...Symptoms and Diagnosing of Autism Spectrum Disorder Stephanie R. South University of Cincinnati Abstract This paper explores the symptoms and how to accurately diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism is classified as a psychological condition that starts in adolescence. Psychology classes, specifically an introductory course, briefly cover this condition and its diagnosis. This paper will provide a great knowledge and understanding of diagnosing Autism. There are many symptoms and signs exhibited in children diagnosed with Autism. There is no clear answer for why or how this disorder occurs, making it hard to properly diagnose those afflicted. It is extremely important for the child’s caregiver to be proactive and seek out medical expertise at the onset of behavioral issues in their child. Diagnosing the child at a younger age can ensure proper treatment and interventions for him/her. I have chosen to write my paper on the symptoms and diagnosing of Autism. This disorder is mysterious, but also fascinating. Being a mother, I worry all the time about new and strange afflictions that are attacking our children. To be proactive in our children’s lives, we must be knowledgeable and observant for the early warning signs or symptoms. Throughout the research process of preparing my paper, I have gained a greater comprehension of this disorder and the first indicators that has prepared me to act promptly for the sake of my children. In the last decade, Autism has gained...
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...discussed the revision of the fifth DSM, a diagnostic and statistical Manual of mental disorder published by the American Psychiatric Association that is use by physicians, health insurance and other medical officials. Cotton and colleague looked at how politics influence the exclusion of homosexuality as a mental disorder and the inclusion of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the DSM (2011, p.1) From the earliest classification, we saw many influences that shape each revision. The U.S. Census Bureau was influential in "the earliest classification systems of mental disorders, and those systems predominated for nearly a century"(cotton and Ridings, 2011). Not satisfied with the manual the Census officials again demanded more changes to have a more standardized classification system for mental disorders which would include collection of data. This lead to the birth of the Statistical Manual for the use of Institutions for the insane. Two issues Cotton and Ridings believed should be discuss are...
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...The DSM-IV is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association. It provides a holistic approach to mental health by categorising disorders into five axes, that provide a broad range of information about the individual’s functioning, (Sue, Wing-Sue, Sue & Sue, 2012). In distinguishing abnormal from normal, the behaviour must be clinically significant and associated with intensive distress, impairment, social dysfunction or increased personal or public risk, however it must be unrelated to grief caused by recent personal loss, (4th ed., text rev.; DSM–IV–TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Holt et al, 2012). The distinct criteria and descriptive information in the DSM-IV, enables clinicians to make quick diagnoses based on an individual’s symptoms. It can also be used in legal proceedings, to determine the mental state of individuals and ensure they receive appropriate sentencing in psychiatric care rather than prison. It is versatile and the only manual that strictly focuses on mental health which is why it is referred to as the Gold Standard of clinical diagnosis. The DSM-IV has also played a vital role in the development of research and treatments for mental health, which has improved many patients’ quality of life. Keenan et al. (2007) examined the reliability of the DSM-IV oppositional defiant and conduct disorder symptoms, in 3-5 year old children. The mothers were interviewed about their...
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...Regarding the Borderline Personality Disorder Diagnostic Criteria Although definitions of mental illness have changed over time, many problems still exist within the world of mental health. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, used to diagnose mental illnesses, is not perfect. Borderline Personality Disorder is one of many disorders addressed within this manual, and problems exist within the diagnosis of this disorder too. As it currently stands, the DSM diagnostic criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder is not sufficient because of issues with under diagnosis, potential misclassification, stigma and gender bias. Before discussing if the current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual...
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...April J. LaytonPsychology Branz Narcissistic Personality Disorder Overview of the study Narcissistic Personality Disorder, NPD, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- Fourth Edition describes that the foundation “lack of empathy” in NPD is entirely based on clinical observation and expert consensus. However, a similar apprehension and empirical, or publicly observed, evaluation of the criterion “lack of empathy” in this disorder are inadequate, making the intent in this study was to empirically determine compassion in patients with narcissism according to the DSM-IV. This disorder is a severe mental disorder with popular rates of up to 6% in general population, unrelenting functional impairment, and high suicide rates. This disorder was established as an individual foundation, criterion 8, in the DSM-III-R (1994), which explains the “inability to recognize and experience how others feel”. It was also affirmed in the DSM-IV and the DSM-IV-TR as criterion seven. More studies that have been based on the DSM-IV also uncovered low diagnostic accuracy of the criterion “lack of empathy”. The hypothesis is: the discrepancy is due to the fact that no theoretical constitute influences the NPD criterion “lack of empathy” in the DSM (1983), and so its assessment may be destitute. Participants Recruited were 47 inpatients that had been diagnosed with NPD by the Department of Psychiatry, Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and contributing German...
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...Borderline personality disorder is a disordered behavior pattern that develops by early adulthood, and is characterized by multiple types of psychological instability and impulsiveness, often involves intense and frequent mood changes, fear of abandonment, and a risk of suicide according to Merriam-Webster.com. In Oldham’s article “Personality Disorders” he states that in many important ways, we are what we do. It is easier to determine the “what” of our personality rather than the “why”. We all have unique personalities and no two people are the same, for instance like our fingerprints. Individuals’ temperament is a key component of a person’s developing personality, along with the shaping and molding influences of family, caretakers, and environmental experiences. Personality disorders are diagnosed by a classical system of descriptive psychopathology within a framework adopted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and published in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (). The DSM has had many revisions with the latest revision being published in 2000. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV-TR) is used to diagnose psychiatric illness. The DSM-IV TR has a multiaxial approach that includes five dimensions. Axis I: Clinical Syndromes, Axis II: Personality and Mental Retardation, Axis III: Medical Conditions, Axis IV: Psychosocial and Environmental Problems, and Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning...
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...Introduction 2 DSM-IV Criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder 2 Diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorders 4 Instruments Available for the Assessment/Diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder 5 Problems Related to Assessing and Classifying/Diagnosing 16-20 Year Olds 5 Conclusion 8 Bibliography 9 Introduction I will discuss the problems related to assessing and classifying / diagnosing 16 to 20 year olds with patterns of impulsivity, instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and affect. These criteria are directed toward a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (here forth referred to as the DSM-IV-TR) personalities are defined as enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself. Personality traits are prominent aspects of personality that are exhibited in a wide range of important social and personal contexts. Only when personality traits are inflexible and maladaptive and cause either significant functional impairment or subjective distress do they constitute a Personality Disorder.(Association, 2000) The manifestations of personality disorders are often recognized in adolescence and continue throughout most of adult life. DSM-IV Criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder According to the DSM-IV-TR the fundamental feature of borderline personality disorder is a persistent pattern of “instability of interpersonal relationships...
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...Long Paper Outline Thesis: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (DSM) is not an appropriate tool for psychiatrists when diagnosing mental disorders. Argument: The DSM is used in many psychiatry offices to diagnose their patients, but it fails to look at each individual case independently of the others. For example if a person shows symptoms of depression over a two week period, the DSM immediately categorizes them as having depression. This person might have depression but there are many other factors to take into consideration. In everyone’s day to day lives there will always be pain and sadness, but this does not mean that everyone is depressed. Someone could have lost of a loved one, changed their location of living or just had bad two weeks, but if they show the signs of depression the DSM immediately classifies them with depression and pushes for medication. Of course there a good number of times the DSM is correct but everyone is different and lives different lives. Another thing that the DSM does not do is realize that one symptom could be the symptom for many different disorders. For example if one goes to the doctor with a cough, the doctor realizes that there could be many different reasons for this cough and many different illnesses a person could have. According to the DSM a group of symptoms categorized under a disorder means those symptoms only mean that illness, nothing else. Why is it that illnesses with one’s brain is thought of as so...
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...The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), is published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and created common and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders in both adults and children (Juvenile). It is used by researchers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and clinicians as a manual or guide for mental disorders. It is used widely across the world for diagnosis and treatment recommendations for these conditions. The manual mainly focuses on describing symptoms and in combination with use of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) and the World Health Organization (WHO), helps clinicians properly diagnose and treat psychiatric...
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...THE DSM The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Its purpose is to enable those in the health sector to communicate using a common diagnostic language. Its predecessor, the Statistical Manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane was published in 1917, which had the main aim of gathering statistics about mental disorders across mental hospitals. During WWII the U.S. Army developed a much broader classification system in order to treat outpatient servicemen and veterans. At this time the World Health Organisation was constructing the sixth version of ICD (International Statistical Classification of diseases) which was the first edition to include a section devoted to mental disorders. ICD-6 was largely influenced by the work of the U.S Army (and the Veterans Administration). In 1952 the APA committee on Nomenclature and Statistics developed a variant of the ICD-6 that was published in 1952 which was the first edition of the DSM. As research and studies have developed understanding of mental disorders newer versions of the DSM have added an increased number and updated list of mental disorders, and improved clarity and specificity through the development of a multi-axial diagnostic system. The DSM currently has 5 axes. The 5 different axes relate to different aspects of the disorder. A patient is diagnosed by navigating the axes to categorise the patient using the symptoms they are experiencing...
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...ABSTRACT This study examines previous research of antisocial personality disorder. Both biological and psychological research was examined. This paper will attempt to identify common environmental factors shared among people with antisocial personality disorder. PROBLEM STATEMENT Undoubtedly, the first question asked by many upon the gruesome discovery of a murder victim is, “Who could commit such a heinous crime?” Newspaper journalists, broadcast reporters, and the public alike, have asked the question, “What kind of person is capable of taking another person’s life?” A person with Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) is capable of just that and much more. Common careers of people diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder include, sales, management, and business professionals, as well as con artists. This is not an exhaustive list of careers for the antisocial person, as it is common practice for an antisocial person to be a career criminal, and in the most severe cases a serial killer. APD has been defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association as a person having, “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others” (1994, p.645). The criteria outlined in the DSM-IV notes that APD behavior is indicated by at least 3 of the following characteristics: 1) failure to conform to social norms, 2) deceitfulness, 3) impulsivity, 4) irritability, 5) reckless disregard...
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...some type of diagnostic categorizing system. These efforts have progressed from methods that vaguely lists disorders, to more thorough, modern methods, like DSM- IV- TR, this method lists numerous amounts of different mental disorders. Psychopathology is the study of mental illness, abnormal/maladaptive behavior. Psychopathology is a term commonly used in psychiatry whereas pathology relates to disease progressions. The standard classification system for psychopathology is the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM-1). The DSM is a manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, listing the official diagnostic classifications of mental disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS-1) is the official manual listing psychiatric and psychological disorders. This manual was published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952, takes its coding scheme from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is a diagnostic manual for all medical diseases. The DSM was commonly used by physicians/medical professionals, insurance companies and many courts systems. Courts used the DSM to define and diagnose mental disorders, and the diagnostics code that was attached to the case would regulate insurance reimbursements for treating the individual. The controversy amongst the DSM-1 and DSM-II was due to the United States being controlled by Freud’s psychodynamic perspective, which focused on the origins of mental illness and...
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...Eating Disorders Shannon Wulf 2/9/14 Lana Coxton Eating disorders are conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa is a disorder characterized by binge eating and purging. Purging can include self-induced vomiting, over-exercising, and the usage of diuretics, enemas, and laxatives. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by extreme food restriction to the point of self-starvation and excessive weight loss. There are many causes of eating disorders, including biological, psychological and/or environmental abnormalities. Many people with eating disorders suffer also from body dysmorphic disorder, altering the way a person sees himself or herself. There are also many other possibilities such as environmental, social and interpersonal issues that could promote and sustain these illnesses. Also, the media are oftentimes blamed for the rise in the incidence of eating disorders due to the fact that media images of idealized slim physical shape of people such as models and celebrities motivate or even force people to attempt to achieve slimness themselves. The media are accused of distorting reality, in the sense that people portrayed in the media are either naturally thin and thus unrepresentative of normality or unnaturally thin by forcing their bodies to look like the ideal image by putting excessive pressure on themselves to look a certain...
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...Description of the selected disorder Antisocial personality disorder is a personality disorder code 301.7. Antisocial personality disorder is an Axis II: Developmental and Personality disorder. (DSM-IV-TR, 2011)The DSM-IV says Personality disorders are clinical syndromes that have long lasting symptoms and have a significant effect on how a person lives. Axis II includes Paranoia, Antisocial, and Borderline Personality Disorders. (DSM-IV-TR, 2011) The DSM-IV groups the 11 personality disorders into three clusters based on common characteristics. Antisocial falls into cluster B. The common characteristics of this cluster are: “dramatic, emotional and erratic.”(Sadock& Sadock, 2002, p. 775) The other personality disorders that are categorized in this cluster are: Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissistic. A person with antisocial personality disorder will, disregard and violate the rights of others and show no remorse. They will be deceitful, aggressive, irresponsible and unsocialized. A person with antisocial personality disorder as a child will steal, harm animals, start fires, and most likely get in trouble in school. A lot of times the student ends up expelled. Into adult hood this person cannot hold down a job or maintain a healthy relationship; the person will be incarcerated for petty crimes, but also violent crimes with no regard for authority or rules. A person with antisocial personality disorder will think there is nothing wrong with them, but blame everyone for his...
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...The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) used by clinicians and investigators to describe the diagnostic categories to aide in the communication about, study and treatment of people with various mental disorders (Schraffenberger, 2013). Characterized by a multiaxial system of five axes, I will discuss Axis III, which is defined as mental disorders with general medical conditions (GMC) present and how they should be coded. Axis III involves psychological disorders such as anxiety/panic attacks, depression, impulse- control, personality changes (mood), sleep disorders, and sexual dysfunctions. Medical conditions such as substance abuse, thyroid problems (e.g. hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism),...
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