216 PSYCHOLOGY
signs and symptoms that allow a mental health professional to say that a given indi-
vidual is suffering from a particular mental disorder. It is the most important of the
five axes. The bulk of this chapter will identify these clinical syndromes. They
include anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and others.
Axis 2 refers to personality disorders.A personality disorder may or may not be
present. However, if one does exist, it often complicates the clinical syndrome.
Axis 3 refers to medical conditions.If a person’s health is poor, this may compli-
cate treatment. For example, a schizophrenic patient with diabetes needs a special
diet along with psychiatric treatment.
Axis 4 refers to psychosocial problems.These are problems relating to others and
the patient’s life situation. An unhappy marriage, loss of a job, and similar diffi-
culties need to be evaluated in connection with the clinical syndrome.
Axis 5 refers to a global assessment.This consists of a broad, general assessment
of how well the patient had been functioning in everyday life before the appear-
ance of a mental disorder. The mental health worker makes an appraisal on a 100-
point scale. A score of 100 or 90 represents superior functioning. A score of 20 or
30 represents poor functioning.
The five axes provide mental health professionals with a comprehensive pic-
ture of the status of a given individual’s mental disorder.(a) DSM-IV uses a system with how many axes to classify mental disorders?(b) Axis 1 in the DSM-IV system refers to.
(c) Axis 4 in the DSM-IV system refers to.Answers: (a) Five; (b) clinical syndromes; (c) psychosocial problems.Anxiety Disorders: Suffering from Chronic Worry
This section and several to follow identify mental disorders in terms of their major
clinical syndromes (axis 1). The primary goal is to describe the principal signs and
symptoms of these disorders. Explanations for these deviant actions will be
reserved for the last section of the chapter.
Anxiety disordersare disorders characterized by a core of irrational fear.
Anxiety itself is experienced as a kind of psychological fire alarm. The individual
thinks, “Something terrible is going to happen!” Freud distinguished between
neurotic anxiety and rational anxiety. Neurotic anxietyis irrational, and it is the
kind of anxiety that plays a significant role in the anxiety disorders. Rational
anxietyis identical to realistic fear.
Four types of anxiety disorders will be identified: (1) generalized anxiety dis-
order, (2) phobic disorders, (3) obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and
(4) post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).