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Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health pp 41–59Cite as

Mental Illness as Psychiatric Disorder

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Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

This chapter describes how psychiatry defines and organizes psychiatric syndromes and identifies the kinds of clinical features associated with the syndromes most relevant to sociological inquiry. The overall goal is to show that the psychiatric perspective of mental illness encompasses more than dichotomous categories for use as outcome variables. Rather, heterogeneity along a number of clinical axes within and among psychiatric disorders offers considerable richness to a sociological understanding of the risks for and outcomes of mental illness. This chapter describes how psychiatry classifies mental illness, catalogues major psychiatric diagnoses and their criteria, and discusses several clinical features of mental illness, as viewed from the psychiatric perspective, that are less often incorporated into sociological studies of mental illness and yet have particular relevance to sociology. In particular, we focus on sources of heterogeneity within psychiatric disorders, specifically on dimensions such as severity, duration, onset, and course.

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Abbreviations

ADHD:

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

APA:

American Psychiatric Association

CES-D:

Center for Epidemiologic Study Depression Scale

DSM-IV:

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

GAD:

Generalized anxiety disorder

MDD:

Major depressive disorder

OCD:

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

PHQ-9:

Patient Health Questionnaire for Depression

PTSD:

Posttraumatic stress disorder

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY, 10605, USA

    Martha L. Bruce & Patrick J. Raue

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  1. Martha L. Bruce
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  2. Patrick J. Raue
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Correspondence to Martha L. Bruce .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Sciences Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Carol S. Aneshensel

  2. Department of Sociomedical Sciences Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Jo C. Phelan

  3. Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Alex Bierman

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Bruce, M.L., Raue, P.J. (2013). Mental Illness as Psychiatric Disorder. In: Aneshensel, C.S., Phelan, J.C., Bierman, A. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Mental Health. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_3

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