Medical Model to Treat Psychological Disorders

Many terms and concepts are commonly associated with mental illness. the topic of mental illness has many overlapping and subset definitions. Mental illness, a term that encompasses a wide range of mental disorders, contains subcategories of mental disorders distinguishable by effects on a person's behavior, thinking, and mood. Disorders are the most commonly referred to an aspect of mental illness; types of disorders are schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression. Syndromes, even more, specific than disorders, pertain to particular systems within subcategories of disorders and are identifiable by distinct symptoms, mental or physical markers expressed by a disease; examples of syndromes are an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder

The medical model focuses on the molecular structure of drugs and indicators of mental or emotional disorders. However, the medical model is not effective treating mental and emotional disorders. The medical model indicts the notion that abnormal behavior is the product of physical problems and be treated medically. The medical model depends upon independent tests to demonstrate or contradict if a patient is ill. The psychological model uses tests to demonstrate or contradict whether a patient is ill. It is at this point of agreement that the two models separate. A restriction to the psychological model is if a patient that is unconscious, or their communication ability is compromised to the degree that they are

It is sometimes argued that “the creators of DSM-III and DSM-IV sacrificed validity for the sake of reliability”(Wakefield, 1992, cited in Gray, 2002, p 614). This refers to greater emphasis being placed upon superficial symptoms and less upon underlying symptoms and possible cause which could have an important influence upon individuals (Gray, 2002). Since behavior always involve interaction between the individual and their environment, it can be difficult to assess whether the disorder is within the person or whether it is an environmental influence such as a traumatic experience or related to poverty (Gray, 2002, p.612). This can cause problems when diagnosing is extremely difficult to scientifically distinguish between people’s normal responses or whether it is something more (Gray, 2002).

One of the competency based assessment’s key theoretical foundations, the biopsychosocial framework could be found in mental health settings and used by practitioners other that social workers (Gray & Zide, 2007; Davis, 2014). Concerns and criticisms levelled at psychiatry’s non-human oriented, diagnostic focus, motivated the creation of the biopsychosocial framework (Pilgrim, 2002 as cited in Davis, 2014). One goal of the framework was to make people more amenable to psychiatric services because of an increased focus on the whole person (Davis, 2014). It was developed in part by uniting (Stoudemire, 1994 in Gray & Zide, 2007) the biomedical model which has a focus on diagnosis and the psychodynamic model which has a “[focus] on symptoms, behaviours, and underlying psychological processes” (Gray & Zide, 2007, p. 11). The competency based assessment is compatible with a biopsychosocial framework in mental health because both have a similar holistic focus (Gray & Zide, 2007; Davis, 2014). Both hold that in order to gain insight about a client’s current functioning and inciting events, a thorough assessment must occur with a full history focusing on specific nuances such as the many systems the client interacts with (Gray & Zide, 2007; Davis, 2014). This could make the competency based assessment a good fit for a biopsychosocial setting.

Electroconvulsive therapy, also known as ECT, is a medical procedure that is used in the treatment of mental illness. In ECT, a small electrical impulse is sent through the brain, resulting in an ephemeral seizure. Though the process is generally effective, modern science is unaware of the explanation behind ECT's success. Its history is filled with a large amount of stigma and the use of ECT as a therapy is still debated today. ECT has evolved to a point where its beneficial effects can be maximized and its adverse effects can be minimized through proper administration.

In this paper I will be explaining the different aspects of abnormal psychology and how it is frequently portrayed in the media. The movie I will be basing this off of is What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. It shows the life of a depressed, morbidly obese woman and one of her children who has a mental disability. There are many different ideas as to what is considered normal versus abnormal especially when it comes to the understanding of different disorders and their approaches to treatment.

Ever since my later adolescence years, I have always been intrigued by the diverse complexity of the human brain. Numerous days I have sat down obtrusively observing my surroundings just to satisfy my curiosity on how individuals think, reason and problem solve everyday life happenings. As such, when it was time to attend university, I decided to study psychology as a means of gaining knowledge and understanding about individuals’ cognitive processes and their behavior. During my undergraduate studies, for a particular reason, I was struck by Abnormal Psychology and spent hours thinking about the various disorders captured by the then Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV). I spent an awful lot of time trying to understand the differing disorders and how their impact on the behavior and thinking processes of individuals that are diagnosed with them.

Since its beginning, the issue of the safety and efficacy of ECT has existed, and thus its use has been always remained controversial (Weiner & Krystal, 1994). Even with the modern development of ECT, some of the same issues are still prevalent. There are two sides here: the advocates that support the use of the treatment, and those who do not. This is explored next.

In discussion of my personal theory of Psychopathology I will include (a) the definition of psychopathology, (b) etiology and progression of pathology, (c) the implications of the theory of psychopathology for treatment, (d) the process of counseling and the roles the counselor and client play (e) the ethical implications of this theory of psychopathology

Our current mental health systems has many faults, but we are making progress identifying those afflicted with mental illness. More and more research is being done to help identify causes of these disorders. There have been advancements in new prescription medications and better treatment options too. Many mentally ill patients fall through the cracks - they end up homeless or in prison. We still have a long way to go because prisons can't be used as a form of treatment for the mentally ill.

The Purpose of chapter one is to help us better understand Abnormal Behavior in historical context. The objective in this chapter is also to help us define psychopathology. Some questions that target this chapter includes “how do psychologists define a psychological disorder? “What are the underlying assumptions of the biological approach to understanding abnormal behavior?”, “how do psychological approaches of psychoanalysis, humanism, and behaviorism explain abnormal behavior?”, and “why is the scientific method so important in studying abnormal behavior. The information I used to find the answers to these questions were in the textbook. Psychologists define a psychological disorder as a psychological dysfunction associated with distress

The movie A Beautiful Mind is one that offers psychologists with a lot of fodder to think about and its storyline brings out various aspects of psychology that can be analyzed to bring a more conclusive close to this debate. The thesis statement of this essay is that psychological disorders need to be understood independently of various factors such as biological and environmental factors. This is because the world of psychology has always tried to attach the above factors to various psychological disorders but I strongly feel that psychological disorders need to be understood and analyzed independently so as a true and deeper understanding of these disorders comes to the fore. The movie A Beautiful Mind is about a genius mathematician Nash who has a psychological disorder, which is later diagnosed to be paranoid schizophrenia. The effects of this disorder are evident in the movie and the essay tries to see how the need to study psychological disorders independently could be helpful in helping various examples of cases such as that of John Forbes Nash.

The rationale for ECT is to provide relief from the signs and symptoms of mental illnesses such as severe depression,

In this writer 's opinion, to sum and with the final surmising of all the data was made in a state of good psychological-deductive reasoning, and also was used by the Panel in their best judgment of clinical practices. The Panel, had the authority to be those persons who were commissioned to garner up the best experts in personality disorders, and were they assigned to establish the Work Group to their alternative proposed model of personality disorders (Section III, DSM-5). Henceforth there is one that should have been in muse and considered in deep thought, and with a sort of respective acknowledgment could have there be made one in the efforts to be utilized, and voted by the Board, to be overwhelmingly accepted simply because the proposed model made by the Work Group, was one to demonstrate that had been based on the current research and practice of both fields of psychology and psychiatry---and was pervasively accepted by both those clinicians and researchers who have immersed themselves very proudly and tirelessly in the up to date current findings based upon personality disorders and their syndromes in America and around the World. All in all, with regard to the former, should have voted by a landslide to permit the dimensional approach to outdate the categorical approach that for nearly sixty-years dominated the landscape of American Psychiatry and Psychology across every board. Because this is one of a well known fact whether one clinician to another accepts this

Abnormal Psychology is defined as the study of mental disorders, which also can be referred to as mental illness, psychological disorders or psychopathology. It studies different aspects of mental disorders from what the behavior and person look like or symptoms to the reason why the disorder occur or its etiology. Also abnormal psychology deals with how to address and maintain the disorders especially the people exhibiting these symptoms and also what effects and possible dangers these abnormal behaviors have on the person and the people around them (Davila, n.d).