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Adjustment Disorder | Affect Disorder | Agoraphobia | Anorexia Nervosa | Anxiety Disorder | Asperger's Disorder | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder | Autistic Disorder
Adjustment Disorder
The term used for a condition where an individual develops emotional and behavioral symptoms in response to a stressful situation. Adjustment Disorder is divided into six sub-types:
| Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood Adjustment Disorder with Disturbance of Conduct Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Disturbance Emotion and Conduct Adjustment Disorder Not Otherwise Specified |
In individuals with an Adjustment Disorder symptoms occur within three months of the onset of stress and may be excessive for the amount of stress experienced. Symptoms usually fade within six months after the stress is removed. Adjustment Disorder is associated with an increased risk for suicide, delinquent behavior and other mental and physical symptoms. The ABLE Report lists Adjustment Disorder as an alternative to Mood, Conduct or Anxiety Disorder. It also lists Risk Factors and Stress Factors so that one might judge if the stress could cause symptoms secondarily rather than if the individual has a primary disorder. For example an individual has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a Developmental Written Language Disorder. Because of this, peers or instructors ridicule the individual. The humiliation is tolerated briefly but in time the individual cannot cope with the situation and becomes depressed and anxious. A simpler example would be where a parent who is both depressed and addicted to alcohol verbally abuses an individual. Because of this the individual becomes anxious, hypochondriacal and has Panic Attacks.
One can see that Risk or Stress Factors are extremely important and by themselves can cause an emotional disorder or can compound problems in children who have a primary disorder. The ABLE Group has included many questions in the ABLE Inventory Series to help the user discover those factors that might be responsible for the failure of an individual to respond to treatment. See Validation Statement, Affect or Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Conduct Disorder and Risk and Stress Factors.
Go to ABLE Resource Room for an article on Adjustment Disorder
Affect Disorder
A disorder of affect is often used in conjunction with or interchangeably with Mood Disorder. While Mood Disorder is usually regarded as constant, internalized and melancholy, the symptoms of a disordered affect are usually demonstrative and disruptive. Problems associated with Affect and Mood Disorder include sadness, anger, and disorders of sleeping and eating, an inability to solve simple problems, loss of self esteem and the inability to enjoy life.
Disorders of Affect and Mood should be regarded as serious because of the risk for suicide. Specific disorders in the ABLE Inventory Series that are associated with Affect and Mood are Dysthymia, Major Depressive Disorder and Juvenile Mania. See Validation Statement, Dysthymia, Major Depressive Disorder, Juvenile Mania and Adjustment Disorder.
Agoraphobia
The term used for a condition where there is anxiety experienced in an individual who is expected to attend a place or participate in a situation where an exit is perceived as difficult or embarrassing. The condition may or may not be associated with a Panic Disorder. An individual with Agoraphobia may fear a Panic Attack and the fact that someone might not be available to render aid. One should consider a specific phobia if the situation is limited to a place and Social Phobia if the problem is limited to the avoidance of a social situation. See Validation Statement, Panic Attack, Social Phobias and Adjustment Disorder.
Anorexia Nervosa
The term used for a condition where an individual refuses to maintain a body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height. By present standards the weight percentile of an individual should be 85% or more of the height percentile. In Anorexia Nervosa the individual is extremely anxious about gaining weight or becoming obese. Perception of a low body weight is distorted and the individual views weight and shape as undesirable even when there is a seriously low body weight. There are two sub types of Anorexia Nervosa:
Restrictive type: Individual will deliberately not eat enough to maintain an adequate body weight.
Binge-eating/purging type: Individual regularly engages in bouts of excessive eating and then induces vomiting or misuses laxatives, diuretics or enemas.
Anorexia Nervosa is a complex disorder and should be brought to the attention of a health care provider as it often presents serious complications as a result of starvation. In post menarcheal females there is an absence of menses on 3 consecutive cycles. See Validation Statement.
Anxiety and Allied Disorders
The term used for a disorder where an individual exhibits signs and symptoms of fear and excessive concern or worry about a situation that does not justify the degree of fear or concern. In some instances, a real danger has been experienced but the individual continues to have symptoms of anxiety long after the danger has passed. At times the perception of danger far exceeds reality. Anxiety disorders associated with substance abuse may be solely due to the substance abused and these are in a special category all their own. Included in Anxiety Disorders are the following:
| Separation Anxiety Selective Mutism Generalized Anxiety Agoraphobia Specific Phobias (Social and Environmental) Panic Disorder Panic Attack Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Obsessive Compulsive Disorder |
See Validation Statement, Specific Disorders listed above, Social Phobia and Adjustment Disorder.
Asperger's Disorder
The term used for a disorder included in the Pervasive Developmental Disorder category. The disorder is characterized by problems with social skills and a variety of obsessions and compulsions that include repeated and useless movements (sterotypies). Verbal communicative skills are, on the surface, adequate but communication is not necessarily normal because of problems with pragmatic language. There is usually a normal developmental history. Very often these individuals have serious academic problems involving visual motor skills and mathematics. Academic remediation is difficult and many of the individuals with Asperger's Disorder have an unhappy existence. Every effort should be made to identify these children and attempt to remedy targeted symptoms.
See Validation Statement, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Non Verbal Learning Disorder, Pragmatic Language Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
The term used for a condition where an individual demonstrates significant problems with inattention, excessive activity and impulsivity. Sub types of the disorder are broken down into the following categories:
| ADHD - Predominantly Inattentive Type ADHD - Predominantly Hyperactive/Impulsive Type ADHD - Combined Type ADHD - Not Otherwise Specified |
Many experts believe individuals with this disorder should have symptoms before seven years of age and have demonstrated the symptoms for more than six months. Others now believe that ADHD may become manifest at a later age. Most experts believe that some of the symptoms should be present at two or more locations. ADHD is probably the most common developmental disorder that is diagnosed at this time. One must consider other possible disorders that share the same symptoms before making a definitive diagnosis of this condition. ADHD is often associated with learning disorders and other developmental and psychosocial disorders. ADHD may continue into adulthood. Pure ADHD is fairly responsive to the treatment of core symptoms. Failure to respond to treatment may be due to one or more co-entities, an inaccurate diagnosis, poor medication compliance, medication failure due to improper dosing, idiosyncratic drug reaction and unknown reasons. Multi-modal intervention may, in some cases, be superior to medication alone. There is a growing interest in alternative methods of treatment including cognitive therapy as well as "natural pharmaceuticals". Alternative therapeutic measures should be validated before their use. See Validation Statement.
Go to ABLE Resource Room for an articles on:
ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive Type
The Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the MTA Trials
Autistic Disorder
The term used for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder where an individual has severe disturbances with socialization, communication and repetitive behaviors. The disorder occurs in early infancy and is usually symptomatic at 1 year of age. There are serious developmental handicaps that usually leave most of the affected individuals severely handicapped or even neurodevelopmentally retarded. Some higher functioning individuals' learn to operate within societal norms. While there is no specific treatment for core symptoms, there has been some progress made in early communicative intervention and remediation and with medication for a few targeted behaviors. Early intervention is obligatory.
A correlate for the spectrum of symptoms seen in Autistic Disorder is the Fragile X Syndrome. This disorder results from a defect on the individual's X chromosome. Males are more severely handicapped than females with mental retardation, severe communicative problems and repetitive behaviors involving stereotypies. Females are generally socially withdrawn and have borderline intelligence, performing poorly in mathematics and are subject to disorders of mood.
See Validation Statement, Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Stereotypies, Neurodevelopmental Retardation, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.
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