Mental health professionals use the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" to diagnose mental health disorders and communicate about a client's problems and treatment with other professionals in the field. Hundreds of psychological disorders are listed in this manual, and they are categorized specifically.
Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood or Adolescence
The disorders that are most likely to be diagnosed in infancy, childhood or adolescence are grouped together. There are many subcategories in this group including learning disorders, communication disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, tic disorders and elimination disorders. Two common disorders in this group are autistic disorder and ADHD.
Cognitive Disorders
Most cognitive disorders involve problems with memory, language disturbances and disturbance of consciousness. This category includes psychological disorders such as delirium, dementia and amnestic disorder.
Substance-Related Disorders
Some people may not realize that substance abuse and dependence disorders are listed as psychological disorders. Addicts fall into this group. Some common disorders include alcohol dependence, cannabis abuse, cocaine dependence and polysubstance dependence.
Psychotic Disorders
Psychotic disorders are characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior and negative symptoms such as a flat affect. Schizophrenia is one of the most well-known disorders in this category. Other psychotic disorders include schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder and brief psychotic disorder.
Mood Disorders
Depressive disorders and bipolar disorders make up this category of psychological disorders. They are characterized by extreme highs and lows in a person's mood. Depressive disorders include symptoms such as overwhelming sadness, issues eating and sleeping, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, thoughts of suicide and fatigue. Bipolar disorders are distinguished by periods of hypomania or mania and depression.
Anxiety Disorders
There is a wide range of anxiety disorders. This category includes panic disorder, specific phobias, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Most of these disorders have common symptoms, such as feelings of anxiety and fear, and physical issues, such as rapid heartbeat, trouble breathing and nausea.
Somatoform Disorders
This category includes disorders in which a person has physical complaints that don't seem to have a medical basis; someone believes he has medical issues that he doesn't have or a person is preoccupied by an imagined defect in his appearance. These disorders include somatization disorder, conversion disorder, pain disorder, hypochondriasis and body dysmorphic disorder.
Dissociative Disorders
Someone who has problems remembering certain information, travels to a new place and can't remember his past or has more than one distinct personality would fall into this category of psychological disorders. Dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder and depersonalization disorder all fall into this group.
Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders
These types of psychological disorders include sexual dsyfunctions, paraphilias and gender-identity disorders. These disorders are characterized by sexual problems. Some of the disorders in this group are female sexual arousal disorder, male erectile disorder, premature ejaculation and exhibitionism.
Personality Disorders
People who have pervasive personality problems fall into this category. Paranoid personality disorders, antisocial personality disorder and dependent personality disorders are three disorders in this group.
