List of Mental Health Disorders by Category

List of Mental Health Disorders by Category

This is a list of the current categories of mental health disorders and the primary diagnoses of each category.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders are characterized by mood shifts, fluctuations, or levels (high or low) that disrupt a person’s normal functioning.

• Major depressive disorder
• Bipolar disorder
• Cyclothymic disorder (fluctuating between depression and mild symptoms of mania)
• Dysthymia (chronic low level depression)

Anxiety Disorders

People’s whose daily lives become unmanageable owing to excessive worry and fear have an anxiety disorder.

• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Panic disorder
• Post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD
• Social anxiety disorder
• Phobias
• Agoraphobia

Cognitive Disorders

Cognitive disorders are caused by a disruption in normal brain functioning. The disruptions may be from aging, illness, or physical trauma.

• Dementia
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Delirium
• Amnesia

Dissociative Disorders

When normal aspects of a person’s consciousness are disrupted or out of awareness, a dissociation diagnosis is given. People can dissociate their identity, memories, and their emotional self.

• Dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder)
• Dissociative fugue (dissociation of memory and identity)
• Depersonalization disorder (feeling detached or outside oneself)

Impulse Control Disorders

Impulsive disorders are those involving the inability to control inappropriate or harmful actions

• Kleptomania (stealing)
• Trichotillomania (pulling out hair)
• Dermatillomania (picking at the skin)
• Pyromania (setting fires)
• Pathological gambling
• Intermittent explosive disorder (eruption of anger)

Eating Disorders

Being obsessed with weight, body image, and the use of disruptive and physically harmful patterns of eating are the general signs of eating disorders.

• Anorexia nervosa (not eating)
• Bulimia nervosa (eating and vomiting)
• Rumination disorder (regurgitating, re-chewing, and re-swallowing food)

Factitious Disorders

When someone pretends an illness, exaggerates symptoms of an illness, or causes physical harm to receive medical attention, they are diagnosed with a factitious disorder.

• Munchausen syndrome (faking or creating your own illness)
• Munchausen syndrome by proxy (faking or causing another person's illness)
• Ganser disorder (some professionals believe this is a dissociative disorder; it involves pretending to have symptoms of a mental illness)

Developmental Disorders

The developmental disorders are those determined during infancy, childhood, and adolescence.

• Mental retardation
• Communication disorders
• Learning disabilities
• Autism
• Conduct disorder
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD
• Oppositional defiant disorder

Mental Disorders Due to General Medical Condition

These disorders are triggered by an illness (often chronic) or by damage to the body.

• Depression due to diabetes
• Psychosis due to AIDS or epilepsy
• Intermittent explosive disorder due to brain damage