Mental Disorders

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countries follow the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO). For clinical use in the U. S., the American Psychiatric Association in 1980 adopted a third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III); an extensive revision (DSM-III-R) was issued in 1987.
Most classification systems recognize childhood disorders (including mental retardation) as separate categories from adult disorders. Most distinguish between organic, somatically caused states and non-organic (sometimes referred to as functional) conditions. Psychotic disorders are also commonly separated from neurotic ones. Psychotic means, roughly, a state in which a patient has lost touch with reality, whereas neurotic refers to a relatively less impaired state. Schizophrenia, many organic , and some forms of depression (such as manic-depressive illness) are psychotic conditions. Examples of neurotic disorders are those in which anxiety is the major symptom, hypochondria ...

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involving conduct problems, overeating, anorexia nervosa, tics, stuttering, and bed-wetting(4).

Organic Mental Disorders.

This group of disorders is characterized by psychological or behavioral abnormalities associated with transient or permanent impairments in brain function. The disorders have different symptoms, depending on which area of the brain is affected and on the cause, progression, and duration of the disorder. Organic damage to the brain can result from a disease or drug that directly damages the brain, or from a disease that indirectly damages the brain through effects on other bodily systems.
Symptoms associated with organic mental disorders may be a direct ...

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