Share this infographic on your site!



Image source: www.psychdegrees.org Embed this infographic on your site!



Image source: www.psychdegrees.org



The editors at Psych Degrees decided to research the topic of: 5 Strangest Mental Disorders A mental or bodily condition marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, and emotions to seriously impair the normal psychological functioning of the individual Going Mental

- An estimated 1 in 5 Americans have a mental disorder

- Women are more likely to be diagnosed than men

- 23% of women

- 16.9% of men

- Mental illness is more than 2x as likely in ages 18-25 than in adults 50+

- Serious mental illness is defined by moderate - extreme impairment of 1-4 of the following:

- Feeling/Mood

- Thinking

- Family

- Role performance

- Socio-legal

- Self Care/Basic needs

- 2011: About 11.4m adult Americans suffered from serious mental illness (also what is considered "serious" mental illness?)

- 8.7m admitted to thoughts of suicide

- 2m of them made suicide plans

- 1m of them attempted suicide

- About 60% of those will mental illness receive treatment Five of the Strangest Mental Illnesses Cotard's Syndrome - AKA "Walking Corpse Syndrome"

- A mental disorder causing the sufferer to think

- they are dead

- all of their blood and organs have been removed

- their soul has been removed

- First described by Dr. Jules Cotard in 1882

- Cotard's has been reported in patients with

- mood disorders

- psychotic disorders

- medical conditions

- Most Cotard's cases are more responsive to ECT (electroconvulsive treatment) than to medication

- Cotard's signifies a disconnect between two areas of the brain

- The area that recognizes faces

- The area that is able to associate emotions with facial recognition

- Sufferers may not recognize their own face

- Part of the brain: Fusiform Gyrus Region & Temporal Lobe Synesthesia

- An anomalous blending of the senses

- stimulation of one modality simultaneously causes sensation in a different modality

- Synesthetes hear colors, feel sounds and taste shapes

- Synesthetic sensations are highly consistent

- This differentiates them from drug-induced hallucinations

- Examples of consistencies for many synesthetes:

- the note F is often a reddish shade of rust

- a 3 is usually pink

- the word truck is usually blue

- Synesthetes often have unusually good memory for

- phone numbers

- security codes

- anatomical terminology

- Because digits, letters and syllables take on unique colors

- They make make computational errors because 6 and 8 have the same color

- 3x as many US women as men have Synesthesia

- 8x as many women as men in the UK (reason unknown)

- Part of the brain: Limbic system Windigo Psychosis

- A disorder involving an insatiable craving for human flesh, coupled with the fear of becoming a cannibal.

- Windigo Psychosis is a cultural phenomenon of the Algonquians of Northern Canada

- Research suggests Windigo Psychosis occurs due to

- Environment

- Northeastern Canadian woodlands

- Extremely cold winters

- Cultural conditions

- Cultural fear of the Wendigo (a cannibalistic monster who takes possession of humans)

- Cultural fear of cannibalism

- Diet and nutrition

- People suffer from Windigo Psychosis during periods of famine

- Many cannibals have been found to suffer from schizophrenia

- Consumption of humans can result in Kuru (the human equivalent of Mad Cow disease)

- Part of the brain: (Most likely) Temporal and Frontal Lobe Capgras Syndrome

- A rare delusion in which a person falsely believes their loved one has been replaced by a duplicate impostor

- Named after French psychiatrist, Joseph Capgras

- He first described the disorder in 1929

- A female patient complained that her husband had been replaced by a corresponding double

- Capgras is an unusual form of displacement

- the sufferer rejects a loved when when negative feelings arise

- They cannot allow themselves to be conscious of their rejection

- The negative feelings are passed to a double

- an impostor who can be safely rejected

- Part of the brain: Fusiform Gyrus Region & Temporal Lobe Alien Hand Syndrome

- A neurological disorder in which one hand functions involuntarily with the victim completely unaware its actions

- Symptoms include

- involuntary reaching or grasping

- touching the face

- tearing at clothing

- More extreme cases include

- involuntarily stuffing food into the mouth

- preventing the normal hand from completely tasks

- self inflicted punching or choking

- Sufferers often experience embarrassment or are put in harm's way due to the renegade limb

- AHS was first identified in 1909

- There have only been 40-50 cases reported since then

- AHS is thought to be due to nerve damage in the Corpus Callosum

- Part of the brain: Frontal Lobe & Corpus Callosum Sources

- http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/01/19/1-in-5-americans-suffer-from-mental-illness/

- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/24/facial-recognition-brain-fusiform-gyrus_n_2010192.html

- http://www.brainwaves.com/brain_basics.html

- http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-synesthesia

- http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/syne.html

- http://science.discovery.com/life-earth-science/10-little-known-mental-disorders.htm

- "The Cree Witiko Psychosis", Primitive Man 1933 Author: John M. Cooper

- http://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-you-always-wondered-about-cannibalism-2012-5?op=1

- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-w-berman-md/capgras-syndrome_b_888854.html

- http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/alien-hand3.htm

- http://www.psychology-101.com/2012/04/13-strange-mental-conditions.html

- http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/mental%20disorder

- http://www.odmhsas.org/eda/advancedquery/smi.htm



