About a quarter of the general population at any given time suffer from some form of Mental disorders-Major or Minor .The lifetime chances of an individual to experience some form of mental disorder is higher than this mental Disorder are the cause of significant Morbidity and mortality.
The number of man-days lost to various industries due to mental disorder is tremendous and production loss in industry will come to several crores of rupees every year.Hence it is imperative that at least the major mental disorders are recognized early and treated effectively .
major mental disorder may be considered as those which show psychotic symptoms,or symptoms of gross brain diseases.All such disorders need effective medical treatment to minimise suffering ,reduce morbidity and reintegrate the person to the best possible levels of social and occupational functioning
these are those symptoms which indicates that the person has loss of touch with reality and include the following.
These are unshakable beliefs.WHICH ARE NOT SHARED BY OTHER MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY.eg a person may believe that his colleagues are plotting to kill him.The patient may act on his delusions.
These are sensory experiences without any apparent stimulation or cause for the experience.eg.a person may hear voices talking about him even though there is nobody nearby
Thought disorder,especially disorder in the form of flow of thinking.There may be lack of association between ideas or mixing up of different ideas in a sentence.
Grossly disorganizes behaviour
Behaviour may be obviously strange or inappropriate,without any logical explanations as to why the person is acting oddly.mood symptoms include depression and elevation of mood.Deppression mood may be described as unhappiness,loss of interest,feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.Elevated mood may be experienced as a sense of well being,overconfidence,jocularity and a feeling of superiorityMany major mental disorders may cause the patient to deteriorate from a previous level of functioning.
Based on these features,three groups of major mental disorders may be identified.while this is not one of the official classifications.It may make it easier for the layman to get a functional through rudimentary understanding of the more serious mental disorders.the three groups are
1.Priliminarily psychotic conditions like schizophrenia
2.Priliminarily mood disorders like depression or mania
3.Organic mental disorder or disorders Priliminarily caused by gross brain disease