Tic disorders : characterized by rapid and uncontrolled movements that the child / adolescent repeats frequently and which generally concern the muscles of the face. Tics can be both motor and vocal. Tic Disorders are: Tourette’s Disorder, Chronic Motor or Vocal Tic Disorder, Transient Tic Disorder.
Disruptive behavior disorders : characterized by impetuous behavior. The child / adolescent intentionally and systematically violates social rules, disrespects or provokes others. This category includes: Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder.
Learning disabilities : the child / adolescent shows a lower academic performance than the others, without this being justified on the basis of his age, his abilities and the school background. The main learning disorders are: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia.
Communication disorders : characterized by difficulties in the language area. The most important are: Disorder of speech expression, Disorder of speech, Stuttering.
Nutrition and eating disorders : characterized by abnormal and disturbed eating behavior. They include: Pica, Rumination Disorder, Childhood or Early Childhood Nutrition Disorder.
Disorders of evacuation : in which there is an evacuation of faeces or urine in inappropriate places (Encopresis, Enuresis).
Separation Anxiety Disorder : The child / adolescent experiences excessive anxiety for his age when he moves away from home or from people important to him.
Attention Deficit Disorder with or without hyperactivity : the child / adolescent is always very distracted. Such inattention prevents him from socializing conveniently and taking advantage of schooling. Sometimes in addition to being impulsive, the child / adolescent also tends to be excessively active and impulsive. This disorder is also known as ADHD (Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder).
Pervasive Developmental Disorders : All aspects of the child’s existence tend to be disturbed. The child’s ability to establish normal relationships with the outside world and with the people who inhabit it is severely compromised. The main disorders of this category are: Autism, Rett’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder.
Selective mutism : characterized by the inability to speak in certain social situations, although in other situations the child / adolescent is instead able to speak.
Mental retardation : characterized by below-average mental functioning. People with mental retardation often have numerous other difficulties, such as, for example, in taking care of themselves, in adapting to family life and in socializing in general.
Disorders usually first diagnosed in adulthood are:
Panic Attack Disorders : It is characterized by the occurrence of sudden attacks marked by a distressing feeling of imminent danger and accompanied by various symptoms. The most common are fainting and suffocation, tachycardia, chest pain, etc.
Depression : Also called melancholy, it is an alteration of the mood towards deep forms of sadness with reduced self-esteem and the need for self-punishment. When the intensity of depression exceeds certain limits or occurs in circumstances that do not justify it, it is necessary to consult a specialist. Symptoms of depression may relate to somatic and autonomic disorders ( insomnia, inappetence, decreased sexual desire, black bile ); disturbances of affect ( loss of interest in life, deep sadness, feelings of guilt and self-contempt ); abulia in behavior and inhibition of thought ( slow and monotonous thinking, poor ideation, painful recalling, difficult synthesis); suicidal tendency and death wish.
Sexual dysfunctions : Sexual activity in man is not only associated with the reproduction of the species but, as an activity to be carried out with the other, it must also be considered as an evolution of relational processes as well as physical and functional. There are stages of development and maturation processes of sexuality that can produce “normal” development, or forms of fixation or regression. Among these, perversions are distinguished from sexual dysfunctions. The first are deviations of the “normal” activity with respect to the sexual object (pedophilia, etc.), with respect to the body area, with respect to other conditions considered by the person as indispensable for obtaining pleasure such as fetishism, exhibitionism, sadomasochism, transvestism.
Psychosomatic Disorders : Psychosomatics deals with organic disorders which, not revealing an anatomical lesion or functional defect at the base, are traced back to a psychological origin.The psychotherapeutic approach to the pathology presented by the patient’s somatic symptom presupposes, both in the diagnosis and in the treatment, a unitary, syntonic and coherent vision of the history of suffering of the soma and the psyche.
Thanks to recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience, it has been confirmed that the psychosomatic patient can regain organic functionality and psychophysical well-being if he reviews his own way of perceiving, managing and communicating emotional stimuli. The latter play a decisive role in the presence of psychosomatic pathologies.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: It is an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, nagging and unpleasant, involuntary but irrepressible worries (obsessions) and by repeated and unstoppable behaviors, mostly aimed at reducing the anxiety generated by the thoughts themselves, which can take the form of real rituals that the person performs without being able to dominate his own will (compulsion). Among the most recurrent manifestations there are for example: the fear of dirt with repeated washing that can become mad; doubts about not having performed a certain action, which force endless repetitions and checks; exaggerated order concerns; fear of being able to harm others and themselves; fear of going crazy, etc. The absurdity, the anomaly and the shame push the person not to ask for help,
Generalized Anxiety Disorder : Anxiety disorders are the most common form of psychological distress: 25% of the population suffer from them. Anxiety represents a condition of general activation of the person’s physical and mental resources. Anxiety is physiological when it is contained within certain limits and produces a (positive) performance optimization effect; when limits are exceeded, anxiety is pathological and compromises the functional efficiency of the person. Generalized anxiety disorder is a disorder characterized by a state of persistent anxiety and apprehensive expectation that has lasted for more than six months. The person feels and appears tense, irritable, apprehensive, fearful, pessimistic, and worried about minor problems. Generalized anxiety also manifests itself with physical as well as mental symptoms: muscle tension, inability to relax, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, irritability, insomnia. Generalized anxiety tends to become chronic because the patient tends not to ask the specialist for help, not being prompted by an acute symptomatology that prompts him to recognize the pathological character of his feelings of chronic anxiety and tension.
Agoraphobia : It is the psychological and physical situation of the person who experiences anxiety being in places or situations from which it may be difficult to get away, or in which help may not be available in case of attack or panic symptoms. Anxiety leads to avoidance of a wide variety of situations which may include being at home or away from home alone; being in a crowd; traveling by bus or public transport; being in public places (theaters, restaurants, supermarkets) in open places (squares) or in closed places (lift).
This type of disorder can occur alone or as a manifestation associated with panic attacks. The feared situations are experienced in various ways but in any case with great discomfort and to the extent of avoiding going to work or coping with household chores.
Social Phobia : It is a form of pathological shyness that can make it difficult or even impossible to deal with social situations such as speaking, eating, writing in public, making calls, attending parties or job interviews. In these situations the person can develop a very intense and uncontrollable anxiety, absolutely not justified by the nature of the event. The disorder can be intrusive and make social relationships very difficult and affect the emotional and working life.
Specific Phobias : These are anxiety disorders characterized by unmotivated fears related to specific objects, situations, or activities. Generally there is an anticipatory anxiety, determined by the fear of being faced with the stimulus that triggers the phobia, and the avoidance behavior with which the person tries to decrease anxiety. Among the specific phobias reported by the DSM there are those related to the natural environment (storms, lightning), to animals (insects, dogs), to blood.
Personality Disorders : In psychiatric terms we speak of personality disorder when personality traits, which can be defined as constant ways of perceiving and relating to oneself and the environment, are rigid and non-adaptive and cause significant functional impairment or suffering subjective.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder : Occurs in individuals traumatized by having witnessed an event that resulted in the death of someone or the threat to life or physical integrity of themselves or others (for example, having survived a disaster plane, a plane crash, an earthquake, or being raped by an unknown assailant). Characteristic symptoms are intense fear, painful memories, fantasies, nightmares resulting from reliving the traumatic experience, hyperactivity and irritability, emotional anesthesia. In some cases, dissociative states occur that last from a few minutes to a few days during which the person relives the event.
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