Understanding The Biology Of Mental Disorders

Course overview

Mental health practitioners agree that psychiatric symptoms are not always best explained psychologically. In fact, neuroscience now maintains that mental illness is largely a question of biology. Although most psychiatric or emotional symptoms are appropriately explained by biopsychosocial models, studies suggest approximately ten percent (10%) of psychiatric outpatients have a physical disease as the underlying cause of their symptoms (Taylor, 2000). Anxiety, depression, paranoia, and mania as well as many other psychological and behavioral manifestations may be either a reaction to life stress or associated with genetic vulnerability, a neurological deficit, drug reactions, or organic disorder. This course will review how the brain and body affect each other, and how medical illness can cause depression, anxiety, psychosis, and cognitive impairment. 2007 | 40 pages | 20 posttest questions