University Assignment: Natural History of Psychopathology

This assignment delves into the natural history of psychopathology, examining three key aspects: onset, course, and outcome. Onset is defined as the point when symptoms are recognized, differentiating between etiologic and pathologic processes. The course encompasses remission and recurrence, illustrating the ebb and flow of psychopathology. The outcome stage is determined by mortality, functioning, and comorbidity. Research findings indicate that females experience higher rates of recurrence in depressive disorders, and minority groups such as Black and Hispanic populations show higher rates of depression and anxiety. Native Americans exhibit elevated rates of mental disorders across all three phases of psychopathology. The assignment references several studies to support these findings, highlighting the impact of various factors on mental health.

Running head: PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
The natural history of psychopathology is the concept in which psychopathological signs
and symptoms flows in a specific population. The symptoms those are present before onset,
consequences that occur in the course and the outcomes that occur after the remission determines
the natural history of psychopathology (Basham et al., 2016).
The onset of the psychopathology is the concept that helps to distinguish between
etiologic and pathologic process. Through researches it has been observed that onset occurs
when the pathologic process begins (MacBeth & Gumley, 2012). Whereas, in the course section,
remission and recurrence occurs that helps to understand the ebb and flow of the
psychopathology and determines the point at which onset stops however, recurrence is the phase,
when the symptoms again appears. On the other hand, the course of outcome determined by
three stages that are mortality, functioning and co morbidity (Morgan et al., 2014). There are
several researches that has been carried out to understand the three concepts of psychopathology
namely for onset, acute vs. insidious, for course stable vs. episodic, and for outcome good vs.
bad. In a research conducted by Basham et al. (2016), it was seen that prevalence of recurrence
seen in females more than their male counterparts and they suffered from recurrence of
depressive disorders and stress. Further in a research conducted by Burnett-Zeigler, Bohnert and
Ilgen (2013) it was seen that minority groups of the research such as blacks and Hispanics, had
higher rate depression and anxiety recurrence than the white population and in the course it was
also seen that the Native Americans had higher rates of mental disorder and showed all three
phases of psychopathology. Therefore, these are the findings of the researches conducted for the
three key aspects of the natural history of psychopathology.

2PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
References
Basham, K., Byers, D. S., Heller, N. R., Hertz, M., Kumaria, S., Mattei, L., ... & Shilkret, C. J.
(2016). Inside out and outside in: Psychodynamic clinical theory and psychopathology in
contemporary multicultural contexts. Rowman & Littlefield.
Burnett-Zeigler, I., Bohnert, K. M., & Ilgen, M. A. (2013). Ethnic identity, acculturation and the
prevalence of lifetime psychiatric disorders among Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults in
the US. Journal of psychiatric research, 47(1), 56-63.
MacBeth, A., & Gumley, A. (2012). Exploring compassion: A meta-analysis of the association
between self-compassion and psychopathology. Clinical psychology review, 32(6), 545-
552.
Morgan, C., Lappin, J., Heslin, M., Donoghue, K., Lomas, B., Reininghaus, U., ... & Fearon, P.
(2014). Reappraising the long-term course and outcome of psychotic disorders: the
AESOP-10 study. Psychological medicine, 44(13), 2713-2726.