What are psychiatric disorders?

The term psychological disorder is sometimes used to refer to what is more frequently known as mental disorders or psychiatric disorders. These disorders are frequent in societies and cultures, they cause a great amount of disability and suffering among those affected, as well as considerable distress among friends and family members.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) -5 definition“… a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental function.”

In major cultures around the world, psychiatric disorder in primary care is common and associated with substantial levels of disability which was most strongly related to major depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, and neurasthenia, which remain within the domain of common mental disorders.
What are psychiatric disorders?

Definition of Depression

Definition of Depression
Depression can be defined – a familiar psychological disorder as a variety of distinct affective or mood disorders, some relatively mild and some severe. One of the common is major depression, which is defined as at least one episode or feeling profoundly depressed, sad, and hopeless, and/or losing interest in and the ability to derive pleasure from all activities, for at least two weeks.

A young man suffering from major depression might, for example, feel extremely discouraged and “down in the dumps”, no longer seem to care about his job or even about sexual relations with his wife; losing weight or have difficulty sleeping; speak and move very slowly, as though lacking the energy to perform even the simplest actions; have trouble paying attention to his work or making simple decision; dwell on how guilty he feels about his many failings; and even begin to think he would be better off dead. Note that major depression would no be diagnosed if this young man were going through the normal grieving process after the death of a loved one.

This definition of major depression is intended to be applied to individuals of all ages. In other words the depression in a child is basically similar to depression in a young adult or in an elderly adult, even though it is acknowledged that children may express their depression somewhat differently than adults do.
Definition of Depression

Specific Standard of Behavior

Specific Standard of Behavior
To define psychological disorder more precisely, we must consider more specific standards of behavior – namely social norms and age norms.

Social norms
Behaviors are considered abnormal or normal only in some social context. Social norms are the expectations about how to behave that prevail in a particular social context, whether it is a culture, subculture, or everyday setting. Thus, hearing the “spirit” speak or seeing visions is defined as abnormal in the mainstream culture of North America, but among the plain Indian these “symptoms” have been defined as valued skills. Similarly, a child’s screaming and shouting may be viewed as a quite appropriate on the playground or in the backyard may be raised eyebrow when it is inappropriate in context – for example, when it occurs in the classroom or at church. Definitions of abnormal behavior vary from culture , from subculture to subculture, and from one historical period to another. In a very real sense, then, abnormality is in the eve of a particular group of beholders.

Age norms
Age norms is particularly important from a lifespan developmental perspective – abnormal behavior must be defined in relation to age norms, or societal expectations about what behavior is appropriate or normal at various ages. The 4-year-old boy, who frequently cries, acts impulsively, wets his bed, and talks to his imaginary friend may be perceived as – and may be perfectly normal. The 40 year old who does the same things has a problem. We simply cannot define abnormal behavior and development without having a solid grasp of normal behavior and development.
Specific Standard of Behavior