Introduction to Mental Disorders

Welcome to our Mental Disorders topic area. In this family of topic centers you will find information about various mental disorders including depression, generalized anxiety, panic, bipolar disorder, attention deficit and schizophrenia, to name but a few. Disorders of Childhood are grouped under the Disorders of Childhood topic category

Related Topic Centers:

• Anxiety Disorders
• Bipolar Disorder
• Depression: Depression & Related Conditions
• Schizophrenia
• Eating Disorders

Mental vs. Medical Classifications:

There is always a question of whether a given disorder or issue would be better classified as a "mental" or a "medical-biological" disorder. To some degree or another, there is no really firm distinction between mental and medical disorders. Many so called 'mental' disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are now known to be primarily biologically based, while other 'medical' disorders have been shown to have a large 'psychological' component. In making classification decisions, we have followed the lead set out by the authors of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the standard reference used by psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers in classifying and describing mental disorders.