chapter 2

MENTAL
DISORDERS
CHAPTER 2
MEANING OF MENTAL
HEALTH
WHO definition
Mental health is a state of mental well-
being that enables people to cope with
the stresses of life, realize their abilities,
learn well and work well, and contribute
to their community.
IMPACT OF MENTAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS
 Mental and behavioral disorders have a
large impact on individuals , families and
communities.
 Women especially are unable to participate
in work, social functions and leisure
activities often arising from stigma and
discrimination.
 It is estimated that one in four families has
at least one member currently suffering
from a mental or behavioral disorders.
 Families whose members suffer from mental
behavioral disorders are required to provide
physical and emotional support.
This burden on families among other
factors includes:
 Economic difficulties
 Emotional reactions to the illness
 Stress of coping with disturbed behavior
required long term acre and support.
 Expenses for the treatment of mental
illness often are borne by the family
either because insurance is unavailable
or because mental disorders are not
covered by insurance.
ETIOLOGIC FACTORS OF
MENTAL HEALTH
Although there is no known single
causative agent for mental illness various
factors are attributable to the onset if
mental illnesses including:
1. Genetic factors such as abnormalities
in chromosomes may cause mental health
illness. Children from mentally ill parents
are more likely to develop mental
illnesses than children of healthy parents.
2. Organic factors like nervous system
diseases, chronic illness such as epilepsy
are associated with mental illnesses.
3. Social and environmental crises like
poverty, tension, emotional stress,
occupational and financial difficulties,
unhappy marriage, broken homes, abuse
and neglect, frustration, change in life
due to environmental factors like
earthquakes, floods and epidemics are
associated with mental health.
4. Psychological factors like early
childhood experiences of abuse and other
psychological trauma during childhood
play an important role in the development
of the mental illness in adult life.
5. Behavioral changes like indulging in
drugs , alcohol and substances like that
are associated with mental illness.
 Infections before and after delivery and
birth trauma
CLINICAL FEATURES OF
COMMON MENTAL ILLNESS
1. Depression
 10 to 15% of women experience depression at
some point in their lives.
 Women go through significant biological
changes across their lifespan more than men.
 Hormonal flux in particular can wreak havoc
on women’s mental health. Hormones play a
significant role around the time of childbirth.
 Social issues will also come into play, as we’re
raised to internalize out thoughts and feelings,
compared to men, who are encouraged to
shake things off and tough it up.
 The environmental and cultural factors –
even if women work outside the home
full time they still tend to bear the brunt
of the house work, caregiving and
maintain the family’s social schedule.
 Women also tend to earn less than our
male counterparts which can cause
financial strain that can lead to feeling
anxious, depressed or hopeless.
QUESTIONS
 Discuss signs and symptoms of
depression
 What can women do to avoid
depression?
PREVENTION PREMIUM
 Accurately identifying the problem is
key, because the sooner a women gets
treatment, the easier it will be to return
her happy, healthy self.
NINE SURPRISING SIGNS
OF DEPRESSION
1.Being on pain
2.Busting out of control sexually , eating
habits etc.
3.Having a short fuse
4. Feeling nothing
5. Evening cocktail is now three
6. Glued to social media and Facebook
7. Her head is in the cloud
8. She cant make up her mind
9. They stopped combing their hair
2. Anxiety
From puberty through age 50, women are
more than twice as likely as men to
develop an anxiety disorder, with its
symptoms of increases worrying , tension,
exhaustion and fear.
Again, so many factors come into play,
including social and cultural norms and
stressors, but how we react to them may
be the biggest difference between men
and women.
3. Post-traumatic stress disorder
 Technically post traumatic stress
disorder is a type of anxiety disorder.
 Women are likely to develop it than men
 Its not like women have more traumatic
experiences in general, but they do tend
to have more of certain types of trauma,
such as sexual abuse and assault which
are associated with greater risk for PTSD
CAUSES OF PTSD
 serious accidents.
 physical or sexual assault.
 abuse, including childhood or domestic
abuse.
 exposure to traumatic events
 serious health problems, such as being
admitted to intensive care.
 childbirth experiences, such as losing a
baby.
 the death of someone close to you
 war and conflict
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
 Feeling tense, on guard, or on edge.

 Having difficulty concentrating.
 Having difficulty falling asleep or staying
asleep.
 Feeling irritable and having angry or
aggressive outbursts.
 Engaging in risky, reckless, or
destructive behavior.
MANAGEMENT
 The main treatments for post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) are talking
therapies and medicine. Traumatic
events can be very difficult to come to
terms with, but confronting your feelings
and getting professional help is often
the only way of effectively treating
PTSD.
3. Eating Disorder
Cultural standards for women are heavily
geared to towards weight, shape and
appearance and this absolutely impacts
women’s relationship with food and their
body
4. Binge Eating Disorder
Binge eating disorder involves regularly
eating a lot of food over a short period of
time until you're uncomfortably full. It's a
serious mental health condition where
people eat without feeling like they're in
control of what they're doing.
CLASSIFICATION OF
MENTAL ILLNESS
Mental illness can be grouped or classifies
according to diverse clusters of signs and
symptoms that are considered to assist in
arriving at specific diagnoses.
Examples of some clinical disorders

indicated by these groups of signs and
symptoms are discussed below:
1. Disorder or perception
2. Disorder of thinking
3. Disorder of thinking
4. Disorder of motor activity
5. Disorder of memory
6. Disorder of attention and
concentration
7. insight
1. Disorders of perception
Disorders of perceptions are as follows:
Hallucination is a false perception or wrong
perception, in the absence of any object. In the case of
hallucination there is no object present .
Example
A person sees spider and snakes on the ceiling of his or
her room where there are none.
illusion is a false perception or perception in a wrong

manner of a real object, but in the other case the
person perceives an object differently than it is actually.
Example
A person looks at a cracked wall and sees branched
tree.
2. Disorder of Thinking
Delusion: something a person believes and
wants to be true , when it is actually not true.
Example
A person believe that an external force control
him or her.
People with delusions may also have

exaggerated self-importance.
Example
A person believes he is Prime Minister of
Botswana when he is not.
3. Disorder of Emotion
Emotions of disorder involve a sustained
abnormal feeling tone experienced by
patient. Such patient may have low mood,
anger, anxiety or excessive happiness
without any reason.
Example
A person laughs at a sad event like death
of a loved one
-a depressed person might feel life isn’t
worth living
4. Disorders of Motor Activity
They include abnormalities of social
behavior, facial expressions and
posturing.
Example
Standing on one leg for a long time
5. Disorders of Memory
This is the inability to retain and recall
information (distortion of call)
Example
A person suddenly and unexpectedly
leaves home and is unable to return.
A person may find it difficult to remember
what he ore she had for breakfast after
few hours.
6. Disorders of Attention and
Concentration
This is the inability to focus on any matter at
hand and failure to maintain that focus.
7. Insight
Insight is defined as awareness of one’s
mental condition. People who had insight do
not know that they are sick which makes them
fail to seek medical attention. People who are
mentally healthy may exhibit some of the
traits of mental illness when they are under
stress.
DIAGNOSIS
 Psychiatry deals with causes and
treatment of mental illness and the care
to be given to such patients, who are
considered abnormal in their behavior.
 The symptoms are too vast and complex
to reach a correct diagnosis of the
illness. The best approach to the
diagnosis of mental illness is to use the
skills of:
-detailed history taking
-mental status examination
CASE MANAGEMENT
People who develop abnormal behavior
should be taken to the nearby health
institution for assessment and
management, some with serious
dysfunction may be referred to hospitals.
Treatment modalities in mental health
1. Psychotherapy is (sometimes called
talk therapy) refers to a variety of
treatments that aim to help a person
identify and change troubling emotions,
thoughts, and behaviors.
Most psychotherapy takes place when a

licensed mental health professional and a
patient meet one-on-one or with other
patients in a group setting.
2. Management therapy includes
occupational, educational, art, music and
recreational activities. All these can improve
mental illness.
3. Drug treatment A number of psychoactive

drugs are highly effective and widely used by
psychiatrists and other medical doctors.
These drugs are often categorized according
to the disorder they are primarily prescribed
for.
For example, antidepressants are used to
treat depression.
4. Physical treatment
 This is done by applying electric shock
on the head.
 This therapy has consistently been
shown to be the most effective
treatment for severe depression.
 Many people treated with
electroconvulsive therapy experience
temporary memory loss.
 However it is done only in hospitals.
5.Surgery: surgery on the brain may be
done to treat cases that are the most
serious.
The surgery is done in hospitals.
Now it is rarely done and most of the
modalities of treatment are replaced by
drug treatment.
MISCONCEPTIONS
TOWARDS MENTAL ILLNESS
 Patients in mental hospitals are often considered
as people who spend their time doing useless
things and showing bizarre behavior.
 People who have had mental illness are viewed
with suspicion and as dangerous persons.
 Mental health is something to be ashamed of.
 Mental illness is caused by evil spirits.
 Mental health is something that can not be
cured.
 Mental hospitals are places where only
dangerous, mentally ill people are treated.
 Marriage can cure mental illness.
PREVENTION
The three levels of prevention are described as primary,
secondary and tertiary.
1. Primary Prevention- (stopping mental health

problems before they start)
This focuses on stopping people from developing mental health
problems and promoting good mental health for all. It often
targets and benefits everyone in a community.
Examples include:
 anti-stigma campaigns such as
Mental Health Awareness Week
 teaching school children about emotions and mental ill
health.
 Prevention of poisoning and drug intoxications
 Prevention of brain injuries
 Control of early childhood and mental neonatal infections e.g
meningitis
2. Secondary
Prevention(supporting those at higher
risk of experiencing mental health
problems)
This focuses on supporting people who are
more likely to develop mental health
problems, either because of characteristics
they were born with or experiences they’ve
had.
It includes LEGABIBO people(because they
have a higher chance of being bullied), people
who have experienced trauma, people
with long term physical health conditions
3. Tertiary prevention (helping people living
with mental health problems to stay well)
This aims to reduce chronic disabilities from
mental illness by:
 Provision of social support.
 Creation of sheltered workshops and
supervised residential care outside a health
institution.
 This helps people with mental ill-health stay
well and have a good quality of life. It aims to
reduce people’s symptoms, empower them to
manage their well-being and reduce the risk of
relapse.
CLASS EXERCISE
1. List the common mental illness
2. Identify the causes of common mental
illness

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MENTAL

 Feeling tense, on guard, or on edge.

Examples of some clinical disorders

illusion is a false perception or perception in a wrong

People with delusions may also have

Most psychotherapy takes place when a

3. Drug treatment A number of psychoactive

1. Primary Prevention- (stopping mental health

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