Signs and symptoms of psychiatric disorders

Author(s):  
Paul Harrison ◽  
Philip Cowen ◽  
Tom Burns ◽  
Mina Fazel

‘Symptoms and signs of psychiatric disorders’ introduces psychiatry from the perspective of the clinical features that characterize and define its disorders, providing an essential first step in an understanding of the subject. The chapter starts with an introduction to psychopathology and an outline of the conceptual and practical issues involved. It then describes the cardinal symptoms of mental disorders, grouped according to the main headings used in a mental state examination. The chapter includes definitions of important and sometimes misunderstood terms, such as paranoia and delusions. The chapter is written from a practical perspective and assumes no prior knowledge of the subject.

Author(s):  
Philip Cowen ◽  
Paul Harrison ◽  
Tom Burns

Chapter 1 is concerned with the definition of the key symptoms and signs of psychiatric disorders. Having elicited a patient’s symptoms and signs, the psychiatrist needs to decide how far these phenomena fall into a pattern that has been observed in other psychiatric patients. It covers whether the clinical features conform to a recognized syndrome by combining observations about the patient’s present state with information about the history of the condition. The value of identifying a syndrome is that it helps to predict prognosis and to select an effective treatment. It does this by directing the psychiatrist to the relevant body of accumulated knowledge about the causes, treatment, and outcome in similar patients.


1992 ◽  
Vol 161 (S18) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Gaebel

Psychiatric disorders are psychopathologically characterised by signs and symptoms. Although diagnosis and classification rely heavily on the patient's report of subjectively experienced symptoms, the assessment of the underlying psychopathological process can be impaired by the patient's distorted self-image, his cognitive abnormalities, and his limited capacity to express himself verbally. Non-verbal behaviour, however, lends itself to objective and generalisable assessments: it can be reliably and accurately observed and measured, and although subject to cultural influence, it is the infant's most elementary form of self-expression (Gaebel, 1990). In addition, it plays a major role in interpersonal communication, which is disturbed in all psychiatric disorders. Therefore, the analysis of non-verbal behavioural dysfunction offers an important approach to the complex biopsychosocial framework of mental disorders.


1992 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 1003-1009E ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. M. van der Cammen ◽  
F. van Harskamp ◽  
D. L. Stronks ◽  
J. Passchier ◽  
W. J. Schudel

The Dutch version of the Mini-Mental State Examination was administered to 138 elderly patients who were referred to a geriatric outpatient clinic for a variety of reasons. An optimal cut-off point of 24/25 was found for the detection of dementia. At this cut-off point, the Mini-Mental State Examination was 87.6% sensitive and 81.6% specific in detecting dementia. The discriminative validity was influenced by education and by the presence of psychiatric disorders other than dementia. Informants' data showed better sensitivity and specificity than the Mini-Mental State Examination for the detection of dementia. The findings suggest that informants' data are a primary source of information for the detection of dementia in geriatric outpatients.


Author(s):  
James Thomas ◽  
Tanya Monaghan

Approach to the psychiatric assessmentThe history (part 1)The history (part 2)Risk assessmentMental state examinationImportant presentationsMedical conditions with psychiatric symptoms and signs


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Kaiser ◽  
Renate Gusner-Pfeiffer ◽  
Hermann Griessenberger ◽  
Bernhard Iglseder

Im folgenden Artikel werden fünf verschiedene Versionen der Mini-Mental-State-Examination dargestellt, die alle auf der Grundlage des Originals von Folstein erstellt wurden, sich jedoch deutlich voneinander unterscheiden und zu unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen kommen, unabhängig davon, ob das Screening von erfahrenen Untersuchern durchgeführt wird oder nicht. Besonders auffällig ist, dass Frauen die Aufgaben «Wort rückwärts» hoch signifikant besser lösten als das «Reihenrechnen». An Hand von Beispielen werden Punkteunterschiede aufgezeigt.


Diagnostica ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Matschinger ◽  
Astrid Schork ◽  
Steffi G. Riedel-Heller ◽  
Matthias C. Angermeyer

Zusammenfassung. Beim Einsatz der Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) stellt sich das Problem der Dimensionalität des Instruments, dessen Lösung durch die Konfundierung eines Teilkonstruktes (“Wohlbefinden”) mit Besonderheiten der Itemformulierung Schwierigkeiten bereitet, da Antwortartefakte zu erwarten sind. Dimensionsstruktur und Eignung der CES-D zur Erfassung der Depression bei älteren Menschen wurden an einer Stichprobe von 663 über 75-jährigen Teilnehmern der “Leipziger Langzeitstudie in der Altenbevölkerung” untersucht. Da sich die Annahme der Gültigkeit eines partial-credit-Rasch-Modells sowohl für die Gesamtstichprobe als auch für eine Teilpopulation als zu restriktiv erwies, wurde ein 3- bzw. 4-Klassen-latent-class-Modell für geordnete Kategorien berechnet und die 4-Klassen-Lösung als den Daten angemessen interpretiert: Drei Klassen zeigten sich im Sinne des Konstrukts “Depression” geordnet, eine Klasse enthielt jene Respondenten, deren Antwortmuster auf ein Antwortartefakt hinwiesen. In dieser Befragtenklasse wird der Depressionsgrad offensichtlich überschätzt. Zusammenhänge mit Alter und Mini-Mental-State-Examination-Score werden dargestellt. Nach unseren Ergebnissen muß die CES-D in einer Altenbevölkerung mit Vorsicht eingesetzt werden, der Summenscore sollte nicht verwendet werden.


2012 ◽  
Vol 153 (12) ◽  
pp. 461-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdolna Pákáski ◽  
Gergely Drótos ◽  
Zoltán Janka ◽  
János Kálmán

The cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale is the most widely used test in the diagnostic and research work of Alzheimer’s disease. Aims: The aim of this study was to validate and investigate reliability of the Hungarian version of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and healthy control subjects. Methods: syxty-six patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease and 47 non-demented control subjects were recruited for the study. The cognitive status was established by the Hungarian version of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale and Mini Mental State Examination. Discriminative validity, the relation between age and education and Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale, and the sensitivity and specificity of the test were determined. Results: Both the Mini Mental State Examination and the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale had significant potential in differentiating between patients with mild and moderate stages of Alzheimer’s disease and control subjects. A very strong negative correlation was established between the scores of the Mini Mental State Examination and the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale in the Alzheimer’s disease group. The Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale showed slightly negative relationship between education and cognitive performance, whereas a positive correlation between age and Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale scores was detected only in the control group. According to the analysis of the ROC curve, the values of sensitivity and specificity of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale were high. Conclusions: The Hungarian version of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale was found to be highly reliable and valid and, therefore, the application of this scale can be recommended for the establishment of the clinical stage and follow-up of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. However, the current Hungarian version of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale is not sufficient; the list of words and linguistic elements should be selected according to the Hungarian standard in the future. Orv. Hetil., 2012, 153, 461–466.


2019 ◽  
Vol 06 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haleh Tajadini ◽  
Naser Ebrahimpour ◽  
Mahdieyh Khazaneha

: The prevalence of primary hypothyroidism is increasing in adults (PHTA), and the reduction in the threshold for treatment and also the requirement to increase drug usage are major problems in approaching this disorder. Persian Medicine (PM) looks from a different view on etiology of diseases. Therefore, we tried to present the etiologies of PHTA according to an important book of PM i.e. “Zakhire Kharazmshahi”. Method: At first, the common symptoms and signs of PHTA were identified by investigating the Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane databases and their Persian equivalents were extracted from PM sources. These synonyms were searched as keywords in the book and the primary causes that were mentioned in association with the signs and symptoms were extracted. Then, we explained the total etiologies that were discussed for the occurrence of the causes, with respect to the principles of health care in PM. Results: "Cold distemperament", an increase in "Phlegmatic Humor ", an increase in "Melancholic Humor" and "Emtela" (repletion) were recognized as four main causes of PHTA. According to the book, the most important etiologies of these conditions are insufficient exercise, overeating, food intake before total stomach emptying and excessive amounts of cold temperament substances (foods, herbs, seeds, spices, etc.) in daily diet. Conclusion: From the viewpoint of PM, lifestyle spatially eating habits and physical activity play important causative roles in occurring and prognosis of PHTA. Hence, it is recommended to assess these results by more observations and clinical studies.


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