Introduction – Psychological Disorders (PSY)

00:01 Okay. So let’s get into all the different types of psychological disorders.

00:05 And this is not going to be a comprehensive assessment of every possible psychological disorder but we’re going to highlight some of the key ones and we’re going to walk through then some of the biology behind that.

00:17 So, how common are psychological disorders? And we’re going to -- As we get going you’ll see what is classified as a psychological disorder.

00:24 But you’re not going to need to memorize this, but I wanted to highlight the fact that across the world, psychological disorders are quite prevalent.

00:34 In the US, one in four individuals, so it’s one of the highest in the world, have some form of psychological disorder.

00:42 That’s 26%, that’s quite a bit.

00:44 Other countries like Canada and Mexico, France, they’re not far behind.

00:50 So it’s quite a serious issue and it’s very, very prevalent globally speaking.

00:58 So what are we defining as a psychological disorder? This is a set of behavioral and/or psychological symptoms that are atypical.

01:05 So by that we mean that they’re different than the cultural or societal norms that are around us.

01:12 So atypical, like the name implies, are things that are not typical.

01:17 And so this is where it gets a little bit gray in that sometimes how do you define, You know, normal, what is typical.

01:24 And I don’t have a perfect answer for you other than based on specific disorders, we do have a clear, fairly clear understanding of things that are different than the norm.

01:36 So psychological disorder is a slightly dated term, and so we now we use terms like mental illness or mental health, we also have the term of a psychopathology.

01:47 These are more current terms that are a little bit more culturally sensitive and they’re a little bit more indicative of what’s actually happening.

01:54 So in the past, psychological disorders were considered sort of their own thing, and now they’ve been more embraced as an actual medical disorder.

02:04 And so it’s something that you can treat.

02:06 It’s something that you can have some different options for.

02:10 So things like pharmacotherapy or medicines that you can take, and you’re also going to have support groups or therapy.

02:16 So these are now treatable, I don’t want to say preventable, but there are things you can do to help prevent them, but you now have options.

02:24 It’s a disorder with some treatments.