agitation, stress, hyperventilation, pressure in the chest, weakness and tiredness, gastrointestinal problems, nervousness, increased heart rate, etc., are the symptoms of a disease that It can be treated with antidepressant medications (although there are also some specific for anxiety) and, together, with psychological therapy.
2. Depression
Depression is, surely and unfortunately, the psychiatric illness par excellence. More than 300 million people suffer from it in the world and inexplicably, it is difficult to hear about it. A disease that causes very deep feelings of sadness and emotional emptiness that greatly interfere with daily life.
Genetic, biological, social, psychological, environmental and economic factors. All of them play an important role in the development of a disease whose causes remain unclear, although we do know that it affects women more than men.
Sadness, emotional emptiness, loss of interest in activities, insomnia (although sometimes manifested by sleeping more than normal), loss of appetite (although sometimes manifested by sleeping more than normal), feelings of guilt, loss of hope, headache, tiredness and weakness, irritability and even thoughts of suicide. They are the symptoms of a disease that should be treated with antidepressant medications and psychological therapy.
3. Neurocognitive disorders
Neurocognitive disorders are all those neurological diseases that affect a person’s ability to think and reason, so they have psychiatric manifestations. These are acquired cognitive problems (which have nothing to do with neurodevelopment) that, a part of their psychological symptoms, must be addressed by a mental health specialist. A clear example is Alzheimer’s disease, which arises from a progressive degeneration of brain neurons.
4. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Obsessive compulsive disorder, better known as OCD, is a psychiatric illness that consists of the appearance and maintenance of irrational obsessions that cause the person to carry out repetitive and compulsive behaviors, which generates anguish and interferes with daily life.
Again, genetic, biological, social and environmental factors play an important role in the development of a disease of unknown causes which, yes, it is known that traumatic events are generally key in its appearance.
OCD can take incredibly varied forms: checking that the door is closed, not stepping on the lines of the street tiles, perfectly aligning objects, continuously putting on glasses … Be that as it may, drug treatments and psychological therapy help reduce the impact that this psychiatric disorder has on the person’s life.
5. Eating disorders
Eating disorders are serious psychiatric illnesses related to dangerous behaviors when facing food, thus compromising the physical and emotional integrity of the person. In addition to affecting mental health, due to the nutritional problems they entail, they can enormously damage physical health at all levels.
Anorexia (restricting caloric intake as much as possible), bulimia (getting rid of calories ingested through, generally, vomiting), obesity (although it is not clearly known if it is a mental pathology or a metabolic disorder), the disorder rumination (regurgitating food after eating inadvertently), compulsive eating disorder (binge eating on a regular basis), pica (eating things that are not food), food neophobia (fear of trying new foods), pregorexia (obsession with not gaining weight after getting pregnant), orthorexia (obsession with eating only healthy foods), or vigorexia (obsession with having a “perfect” muscular body) are the most common eating disorders.
Even if the causes behind its development are unclear (and its appearance would be due to the combination of many different factors) and, therefore, its prevention is complicated, pharmacological treatments and psychotherapy are of great help to solve these destructive situations.
6. Phobias
Phobias are anxiety-related psychiatric illnesses that consist of an irrational but very strong fear of something that does not represent a real danger. Or, at least, in which the fear is disproportionate to the risk or probability that a situation is dangerous.
At heights, insects, dogs, closed spaces, open spaces, clowns, flying … There are many different phobias, although medications and, especially, psychological therapy can help solve many cases of phobias or that, at the very least, the impact on daily life is as small as possible.
7. Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric illness in which the person can see things that are not really around them, to hear voices in your head, to say nonsensical things, to believe that other people want to hurt you … The impact on personal and professional life is enormous.
It usually develops between the ages of 16 and 30 and, although the causes are not too clear, we do know the symptoms: delusions, hallucinations, talking alone, difficulty socializing (it is a myth that schizophrenic people are violent), strange movements, etc. Fortunately, pharmacological treatments and psychotherapy can help the person to lead a practically normal life.
8. Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a psychiatric illness in which the person experiences unstable and turbulent emotions, which translates into impulsive behaviors and difficulty in establishing stable personal relationships.
Seeing situations in an extreme way, sudden changes in your opinion about other people, anger, possibility of self-harm, not tolerating loneliness, tendency to consume drugs, go from sadness to euphoria (and vice versa) quickly, etc., are some of the symptoms of this disorder that should be treated mainly with psychotherapy, because in this case, medications, beyond reducing the Emotional ups and downs are not as widely used as therapy.
9. Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric illness in which the person experiences sudden changes in mood, going from these emotionally high moments to depressive moods that can last for months.
Problems with personal relationships, weakness, tiredness, insomnia, loss of ability to think clearly, etc., are the main symptoms of this disorder in which, despite the fact that bipolar episodes will continue to appear more or less frequently, it can be treated pharmacologically and psychologically to reduce the impact of the pathology on daily life.
10. Neurodevelopmental disorders
Neurodevelopmental disorders is the set of illnesses with psychological and psychiatric manifestations that appear in infancy or childhood due to problems during the development of brain neurons. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and autism are examples of neurodevelopmental disorders whose mental manifestations can (and should) be treated by a psychological health professional.
11. Sexual dysfunctions
Sexual dysfunctions are psychiatric disorders that prevent the person from leading a full sex life due to problems (of very complex causes of appearance) in the sexual response in some of its phases. Premature ejaculation and anorgasmia are two examples of sexual dysfunction.
12. REM sleep behavior disorder
REM sleep behavior disorder is a psychiatric disorder in which, due to the persistence of muscle tone during REM sleep (when in theory you have to lose body muscle tone), the person experiences abnormal and violent dreams, with movements typical of what they are dreaming, usually in nightmares.
It is a disorder that does not have a definitive cure, so the only solution is the administration of medications (clonazepam is the drug par excellence) that reduce the risk that these episodes of violent movements will occur.
13. Diogenes syndrome
Diogenes syndrome is a psychiatric disease in which the person who suffers it tends to total personal and social abandonment , isolating himself voluntarily (taking into account that he suffers a pathology that leads him to do so) at home and accumulating large amounts of garbage in it.
It usually affects people over 65 years of age and usually occurs especially in people who have previously suffered from other psychiatric disorders (the relationship with OCD is the most studied). Be that as it may, the first treatment is to control the nutritional and hygienic complications of living in these conditions, although later it must be addressed with psychological help.
14. Burnout syndrome
Burnout syndrome is the set of psychological problems that arise derived from a state of mental and emotional exhaustion, as well as physical, as a result of the stress, demands and burden of work. It is believed that 31% of the population could be suffering from this disorder due to problems responding to the environment and working conditions.
Low self-esteem , loss of motivation, anxiety, tiredness, insomnia, headache, feelings of failure, etc., are just some of the symptoms of a syndrome that must be treated, either pharmacologically, psychologically or a combination of them, so that the person can regain job satisfaction.
15. Paraphilic disorders
We end this journey through the world of psychiatric diseases with paraphilic disorders, that is, those disorders in which the person feels sexual interest or arousal for people or situations legally or socially not accepted.
Depending on where the paraphilia is focused, it can lead from feelings of guilt in the person to damage to him or other people. Pedophilia or sexual sadism are examples of paraphilic disorders. And it goes without saying that, many times, these people need pharmacological and psychotherapeutic support to prevent their mental illness from causing harm to innocent people.
