Clinical psychology was focused on the of psychological disorders

All these are related to our mind. Yes, our emotions, manifestation of behavior, emotions, and feelings are related to our mind and the scientific study of our mind is called Psychology.

This scientific study has several branches of which clinical psychology is very important. This is the broad branch of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.This is also knownas experimental or behavioral science.

Psychopathology is a common term in the study of clinical psychology.

How do we define it?

This is the in-depth Study of Mental health.orbehavioral disorder which causes distress in several domains of life. This study includes symptoms, behaviors, causes, development, treatment, etc.

How to examine whether someone is a patient of mental illness or not?

For this, a comprehensive assessment or systematic examination of History is required.

This assessment consists of two sections of which the first one is a section of History that includes how the present symptoms have evolved, review of past treatments, past and present medical conditions, family history of psychiatric problems and treatment, personal history of the patient.

Let’s have a look at how to do a patient’s history examined systematically.

Identification: Information about patient’s age and sex, mainly racial or ethnic information, and sometimes includes religious affiliation.

Chief Complaint: a voice recording of the patient that describes why he or she seeks treatment.

History of the Present Illness: a chronological description from when and how the symptoms have progressed. The character of the symptoms must be described in detail.

Past Psychiatric History: includes previous incidents and symptoms, treatment, etc.

Medical history: Medical history is also important because sometimes a person’s illness or major surgery may cause mental disturbances.

Family history: mental disorders can be genetic so family history may help to diagnose and proper treatment.

Personal History: it has a very significant role as it describes events throughout a person’s life.

Classification

In ancient ages, it was believed that unusual and strange behaviour was due to the possession of evil spirits. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, physicians began to identify symptoms and classified them as a disease.

In the twentieth century, two new approaches were contributed by German physician Emil Kraepelin and Sigmund Freud which have major influences in the understanding and classification of psychopathology(Eldar, GOmez, & Hofmann, 2017).

The main classes of mental illness are:

Mood Disorders:Includes disturbance of mood, this is divided into depressive and bipolar disorder.A new diagnosis of mood disorder has been reported among children and adolescents. These patients are having severe non episodic irritability with bipolar disorder. This type of disorder is called Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD)(Tourian et al., 2015).

Anxiety Disorders:These are characterized by excessive worry about some imaginary outcome,these may be general,social anxiety or panic disorder.

Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders: These include trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder),body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), hoarding disorder, and excoriation (skin-picking) disorder.

Trauma and Stressor Disorders (Including Dissociative Disorder): These occur due to guilt, rage, and shame, stressful events, etc.

Somatic Disorders:Acute pain that does not have any anatomical or neurophysiological origin is labeled as psychopathological(Katz, Rosenbloom, & Fashler, 2015).The characteristics of this disorder are anxiety or distress and symptoms are pain or fatigue.

Feeding and Eating Disorders: These disorders affect the normal food habits that impair physical health and also psychosocial functions.

Sexual disorder: This is distorted sexual behavior which is very difficult to differentiate from normal sexual behavior.

Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders:This is a very complicated syndrome affecting 1% of the population.

Personality Disorders:These orders are related to a persistent pattern of behavior, emotions, etc and these affect social relationships.

Sleep-Wake Disorders:This has been reported that up to 60% of adults are suffering from sleep problems due to different stress, lifestyle, physiological conditions etc. Most of them remain undiagnosed and untreated(Demir et al., 2015).

Neurodevelopment disorders: Usually begin in infancy or childhood. Examples are attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , autism spectrum disorder, and learning disorders.

Neurocognitive/Organic Disorders:The two main categories of these disorders are Delirium and Dementia that occurs due to brain injury. Impaired consciousness and cognition are the main characteristics of Delinium. Symptoms of Dementia is a continuous deterioration of brain function.

Cause of psychological disorder:

It is very difficult to detect the exact cause of psychological disorders, but several factors influence their development. The main factors are

• Inherited traits: psychological disorder is common in people who have relatives having the same problem. It can be inherited from relatives.
• Environmental exposures before birth: Exposure to some factors like environmental stress, toxins, alcohol, drugs can cause mental illness.
• Brain chemistry: Neurotransmitter is a chemical that transmits signals from one part to another part of the brain. Impairment of this network system changes the function of the nerve system and causes mental depression and mental disorder.

Analyzed Data has been suggested at the highest rate of premature death due to both natural and unnatural causes. The death rate from unnatural causes is significantly high in the case of schizophrenia and major depression. This rate has been increased for mental retardation and epilepsy. It is estimated that 14.3% of deaths all over the world i.e. approximately 8 million deaths per year happen due to mental illness(Walker, McGee, & Druss, 2015).

Treatment

Treatment depends on the type of psychological disorder. Treatment from a primary care provider may be sufficient for a patient of mild mental illness. But in severe mental illness like schizophrenia team approach is very much important to meet psychiatric, medical and social needs.

The categories of treatment are as follows:

• Medications: psychiatric medication never cures mental illness but improves symptoms. The medications are Antidepressants, Anti-anxiety medications, Mood-stabilizing medications., Antipsychotic medications.
• Psychotherapy: this is the talking therapy through which one can learn his or her moods, thoughts, feelings, behavior, etc. It is effective to gain knowledge about stress management skills.
• Brain-stimulation treatments: These include deep brain stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation. repetitive transcranial, electroconvulsive therapy, magnetic stimulation. These may be effective in some severe cases.
• Hospital and residential treatment programs: in case of severe condition patients have to be admitted to hospital or kept under residential care.

Reference

1. Demir, A. U., Ardic, S., Firat, H., Karadeniz, D., Aksu, M., Ucar, Z. Z., … Itil, O. (2015). Prevalence of sleep disorders in the Turkish adult population epidemiology of sleep study. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 13(4), 298–308. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1111/sbr.12118
2. Eldar, S., GOmez, A. F., & Hofmann, S. G. (2017). Psychopathology and classification. In International perspectives on psychotherapy (pp. 1–33). Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-56194-3_1
3. Katz, J., Rosenbloom, B. N., & Fashler, S. (2015). Chronic pain, psychopathology, and DSM-5 somatic symptom disorder. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 60(4), 160–167. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/070674371506000402
4. Tourian, L., LeBoeuf, A., Breton, J.-J., Cohen, D., Gignac, M., Labelle, R., … Renaud, J. (2015). Treatment options for the cardinal symptoms of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 24(1), 41. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4357333/
5. Walker, E. R., McGee, R. E., & Druss, B. G. (2015). Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden implications: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 72(4), 334–341. Retrieved from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2110027

Most people have some understanding of the term clinical psychology. They know that anyone that works in psychology is going to be dealing with mental health issues.

With that said, the average person has a limited understanding of what a clinical psychologist actually does. If you are confused by the concept of clinical psychology, you won’t have to be baffled any longer. If you read on, you’ll be able to have clinical psychology explained to you in an easy to digest way.

What Is Clinical Psychology?

In a nutshell, clinical psychology is the branch of psychology that is specifically concerned with assessing and treating people that have mental illness. The field combines the science of psychology and takes a more personal approach to it.

If someone is being treated for depression, anxiety, or another form of mental illness, then there is a very high chance that they will see a clinical psychologist. Most psychologists have a varied list of patients that they treat.

What Kind Of Education Do Clinical Psychologists Receive?

In the Australia, clinical psychologists usually have to receive their doctorate or masters before they can start seeing patients. They also have to receive clinical training.

The entire process is very rigorous, and it can take a great deal of time. As a matter of fact, it isn’t at all unusual for a psychologist to spend 8 years in schooling: 6 years for their bachelor’s degree, and 2 more years in graduate school and clinical training.

While 8 years of schooling may seem like overkill, it is actually very necessary. Treating mental health can be a challenge, and it is important to ensure that the people working in this field actually are able to handle the job that they are going to do.

Mental health is a delicate field, and requires considerable experience and skill. No one should get treatment from someone that isn’t a professional, who is registered and had experience in their issues..

Does Every Clinical Psychologist Treat Patients Directly?

If you are working as a clinical psychologist, you don’t necessarily have to treat patients yourself. You can also work in research. If you are in the field of research, then your primary focus will be finding more effective treatment options for patients.

Typically, someone that is studying clinical psychology will decide which area they want to specialize in before they go to school. If someone focuses on research while they are in school, and then decides that they want to treat patients later on, they may have to receive additional schooling.

What Are Some Of The Things That Clinical Psychologists Do?

Obviously, clinical psychologists work with patients in a one-on-one setting. With that said, the work that they do isn’t necessarily identical to the work that therapists do. There are a number of things that psychologists can do that set them apart.

As an example, a clinical psychologist may be qualified to deliver legal testimony about someone’s mental health. A person that works as a clinical psychologist would also be able to teach psychology to others, or to diagnose someone with a psychological disorder.

A therapist is able to provide counselling and nothing more and will vary in their training. If a therapists suspects that a patient has a mental disorder, then they will have to refer that patient to someone else so that they can get a diagnosis. A clinical psychologist will be able to do all of that themselves.

What Can’t Psychologists Do?

If you want to have clinical psychology explained to you, then you will probably want to know more about the various limitations that clinical psychologists have to deal with. What are psychologists allowed to do? What aren’t they allowed to do?

As mentioned above, a psychologist can diagnose one of their patients with a condition. However, if they believe that the condition should be treated with medication, they will not be able to prescribe the medication themselves. In order to prescribe medication, the psychologist will have to refer the patient to a psychiatrist.

What Kinds Of Approaches Do Different Psychologists Take?

There are a lot of different approaches to clinical psychology. Most people that are in the field take one of the following approaches:

The Cognitive Behavioral Approach

This approach is based on the study of cognition and behaviors. If a psychologist takes this approach, then they will compare a patient’s thoughts to the way that patient acts. In many cases, they will pay close attention to how the patient’s behavior changes when they are stressed and implement both cognitive and behavioural strategies to help.

The Psychodynamic Approach

This is the approach that was used by the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. This approach is based around the idea that the subconscious influences our behavior. Psychologists that take this approach may study a patient’s dreams, and they may also look closely at their past and how this has influenced who the client is today and answer the why of their struggles.

The Humanistic Approach

This approach is built around empowering and self-actualizing the patient. Psychologists that take this approach try to help patients work through their problems in a holistic way. Their primary goal is to help patients find their own potential.

Now that you have had clinical psychology explained to you, you can start looking at the field more closely. Whether you want to see a clinical psychologist or pursue a career in this field, this information can really be helpful to you.