Abnormal concepts

Adverse childhood experiences: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful or traumatic events, including abuse and neglect. ACEs are strongly related to the development and prevalence of a wide range of health problems throughout a person’s lifespan.

Comorbidity: the idea that often there is more than one disorder that influences a person's behaviour. This is part of why diagnosis is difficult. One may be alcoholic and depressed. The alcoholism may or may not be directly linked to the depression.

Confirmation bias: when a researcher is biased by his/her own hypothesis. In other words, a researcher sees what he wants to see. So, if a psychiatrist believes that most women suffer from depression, he is more likely to pay attention to symptoms or statements from the client that confirm this assumption, potentially leading to an incorrect diagnosis.

Emic approaches to diagnosis: An emic approach does not assume that the traits of normalcy and of mental illness are universal. An emic approach uses local healers and professionals to determine how these terms are defined within the constraints of their own culture.

Etic approaches to diagnosis: An etic approach assumes that normalcy and mental illness is universal. They apply a standard (e.g.. the DSM) to assess the level of mental illness cross-culturally.

Etiology: The origin or potential cause of a disorder.

Iatrogenic effects: symptoms that result in response to a treatment, which then can be mistaken as part of the disorder. The classic example is tardive dyskinesia, involuntary, repetitive body movements which were the result of taking chlorpromazine to treat schizophrenia. Another example comes from Freudian therapy where false memories may have been created as part of trying to retrieve repressed memories or dream analysis. This could have led to anxiety which would further complicate the diagnosis and treatment.

Overpathologization: when a person is more likely to be diagnosed with a specific disorder simply because of gender, culture or age. For example, ADHD is overpathologized in teenagers; depression is overpathologized in women.

Prevalence: the proportion of a population found to have a disorder. Lifetime prevalence" (LTP) is the proportion of a population that at some point in their life have experienced the disorder.

Reactivity: when individuals alter their performance or behavior due to the awareness that they are being observed. This is one of the fundamental problems of diagnosis.

Relapse rate: the rate at which symptoms return after treatment has been discontinued.

Reliability of diagnosis: when different psychiatrists agree on a client's diagnosis using the same diagnostic system.

Reporting bias: selective revealing or suppression of information by clients when meeting with a doctor - for example, about past medical history, smoking, sexual experiences. Reporting bias also refers to the extent to which different genders and ethnic group seek psychological help and the types of information that they are willing to disclose to a psychiatrist.

Rumination: Repetitively focusing on one's symptoms of depression and the possible causes and consequences of these symptoms.

Self-fulfilling prophecy: in diagnosis, when a person who is diagnosed with a disorder may begin to demonstrate symptoms due to the belief that s/he has the disorder. So, a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder may result in a person developing symptoms.

Sick role bias: one of the key obstacles to objective and valid diagnosis. When a person comes to a clinic to seek assistance, it is assumed that there is a problem and the psychiatrist needs to find out what it is. It is possible that the individual actually has no disorder.

Somatization: When an individual experiences psychological distress in the form of physiological symptoms; for example, Kleinman has found that many Chinese do have a "sad mood" when they experience depression, but instead they experience lower back pain.

SSRIs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors - the most famous of which is Prozac. SSRIs block the reuptake of serotonin by the terminal buttons, leaving more in the synapse.

Stigmatization: when a person is labeled as an outcast or having poor character. Often people that are diagnosed with schizophrenia will be stigmatized by others or feel stigmatized in society.

Underpathologization: when a person is less likely to be diagnosed with a specific disorder simply because of gender, culture or age. Men may be underpathologized for depression; 40-year-olds may be underpathologized for ADHD.

Validity of diagnosis: the extent to which a diagnosis is accurate and leads to a successful treatment.