Alternative Names
mental disorder
Symptoms & Characteristics
Mental illness (also called mental disorder) is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture. The recognition and understanding of mental disorders have changed over time and across cultures.
Categories of mental illness may include dissociative disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, and many other categories. Some common categories include:
Anxiety disorders (involve several different forms of abnormal anxieties, fears, and phobias)
- phobia (involves an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people)
- Generalized anxiety disorder (involves excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things)
- Social Anxiety Disorder (involves excessive anxiety in social situations)
- Panic Disorder (involves recurring panic attacks in conjunction with a significant change in behavior)
- Agoraphobia (involves the fear of having a panic attack in a setting from which there is no easy means of escape)
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (involves obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions aimed at neutralizing the obsession)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (involves a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma)
Mood disorders (involve persisting emotional moods which are distorted or inappropriate to the situation)
- Unipolar disorder (involves a pervasive low mood as well as loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities)
- Bipolar disorder (involves abnormally high mood states alternating with normal or depressed moods)
Psychotic disorders (involve a loss of contact with reality)
- Schizophrenia (involves abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality)
- Delusional disorder (involves having one or more non-bizarre delusions in the absence of any other significant symptoms of mental illness)
Eating disorders (involve either compulsive over-eating, under-eating or binging)
Sleep disorders (involve the disruption of normal sleep patterns)
Personality disorders (involve rigid and on-going patterns of thought and action that deviate markedly from normal cultural expectations)
Impulse control disorders (involve the inability to resist urges, or impulses, to perform harmful acts)
Substance abuse disorders (involve the overindulgence in and dependence of a drug or chemical)
Adjustment disorders (involve the inability to sufficiently adjust to life circumstances)
Dissociative identity disorders (involve disruptions of self-identity, memory and general awareness of self and surroundings)
Symptoms range from mild to severe. The onset of symptoms is dependent upon the specific disorder.
Treatment
Psychotherapy and psychiatric medications are two major treatment options, as well as supportive interventions.
If someone notices or experiences any of the signs or symptoms common to mental illness, it is important to see a doctor immediately.
How Common Is It?
About 1 in 5 families are affected with mental illness in the United States.
Genetics & Inheritance
The causes of mental illness are largely unknown. Mental illness is most likely multifactorial condition, which means it involves a combination of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors.
- Some studies have suggested that some categories of mental illness have a larger genetic component than others. For example, schizophrenia appears to have a large genetic component and is more likely to run in families.
- Researchers believe that there are probably a number of genes that contribute to the development of mental illness as well as affect a person's response to certain psychiatric medications. For example, genetic variations in over 40 genes have been linked to susceptibility to unipolar depression, bipolar disease and schizophrenia, alone.
The estimated recurrence risk for mental illness in a family depends on many factors. These factors may include the number of affected people in the family, the degree of relationship (close, distant) of the affected relatives, as well as the type(s) of mental illness.
Genetic Testing
Clinical genetic testing for the majority of categories of mental illness is unavailable. A genetic consultation may be beneficial in discussing the benefits and limitations of genetic testing as well as recurrence risk. Use our find a genetic professional directory to locate a trained genetic professional in your area.
Informational genetic testing for susceptibility to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is available online (over the internet). Some online providers offer this testing as part of a whole genome scan. Whole genome scanning involves analyzing thousands of SNPs at once related to a number of different health conditions.
- At this point, many genetic professionals do not consider informational genetic testing clinically useful or medically relevant, but for informational purposes only.
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