BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

This chapter presents an overview of behavioral disorders. Disorders of the nervous system can ruin the lives of individuals and are of such a magnitude that they create many of our greatest social problems. People become mentally ill, insane, or psychotic and a few such individuals in a society can destroy its fabric. People can become addicted to drugs. They can ruin their lives, and their habits create an underworld willing and able to exploit them. Some people become alcoholics. The chapter discusses about schizophrenia disorder. The primary characteristic of schizophrenia is the impairment of logical thought processes. Speech is often bizarre and confused, reflecting a disturbed mind. Thoughts that are usually only remotely connected emerge together in speech (loose associations), and in extreme cases speech may be completely incomprehensible. Depression is another behavioral disorder. It is diagnosed as being either primarily endogenous or exogenous. The endogenous form of depression refers to severe depression that occurs in the absence of any identifiable external source; the exogenous form of depression results from external stresses.