Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsNeurodevelopmental DisordersBipolar and Related DisordersAnxiety DisordersTrauma- and Stressor-Related DisordersDissociative DisordersSomatic Symptom DisordersFeeding and Eating DisordersSleep-Wake DisordersDisruptive, Impulse Control and Conduct DisordersDepressive DisordersSubstance Use and Addictive DisordersNeurocognitive DisordersSchizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic DisordersObsessive-Compulsive and Related DisordersPersonality Disorders

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Bipolar and Related Disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders

Dissociative Disorders

Somatic Symptom Disorders

Feeding and Eating Disorders

Sleep-Wake Disorders

Disruptive, Impulse Control and Conduct Disorders

Depressive Disorders

Substance Use and Addictive Disorders

Neurocognitive Disorders

Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

Personality Disorders

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The termpsychological disordersis sometimes used to refer to what are more frequently known as mental disorders or psychiatric disorders.

Mental disorders are patterns of behavioral or psychological symptoms that impact multiple areas of life. These disorders create distress for the person experiencing the symptoms.

The DSM-5-TR lists hundreds of distinct conditions. Anxietyand depressionare among the most common types of mental health conditions that people experience. While the DSM provides diagnostic information about such conditions, including the age at which they typically appear, it does not provide guidelines for treatment or predictions related to the course of illness.

While not a comprehensive list of every mental disorder, the following list includessome of the major categoriesof disorders described in the fifth edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM-5) and the fifth edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR). The DSM is one of the most widely used systems for classifying mental disorders and provides standardized diagnostic criteria.

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Neurodevelopmental disorders are those that are typically diagnosed during infancy, childhood, or adolescence. These psychological disorders include:

Intellectual Development Disorder

Limitations to intellectual functioning are often identified through the use of IQ tests, with anIQ scoreunder 70 often indicating the presence of a limitation. Adaptive behaviors are those that involve practical, everyday skills such asself-care, social interaction, and living skills.

Global Developmental Delay

This diagnosis is for developmental disabilities in children who are under the age of five. Such delays relate tocognition, social functioning, speech, language, and motor skills.

It is generally seen as a temporary diagnosis applying to kids who are still too young to take standardized IQ tests. Once children reach the age where they are able to take a standardized intelligence test, they may be diagnosed with an intellectual development disorder.

What Is Developmental Coordination Disorder?

Communication Disorders

These disorders are those that impact the ability to use, understand, or detect language and speech. The DSM-5 identifies four different subtypes ofcommunication disorders: language disorder,speech sound disorder,childhood-onset fluency disorder(stuttering), and social (pragmatic) communication disorder.

Types of Communication Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorder

The DSM specifies that symptoms of autism spectrum disorder must be present during the early developmental period and that these symptoms must cause significant impairment in important areas of life including social and occupational functioning.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The DSM-5 specifies that several of the symptoms must have been present prior to the age of 12 and that these symptoms must have a negative impact on social, occupational, or academic functioning.

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Mania

People experiencing mania are more prone to engage in activities that might have negative long-term consequences, such asgamblingandshopping sprees.

When mania progresses, there is also the possibility of psychotic symptoms such asgrandiose delusionsand hallucinations.While mania occurs with bipolar I disorder, hypomania is a marker of bipolar II.

Depressive Episodes

Both manic and depressive episodes can be frightening for both the person experiencing these symptoms as well as family, friends, and other loved ones who observe these behaviors and mood shifts. Fortunately, appropriate and effective treatments, which often include bothmedicationsandpsychotherapy, can help people with bipolar disorder successfully manage their symptoms.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineat988for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact theNational Suicide Prevention Lifelineat988for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.

For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Social Anxiety Disorder

Specific Phobias

Thesephobiasinvolve an extreme fear of a specific object or situation in the environment. Some examples of common specific phobias include fear of spiders, fear of heights, or fear of snakes.

The four main types of specific phobias involve natural events (thunder, lightning, tornadoes), medical (medical procedures, dental procedures, medical equipment), animals (dogs, snakes, bugs), and situational (small spaces, leaving home, driving).

Panic Disorder

People may begin to avoid situations and settings where attacks have occurred in the past or where they might occur in the future. This can create significant impairments in many areas of everyday life and make it difficult to carry out everyday routines.

Separation Anxiety Disorder

This condition is a type of anxiety disorder involving an excessive amount of fear or anxiety related to being separated fromattachmentfigures. People are often familiar with the idea ofseparation anxietyas it relates to young children’s fear of being apart from their parents, but older children and adults can experience it as well.

The person experiencing these symptoms may avoid moving away from home, going to school, or getting married in order to remain in close proximity to the attachment figure.

Trauma- and stressor-related disorders involve exposure to a stressful ortraumatic event.These were previously grouped with anxiety disorders but are now considered a distinct category of disorders. Disorders included in this category include:

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Acute Stress Disorder

As a result, the individual may experience dissociative symptoms such as a sense of altered reality, an inability to remember important aspects of the event, and vivid flashbacks as if the event were reoccurring. Other symptoms can include reduced emotional responsiveness, distressing memories of the trauma, and difficulty experiencing positiveemotions.

Adjustment Disorders

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSDcan develop after an individual has experienced exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. Symptoms of PTSD include episodes of reliving or re-experiencing the event, avoiding things that remind the individual about the event, feeling on edge, and having negative thoughts.

Nightmares, flashbacks, bursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, exaggerated startle response, and difficulty remembering aspects of the event are just a few possiblesymptoms that people with PTSD might experience.

Reactive Attachment Disorder

Reactive attachment disordercan result when children do not form healthy relationships and attachments with adult caregivers during the first few years of childhood. Symptoms of the disorder include being withdrawn from adult caregivers and social and emotional disturbances that result from patterns of insufficient care and neglect.

Dissociative disorders are psychological disorders that involve a dissociation or interruption in aspects ofconsciousness, including identity andmemory.Dissociative disorders include:

Dissociative Amnesia

This disorder involves a temporary loss of memory as a result of dissociation. In many cases, this memory loss, which may last for just a brief period or for many years, is a result of some type of psychological trauma.

Dissociative amnesia is much more than simpleforgetfulness. Those who experience this disorder may remember some details about events but may have no recall of other details around a circumscribed period of time.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

Formerly known as multiple personality disorder,dissociative identity disorderinvolves the presence of two or more different identities or personalities in one person. Each of these personalities has its own way of perceiving and interacting with the environment.

People with this disorder experience changes in behavior, memory, perception, emotional response, and consciousness.

Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder

Formerly referred to assomatoform disorders, this category is now known as somatic symptom disorders.Somatic symptom disorders are a class of psychological disorders that involve prominent physical symptoms that may not have a diagnosable physical cause.

In contrast to previous ways of conceptualizing these disorders based on the absence of a medical explanation for the physical symptoms, the current diagnosis emphasizes the unusual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that occur in response to these symptoms. Disorders included in this category are:

Somatic Symptom Disorder

Somatic symptom disorderinvolves a preoccupation with physical symptoms that make it difficult to function. This preoccupation with symptoms results in emotional distress and difficulty coping with daily life.

It is important to note that somatic symptoms do not indicate that individuals are faking their physical pain, fatigue, or other symptoms. In this situation, it is not so much the actual physical symptoms that are disrupting the individual’s life as it is the extreme reaction and resulting behaviors.

Illness Anxiety Disorder

The preoccupation with illness causes significant anxiety and distress. It also leads to changes in behavior such as seeking medical testing/treatments and avoiding situations that might pose a health risk.

Conversion Disorder

Conversion disorderinvolves experiencing motor or sensory symptoms that lack a compatible neurological or medical explanation. In many cases, a person develops the disorder after experiencing a real physical injury or stressful event, which then results in a psychological and emotional response.

Factitious Disorder

Factitious disorder used to have its own category, but it is now included under the somatic symptom and related disorders category of the DSM-5. A factitious disorder is when an individual intentionally creates, fakes, or exaggerates symptoms of illness.Munchausen syndrome, in which people feign an illness to attract attention, is one severe form of factitious disorder.

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Anorexia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosainvolves binge eating and then taking extreme steps to compensate for these binges. These compensatory behaviors might include self-induced vomiting, the abuse of laxatives or diuretics, orexcessive exercise.

Rumination Disorder

Additional problems that can result from this behavior include dental decay, esophageal ulcers, and malnutrition.

Pica

Pica involves craving and consuming non-food substances such as dirt, paint, or soap. Pica is more common among young children than adults, but it is also known to occur during pregnancy. A lack of nutrients may also trigger non-food cravings in some instances.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorderinvolves episodes of binge eating where the individual consumes an unusually large amount of food during a short time period, such as a couple of hours.

Sleep disorders involve an interruption in sleep patterns that leads to distress and affects daytime functioning. Examples of sleep disorders include:

Narcolepsy

Narcolepsyis a condition in which people experience an irrepressible need to sleep. People with narcolepsy may experience a sudden loss of muscle tone, also known as cataplexy.

They are also prone to hypnagogic hallucinations, which happen as someone falls asleep, and hypnopompic hallucinations, which happen as someone wakes up.

Insomnia Disorder

Hypersomnolence

Breathing-related sleep disordersare those that involve breathing anomalies—such as sleep apnea—that can occur during sleep. These breathing problems can result in brief interruptions in sleep that can lead to other problems including insomnia and daytime sleepiness.

Parasomnias

Parasomniais a term that describes sleep disorders that feature unusual behaviors. Such disorders include sleepwalking,sleep terrors, sleep talking, and sleep eating.

Restless Legs Syndrome

Restless legs syndrome is a neurological condition that involves having uncomfortable sensations in the legs and an irresistible urge to move the legs in order to relieve the sensations. People with this condition may feel tugging, creeping, burning, and crawling sensations in their legs resulting in an excessive movement which then interferes with sleep.

Disruptive,impulse controland conduct disorders are those that involve an inability to control emotions and behaviors, resulting in harm to oneself or others.

Kleptomania

Kleptomaniainvolves an inability to control the impulse to steal. People who have kleptomania will often steal things that they do not really need or that have no real monetary value. Those with this condition experience escalating tension prior to committing a theft and feel relief and gratification afterwards.

Pyromania

Pyromania involves a fascination with fire that results in acts of fire-starting that endanger the self and others. People who struggle withpyromaniapurposefully and deliberately have set fires more than one time. They also experience tension and emotional arousal before setting a fire.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder

Conduct Disorder

Conduct disorderis a condition diagnosed in children and adolescents under the age of 18 who regularly violate social norms and the rights of others. Children with this disorder display aggression toward people and animals, destroy property, steal and deceive, and violate other rules and laws. These behaviors result in significant problems in a child’s academic or social functioning.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

While all kids behave defiantly sometimes, kids with oppositional defiant disorder refuse to comply with adult requests almost all the time and engage in behaviors to deliberately annoy others.

The diagnostic criteria vary for each specific condition. For major depressive disorder, diagnosis requires an individual to experience five or more of the following symptoms over the same two-week period.

One of these symptoms must include either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyed activities. Other symptoms can include:

Treatments for depressive disorders often involve a combination of psychotherapy and medications.

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Substance-related disorders are those that involve the misuse of different substances such ascocaine,methamphetamine,opiates, andalcohol.

These disorders may include substance-induced conditions that can result in many associated diagnoses including intoxication, withdrawal, or the emergence of psychosis, anxiety, and delirium. Examples of substance-related disorders include:

Gambling DisorderThe DSM-5 also includes gambling disorder under this classification. The American Psychiatric Association explains that this change “reflects the increasing and consistent evidence that some behaviors, such as gambling, activate the brain reward system with effects similar to those of drugs of abuse and that gambling disorder symptoms resemble substance use disorders to a certain extent.”

Gambling Disorder

The DSM-5 also includes gambling disorder under this classification. The American Psychiatric Association explains that this change “reflects the increasing and consistent evidence that some behaviors, such as gambling, activate the brain reward system with effects similar to those of drugs of abuse and that gambling disorder symptoms resemble substance use disorders to a certain extent.”

Delirium

Other Neurocognitive Disorders

Major and mild neurocognitive disorders have the primary feature of acquired cognitive decline in one or more areas including memory, attention, language, learning, and perception.

These cognitive disorders can be due to medical conditions includingAlzheimer’s disease, HIV infection,Parkinson’s disease, substance/medication use, vascular disease, and others.

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric condition that affects a person’s thinking, feeling, and behavior. It is a complex, long-term condition that affects less than 1% of people in the United States.

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria specify that two or moresymptoms of schizophreniamust be present for a period of at least one month.

One symptom must be one of the following:

The second symptom may be one of the following:

Diagnosis also requires significant impairments in social or occupational functioning for a period of at least six months. The onset of schizophrenia is usually in the late teens or early 20s, with men usually showing symptoms earlier than women. Earlier signs of the condition that may occur before diagnosis include poor motivation, difficult relationships, and poor school performance.

The National Institute of Mental Health suggests that multiple factors may play a role in the development of schizophrenia including genetics, brain chemistry, environmental factors, and substance use.

While there is no cure for schizophrenia,there are treatments availablethat make it possible to manage the symptoms of the condition. Treatments usually incorporate antipsychotic medications, psychotherapy, self-management, education, and social support.

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders is a category of psychiatric conditions that include:

Each condition in this classification has its own set of diagnostic criteria.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5 specify that in order to be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, a person must experience obsessions, compulsions, or both.

Treatments for OCD usually focus on a combination of therapy and medications.Cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT) or a form of CBT known as exposure and response prevention (ERP) are commonly used.Antidepressantssuch as Anafranil (clomipramine) orProzac(fluoxetine) may also be prescribed to manage symptoms.

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Antisocial Personality Disorder

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Avoidant personality disorderinvolves severe social inhibition and sensitivity to rejection. Such feelings of insecurity lead to significant problems with the individual’s daily life and functioning.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorderis associated with symptoms including emotional instability, unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, unstable self-image, and impulsive behaviors.

Dependent Personality Disorder

Dependent personality disorder involves a chronic pattern of fearing separation and an excessive need to be taken care of. People with this disorder will often engage in behaviors that are designed to produce care-giving actions in others.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Histrionic personality disorderis associated with patterns of extreme emotionality and attention-seeking behaviors. People with this condition feel uncomfortable in settings where they are not the center of attention, have rapidly changing emotions, and may engage in socially inappropriate behaviors designed to attract attention from others.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Narcissistic personality disorderis associated with a lasting pattern of exaggerated self-image, self-centeredness, and lowempathy. People with this condition tend to be more interested in themselves than in others.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorderis a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness,perfectionism, inflexibility, and mental and interpersonal control. This is a different condition than obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Schizoid personality disorderinvolves symptoms that include being detached from social relationships. People with this disorder are directed toward their inner lives and are often indifferent to relationships. They generally display a lack of emotional expression and can appear cold and aloof.

Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Schizotypal personality disorderfeatures eccentricities in speech, behaviors, appearance, and thought. People with this condition may experience odd beliefs ormagical thinkingas well as difficulty forming relationships.

A Word From Verywell

Various factors influence a person’s risk of developing a psychological disorder, including biological, social, environmental, cultural, and economic factors. Factors such as social support and coping skills can have protective effects.

Some conditions are short-term, while others may be lifelong. Conditions can also change over time.

Psychological disorders can cause disruptions in daily functioning, relationships, work, school, and other important domains. However, with appropriate diagnosis and treatment, people can find relief from their symptoms and discover ways to cope effectively.

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Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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