The Journal of nervous and mental disease
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The episodic disorders can be clearly differentiated from schizophrenia as now rigorously defined in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd Edition. Because the affective disorder is a more heterogeneous one, the boundaries between this group and episodic disorders is less precise, but this boundary could be clarified with a rigorous definition of the affective disorders comparable to that utilized for schizophrenia. ⋯ The presence of toxic or other organic symptoms, including clouding of sensorium, illusions, visual hallucinations, formes frustes of epilepsy, childhood history of minimal brain dysfunction or attentional deficits, and soft neurological signs, aid in differentiating the episodic disorders from manic and depressive episodes. There is a subgroup of episodic disorders that can be differentiated from the epileptoid or organic episodic disorders as well as from the major psychoses by psychodynamic factors alone.
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J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. · Nov 1981
Psychiatric disorders in the context of evolutionary biology. A functional classification of behavior.
This paper examines selected psychiatric illnesses from an evolutionary biological perspective. We present a functional classification of behavior-a classification system concerned with biological goals and behaviors which have biological consequences. The paper begins with an outline of functional views in psychiatry. ⋯ The capacity of individuals with psychiatric illnesses to achieve biological goals is reviewed briefly. Adaptive behaviors used to pursue the biologically relevant goals are then presented. The relationship between the capacity to enact adaptive behaviors and goal achievement is discussed with particular emphasis on the important role of adaptive strategies as a means of goal pursuit.