Diathesis and illness - psychology notes (part one - I will complete this portion next week)

Concept is vulnerability of individual for particular disorder. Salient - notion of stress studies of animals: they all came down with the same disorder. Example: (I have deleted part of these notes from the blog because I do not think that the example is appropriate for the public. However, I have kept the notes for my self. Suffice to say that the experiment conducted on animals to induce stress caused more general responses such as stomach ulcers. Humans - relatively small set of responses - some backaches, some headaches, some ulcers. General adaption syndrome: Does not matter what stressor is the type of response a person has - seems to be genetic in a large roll. eg. two parents with ulcers - children also. If parents develop headache when stressed - children also get headaches when stressed. This all falls under the notion of diathesis - High diathesis: more vulnerable. Reference to the DSM in these notes is prior to recent changes. There is mention of some changes to the DSM in prior blogs. DSM - why formulated. DSM looks at either you have it or you do not. If there is a possible nine criteria and you have 5 or more, you have diagnosis. If you have 4, than you do not. There is a problem with that. Hypothetical case: You have two people with different symptoms and they share only one symptom. In theory because they have the same amount numerically but share one, should the treatment be the same? The second problem - There were 11 personality disorders. Eg. A- schizophrenics , paranoids etc. B. narcissistic, border line, anti socials etc… C. avoidant, dependent, obsessive compulsive, depressive 7-9 symptoms for most of them 4-5 7/4 x 6x5x4x3x2 etc = 5000 ways to see how many different ways can people be so broad and lacking makes you wonder if it is good. So, what are alternative ways of looking at abnormal disorders. Behaviours can be measured. The notion that behaviour can be measured. Look at it two ways. 1. Dimensional Constructs: {_________________} ‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ if IQ scale ‘ ‘ more intelligent than 2. It allows you to fractionate into smaller sub units. Example memory - with careful measure - know individually stored and can be disrupted by drugs etc… 1 disease - know it is a woman but not if she is a daughter, wife or neighbour. Looking at things dimensionally rather than -categorical is finer. First step of assessment 1. Clinical interview. First goal is to determine what the problem is. Example. Male comes with mother in law problem. The problem is not her, it is his temper, among other things. People would think they have one problem and find out it is another. Example: one male went to a Chiropractor for six months for a back problem. Then he went to a MD - He had a tumour and died three weeks later. Sometimes it is easier to know what it isn’t then to know what it is. To rule out, establish a rapport. If there is no rapport established then the person will not open up and you do not get the whole picture. Often you won’t get it all in the first interview. Interviews can be helped if you have a type of structure. It does not have to be rigid. Semi structure - Free to modify suggested question. If interviewing grade 5 level - no 50 cents words. Semi structure interview is the SCID. Another approach is in structured interview - it can be fun if you have time for patients. Patient may be uncomfortable. Example a pedophile - would talk about something else. Another thing is that it may not be known to them such as the mother in law mentioned above. You want to get a sense of their history. Prof does it: Family of Origin, siblings and order- parents married? When remarried, divorced, dead. Get what life was like, school, education, friends - what kind - music, scholar, holding up stores etc…. how many intimate relations……….to be continued….. I have taken some notes out for you not to see because I consider it a tad inappropriate outside the classroom. I will be continuing with these particular notes next week because I have been very busy - sorry. I do not diagnose. If I think that a diagnosis is required than I ask the client to see a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor with three years of psychology as per my latest info. Sometimes medication is required and sometimes there is a chemical imbalance. I like to have my clients have a complete physical to ensure that there is nothing physical going on as well. My interviews are somewhat unstructured depending on the client. However, I have had many years of interviewing people and so most of my previous education and work experience aides me as a psychotherapist. Critical listening is very important. I do have forms with much of the information that is indicated in the first step. I have found that it is very common that someone believes he or she has one problem but when the client is able to take a step backward and examine his or her situation, often there are other reasons which has impacted him or her. Sometimes people have kept so much within themselves that they do have to really trust the therapist to disclose what has haunted them for years. What do you think? Do you have a therapist you trust? Are you too embarrassed to be honest? If you are not comfortable with your therapist, shop around until you find one that you do feel you can tell all you need to, to move forward. Some people feel like they have had a bad experience and give up. Please do not. Therapists know that clients need to have a connection and it is nothing personal. What is important is what the client needs. There have been studies which has depicted that the relationship the client has with his or her therapist is even more important than the knowledge the therapist has. I will be continuing with this line of thought next week from my psychology notes. After next week, I will begin my theology notes and continue this way in alternate weeks. I do hope you enjoy reading this. Feel free if you ever want to comment. Thank you.