Find out information about common types of mental illness

Mental illness is a mental health condition that is associated with changes in emotions, personality, and behavior. Some common mental illnesses such as depression, personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder,...

Mental illness is a mental health condition that is associated with changes in thinking, feelings, and behaviour. This condition is closely related to problems in social, work and family activities. Mental illness is divided into many different categories. According to the International Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders of the World Health Organization, there are more than 300 types of psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, use psychosis, and psychotic disorders. alcohol or drug use, dementia, post-traumatic brain injury or encephalitis psychosis, delusional disorder, mood disorder, bipolar affective disorder, anxiety disorder, somnolence, Insomnia, sleepwalking, nightmares,...
According to statistics of the Central Institute of Mental Health, the rate of Vietnamese people is likely to have a mental illness once in their life up to 15-20%. Some common causes of mental illness such as:
Physical causes Due to direct damage to the brain: Encephalitis, meningitis,... Neurotoxicity due to sleeping pills, alcohol Brain diseases: Brain tumor, cerebrovascular accident, brain abscess,... Diseases affecting brain activity: hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, chronic kidney failure,... Psychological causes: Pressure work, study,... Abnormal physical structure and psychopathological development Endogenous mental illness of unknown cause: Mood disorder, schizophrenia,... Warning signs Signs of mental illness:
Marked personality change Inability to cope with problems in daily life Having ideas of pride or alienation Excessive and persistent anxiety Persistent sadness Persistent change changes in sleeping and eating patterns Thinking or talking about suicide Emotions change too quickly from excitement to depression and vice versa Alcohol or drug addiction Excessive anger, hostility, or violent behavior

2.1 Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is one of the severe mental illnesses, with an incidence of 1/100. The disease usually appears at a young age and can last a lifetime. Schizophrenia can manifest in many different forms, but they all have a common feature that affects mental activities.
Common symptoms in patients with schizophrenia include:
Delusions Acoustic hallucinations Thinking disorders Reduced emotional expression and social isolation Acute symptoms can be rapid onset and appears for a few weeks, then slows down over months and years. Patients during the illness often become alienated from people, rarely talk to loved ones and become depressed, worried, afraid,...
2.2 Depressive disorder

Depression is a common mental disorder, presenting with many symptoms and the most common is profound sadness. Some other symptoms include:
Weight loss Insomnia Easy anger Difficulty thinking Difficulty thinking Loss of concentration Feeling guilty, worthless People with depression always feel hopeless, tired, nothing make the patient excited and often think about death. Depression can occur at any age from 24-44 years old. The prevalence at some point in life is 25% in women and 10% in men.
2.3 Bipolar disorder Bipolar affective disorder is a disorder in which a person's emotions often fluctuate from depression to euphoria or vice versa. There are also times when the patient's mood is normal. Symptoms during a depressive episode are similar to those of a depressive disorder. For the manic phase, the patient is often overjoyed, feeling best, hyperactive, and paranoid. High-risk behaviors such as spending money wastefully, driving carelessly,... not controlling actions, thinking or talking tempo and prone to sudden tantrums.
2.4 Alzheimer's Disease Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease characterized by the gradual destruction of nerve cells in the brain. It rarely occurs before age 65, and the older you get, the more likely you are to get it.
Alzheimer's disease has a slow onset and will gradually get worse. The first symptoms that appear are personality changes and memory loss. The patient is prone to anger, anxiety and fatigue. Often forget the location of items and lose time looking for them, easy to get lost. Memory decline in Alzheimer's disease is different from that in the elderly. Gradually, the patient's memory becomes worse, even forgetting the name of a close friend, forgetting the name of an object, not understanding numbers and words when reading bills, reading newspapers, as well as being unable to write. Therefore, the patient will find it difficult to integrate into the social environment and often get angry for no reason, and dress inappropriately for the situation.
Finally, the patient becomes confused, does not know the date, can't say the name of the place where he or she is living, if he goes out of the house, he often wanders and can't find his way back, has trouble sleeping at night, no can communicate coherently with people around, forget their names and do not recognize their children, cannot do basic daily tasks such as bathing, eating, and personal hygiene. At this time, relatives will have to take care of the patient in all aspects and at all times.
Approximately 30% of patients have hallucinations and 30% of patients have delusions. 40 - 50% of patients have symptoms of depression and anxiety. The progression of the disease will gradually get worse. The average survival time of patients from onset to death is usually 8-10 years. Patients often die because of exhaustion or co-morbidities such as pneumonia, cardiovascular disease...
2.5 Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is a type of mental disorder that presents as an eating disorder. The disease is characterized by the patient's refusal to maintain a minimally normal body weight, a fear of weight gain, and a false perception of body weight or shape.
Anorexia nervosa occurs 10-20 times more often in women than in men. The incidence is higher for people with occupations such as models and actors. The onset of the disease usually occurs between the ages of 13 and 20. If left untreated, anorexia nervosa can be fatal. Mainly as a result of malnutrition or suicide. The mortality rate among hospitalized patients is > 10%.
Common symptoms in anorexia nervosa such as:
Fear of weight gain Wrong perception of weight, body shape: always feeling fat, body deformed,... Failure to maintain muscle weight body in the normal range. Excessive weight loss will cause accompanying consequences such as:
Exhaustion: muscle atrophy, no more subcutaneous fat Easy to get cold Heart: Slow heart rate, low blood pressure, anemia,... chemistry: feeling full, constipation, abdominal pain Endocrine: missed period, dry and brittle hair, dry skin Musculoskeletal system: osteoporosis 2.6 Obsessive-compulsive disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a type of disorder Anxiety disorders can appear at any age but mostly begin during childhood. The disease has a serious impact on the patient's family, social, work or academic life. Obsessive-compulsive disorder has symptoms of obsessions or impulses, and in some cases, both symptoms.
Obsessions: Are thoughts that appear unintentionally, repeatedly, and invade the patient's entire thoughts. This makes them feel anxious or frustrated all the time. For example, the patient can mean that all microorganisms, airborne dust can cause disease. So they are very scared and nervous when they have to leave the house. Or the patient always doubts that he has closed the windows and locked the doors when going out, even though he has checked very carefully before. Impulsivity: An urge to do something, usually with the aim of reducing anxiety caused by a phobia. Impulsive behavior is often repetitive, always in a certain order, and is often conscious. Both obsessions and impulses have a common feature that is, the patient understands very well that these things are unreasonable and excessive, they also want to resist but cannot do otherwise. They always feel embarrassed and hide their symptoms from everyone around. However, when the disease progresses, people around will recognize it and advise them to go for treatment.

2.7 Phobias A phobia is a collection of psychological and physical reactions caused by an object or situation that causes fear. The object of fear can be a specific animal such as a snake, spider, insect, ... or a social situation such as when having to speak in front of a crowd, when in an elevator, when traveling on an airplane or In the bus,... Phobias make the patient fear and avoid jobs that can trigger a fear response, leading to reduced performance at work and social relationships.
Features of a phobia include:
Feeling an unexpected fear Fear of being in a situation that is not harmful. The fear response that emerges is automatic and uncontrollable. The patient is fully aware that this fear is excessive and unreasonable.
In addition, bodily reactions will appear such as:
Fast heartbeat Shortness of breath or feeling of suffocation Tremors Sweating Nausea Feeling uncomfortable in the stomach Dizziness Patient always wants to get out out of this situation. After escaping from the feared object or situation, the patient will seek to avoid them. Then this avoidance will affect work performance or social relationships. Therefore, the patient needs to be examined and treated mentally.
2.8 Generalized Anxiety Disorder Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by a constant feeling of anxiety and stress that is excessive or unrealistic about problems in life. Patients always feel fear such as: fear of running out of money, fear that they or their loved ones are about to get sick, have an accident or have bad luck. In addition, patients often have feelings of tension, restlessness, insecurity, tremors, headaches, easy fatigue, difficulty concentrating, trouble sleeping,...
Most of the patients with generalized anxiety disorder usually associated with other mental disorders. The incidence in women is twice as high as in men. Usually only 1/3 of cases go to a psychiatrist, the rest are treated by a general practitioner, a cardiologist,...
2.9 Mental disorders caused by alcohol or drugs

Alcohol and drug-induced psychosis is a consequence of the use of alcohol and other drugs. Currently, this problem is increasingly prominent and difficult to solve. People who abuse alcohol, drugs, or other substances often have no control over their behavior, and they will need to take it every day in increasingly higher doses. If not used, these patients often cannot work normally, accompanied by other symptoms such as:
Due to alcohol: Rapid pulse, sweating, shaking hands, agitation, anxiety and convulsions Seizures,... Due to drugs: Vomiting, watering eyes, runny nose, hair growth, muscle pain, sweating, diarrhea, yawning, dilated pupils,... When they reintroduce alcohol use or drugs, these symptoms will go away. When using for a long time, they can develop many other mental disorders such as:
Dementia Memory disorders Psychosis Mood disorders Anxiety disorders Sleep disorders Subjects who use alcohol and addictive substances that require treatment in a specialized facility. The treatment is relatively easy. However, the prevention of relapse is a very difficult process.
2.10 Mental retardation Mental retardation is a medical condition characterized by a markedly lower-than-normal general intellectual ability of the patient. Along with that is a decrease in adaptive capacity such as the ability to be independent, the ability to perform social responsibilities corresponding to age. Mental retardation begins before the age of 18. Causes of mental retardation are diverse, such as genetics, maternal infection or malnutrition during pregnancy, premature birth, smoking or infant asphyxia at the time of birth. birth, meningitis, encephalitis, or febrile convulsions many times in infancy...
General intellectual ability is determined by intelligence scales, resulting in intelligence quotient (IQ) has an average value of 100. If the result shows an IQ of less than 70, it can be considered as mentally retarded. Mental retardation is divided into 4 levels:
Mild: IQ from 50 - 69, accounting for 85% of cases Medium: IQ from 35 - 49, accounting for 10% of cases Severe: IQ from 20 - 34 , accounting for 3 - 4% of cases Serious: IQ less than 20, accounting for 1 -2% of cases. The condition is chronic, and there is no period of remission. However, a child's ability to adapt can be improved if they are sent to special schools for children with mental retardation and are well-treated for comorbid conditions such as epilepsy.

The general principle in the treatment of mental illnesses is a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Drugs to treat mental illness are becoming more and more effective, such as antipsychotic drugs to treat symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, etc.
For psychotherapy, there are now many methods. mental illness treatments such as
Psychoanalytic therapies Cognitive, suggestive and relaxation therapies Cognitive behavioral therapies Supportive psychotherapy In summary, mental illness is a mental health condition that is related to mental illness. emotional, personality and behavioral changes. There are more than 300 different types of mental illness, in which common mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,... Mental illness is often treated with a combination of drugs. and psychotherapy. The sooner the treatment, the more effective it will be. Therefore, do not be afraid to talk about difficulties in life with your doctor. Knowing the patient's situation can help the physician understand the patient's current condition and prescribe appropriate therapy.
Vinmec International General Hospital with a system of modern facilities, medical equipment and a team of experts and doctors with many years of experience in medical examination and treatment, patients can rest assured to visit. examination and treatment at the Hospital.
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SEE ALSO
Childhood schizophrenia: Diagnosis and treatment Alcoholic psychosis: Things to remember Diseases that can cause mental complications