What are the common stress related disorders in psychiatry?

[piterdisuja]

Please explain some interesting disorders in totally non medical terms so that a normal man can understand (as if a doctor was explaining to a patient).

[jake.com]

Please explain some interesting disorders in totally non medical terms so that a normal man can understand (as if a doctor was explaining to a patient).

The most common, I would have to say, is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Symptoms include flashbacks, avoidance of triggers to said flashbacks, inability to feel emotions, detachment, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.

 

For the most interesting, I would have to say Post-Abortion Syndrome. It involves some of the weirdest symptoms I've ever heard of, and also has a large stigma around it (abortion in general).

[PhDwannabe]

"Stress-related" is an interesting way of putting it--you're opening up a larger can of worms than you think you are. In general, most disorders have fairly solid evidence for a general model of etiology known as "diathesis-stress." To put it most simply: [insert disorder here] probably comes from some amount of heritable or nonheritable biological predisposition, which gets exacerbated or "set off" by some kind of chronic or acute life experience. The evidence for this is present, again, in nearly every mental illness you can think of, from depression to schizophrenia to eating disorders.

 

What you may be asking about, however, are those disorders which seem to be more clearly touched off by distinct, acute events. PTSD is certainly one of those. Jake mentioned something about it:

 

The most common, I would have to say, is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Symptoms include flashbacks, avoidance of triggers to said flashbacks, inability to feel emotions, detachment, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.

 

I might not go so far as to say "most common." PTSD is indeed relatively common--lifetime prevalence is between 7-8% in the United States. However, the plain-old psychiatric head-cold, depression, is also a common response to stressful life events. There used to be more of a distinction in psychology between so-called "endogenous" and "reactive" depression, but most clinicians are resigned to a diathesis-stress model which gives a fair amount of credence to both predisposing traits and stressful events in most cases. Given that the lifetime prevalence of depression is far higher (10-40%, depending on who you ask--this is really a much more complex question than you think), and that most cases probably have something to do with life stresses, I'd venture to say that we might even call depression a "more common" response to life stress.

 

OK, so we're leaving a bit out, here. We do have to define "stress." PTSD is generally regarded as coming from "traumatic events" which usually involve things like threats to life and limb. So if we're talking about these sorts of things--traumatic stress--PTSD is substantially more likely when you make comparisons with more general life stresses, like a divorce or a bankruptcy. Depressive symptoms, however, are also highly common in combination with PTSD (we call this "comorbidity"), so they really show up all over the place.

 

If we are, though, talking about plain old "stress," then, again: just about anything can come from it. Some people get anxious. Some people get sad. Some people break with reality. Why do they do one and not the other, or experience something rather than nothing? A million reasons. Part of it's due to their own temperament/personality/skills and deficits/beliefs and values. Part of it's due to the details of the stressful situation itself (does childhood bullying typically affect people different than a car accident? Of course). Part of it's due to more contextual variables like social support.

 

So, take a look at any disorder you want. Browse the catalog of human madness knowing that all of them can come--in part--from "stresses" of some kind.

 

 

Oh, and by the way:

 

For the most interesting, I would have to say Post-Abortion Syndrome. It involves some of the weirdest symptoms I've ever heard of, and also has a large stigma around it (abortion in general).

 

Post-Abortion Syndrome is more or less recognized by any serious scientist as a made-up attempt to emphasize horrible, destructive consequences of abortion, brought to you by pro-life advocates. Can abortion be stressful? Yes, just about anything can. Can it lead to psychopathological consequences? Yes, just about anything can. Are the supposed symptoms occurring after an abortion ubiquitous enough, severe enough, and internally consistent enough to justify calling it a specific mental illness? The data at this point seem to say no. Recent reviews tend to show that mood distress post-abortion is comparable to or lesser than mood distress postpartum. Abortion's affects on mental health appear to be relatively minimal.

 

That part was just an afterthought; I had to get it in because it got mentioned. I hope nobody decides to pick up on this bit--I can't think of anything more profoundly annoying to argue about than abortion.

[jake.com]

Post-Abortion Syndrome is more or less recognized by any serious scientist as a made-up attempt to emphasize horrible, destructive consequences of abortion, brought to you by pro-life advocates. Can abortion be stressful? Yes, just about anything can. Can it lead to psychopathological consequences? Yes, just about anything can. Are the supposed symptoms occurring after an abortion ubiquitous enough, severe enough, and internally consistent enough to justify calling it a specific mental illness? The data at this point seem to say no. Recent reviews tend to show that mood distress post-abortion is comparable to or lesser than mood distress postpartum. Abortion's affects on mental health appear to be relatively minimal.

 

That part was just an afterthought; I had to get it in because it got mentioned. I hope nobody decides to pick up on this bit--I can't think of anything more profoundly annoying to argue about than abortion.

I had actually been wondering about this. The hype about it seemed to have some fairly convenient statistics, and fairly vague symptoms. With all of the back and forth over the web, I couldn't make a decision as to whether it was real or not.

[venkyreddy]

Please explain some interesting disorders in totally non medical terms so that a normal man can understand (as if a doctor was explaining to a patient).

 

 

anxiety disordes , depression , panic attacks.............