Psychological Factors That Affect a Medical Condition

The problems in this category all assume that some pre-existing medical condition is affected in some way by psychological factors. For example, a diabetic person is suffering from an acute schizophrenic episode, and is unable to take his medication and monitor his diet and blood sugar level. That would be an example of the first of the six subcategories within this set of problems, which are:

1. Mental Disorder That Affects a Medical Condition (MC)

2. Psychological Symptoms That Affect an MC

3. Personality Traits or a Coping Style That Affects an MC

4. Maladaptive Health Behaviors That Affect an MC

5. Stress-Related Physiological Response That Affects an MC

6. Other or Unspecified Psychological Factors That Affect an MC

There are always connections between psychological factors and medical disorders; for example, a person's choices of dietary and exercise habits (which are psychological factors) affect both long-term and short-term health, which is a "medical condition." Therefore, to be placed in one of the categories above, there must be a close enough connection between the factor and the medical condition to merit clinical attention to the psychological factor. 

A mental disorder must have been diagnosed before the first of the six diagnoses above becomes appropriate. In the case of the second diagnosis, psychological symptoms that affect a medical condition, the symptoms are not serious enough to justify the diagnosis of  a mental disorder. Nevertheless, the symptoms are affecting the medical condition seriously enough to demand clinical attention. Examples might include panic that has not endured long enough to justify diagnosis as a mental disorder, but is affecting the seriousness and treatment of a heart problem.

The third diagnosis might be made when a person's personality was so aggressive that it interfered with medical personnel's handling of the case. Another possibility is a coping style so passive that the person was unwilling or unable to care for himself, and there was nobody available to do it for him. 

The fourth case, involving maladaptive behavior, would be exemplified by an overeater whose diabetes or high blood pressure was strongly negatively affected by the resulting obesity. Drinking too much alcohol would be another example of a maladaptive behavior that could affect a variety of medical conditions, particularly hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver. (However, if the criteria for Alcohol Dependence  were met, the first category above would be the correct diagnosis.)

Stress-related high blood pressure or gastric upset would be examples of the fifth category above. The stress could not arise from a personality problem or a coping style, or the third subcategory would be the appropriate one. And the final category is the miscellaneous category that nearly always accompanies a group of problems; this diagnosis might be appropriate when several complicating factors, none of which justified independent diagnosis, affected a medical condition. 

Treatment of the problems in these six categories would, in most cases, be focused on correcting the behaviors that were directly affecting the medical condition. Thus short-term behavioral therapy would usually be most appropriate, although in cases of high anxiety, medication might be prescribed to bring about short-term relief. 

                                                                                                                                Last updated  12/19/03