What is an example of a psychophysiological disorder?
Some psychophysiological problems include tension and migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, essential hypertension, jaw pain (TMJ), motor tics, general muscle tension, and pain and fibromyalgia.
Psychophysiological disorders are physical disorders with psychological overlays. Because the proportion of psychological overlay is always variable, these types of disorders can be challenging to treat in primary care settings—particularly with regard to the management of any associated pain symptoms.
Common types of psychophysiological disorders are: migraine headache, tension headache, peptic ulcer, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, and essential hypertension. These problems share a common etiological theory, which is often called the diathesis-stress model.
Psychophysiological assessment involves recording and quantifying various physiological responses in controlled conditions using electromechanical equipment (e.g., electromyography, electroencephalography, electrodermal activity, respiratory activity, electrocardiography).
Type of Psychophysiological Disorder | Examples |
---|---|
Cardiovascular | hypertension, coronary heart disease |
Gastrointestinal | irritable bowel syndrome |
Respiratory | asthma, allergy |
Musculoskeletal | low back pain, tension headaches |
- Pain such as headache, back pain, chest pain, muscle or joint pain and abdominal or pelvic pain.
- Constipation, diarrhea, bloating, nausea and irritable bowel syndrome.
- Discomfort in the bladder or during urination.
- Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome.
These traditional psychophysiological disorders include ulcers, asthma, insomnia, chronic headaches, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Recently many other psychophysiological disorders have been identified.
Psychological stress arises from a stressor placed on an individual that leads to both emotional and physiological responses. The latter is referred to as psychophysiological stress.
Psychophysiological treatments may include:
Relaxation and mindfulness-based training techniques. Mindfulness-based biofeedback (MBB) treatment.
Psychophysiology is one of the cornerstones of clinical health psychology and is of prime importance in understanding how psychological and social experience can influence health and disease.
What is psychophysiological research?
Psychophysiology is defined as any research in which the dependent variable (what the researcher measures) is a physiological measure, and the independent variable (what the researcher manipulates) is behavioral or mental. In most cases the work is done noninvasively with awake human participants.
Psychosomatic disorder is a psychological condition that leads to physical symptoms, often without any medical explanation. It can affect almost any part of the body. People with the disorder tend to seek frequent medical attention, becoming frustrated with no diagnosis.

A typical battery of tests includes projective tests to assess personality such as the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), an objective personality test such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), a semistructured test like the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Test, and an intelligence ...
Some of the most common psychophysiological measures capture peripheral activity including heart rate, electrodermal activity, and respiration. Many of these measures are used to determine sympathetic nervous system (SNS) or parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity resulting from physiological arousal.
How To Say Psychophysiology - YouTube
Psoriasis. Psoriasis is a great example of how your immune system, CNS, mental health, and stress levels are all intertwined. It's a chronic condition that causes your skin cells to grow too quickly. Your body usually sheds extra skin cells, but if you have psoriasis, these extra cells build up on your skin's surface.
However, psychological factors can be involved in migraine in 4 different ways:- 1) Migraines can be triggered by psychological stressors; 2) Severe migraine can itself be a cause of significant psychological stress which can, in turn, exacerbate the problem; 3) Even if psychological stress is not significantly ...
Indeed, stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Being able to recognize common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
These traditional psychophysiological disorders include ulcers, asthma, insomnia, chronic headaches, hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Recently many other psychophysiological disorders have been identified.
Psycho-physiological disorder is mainly caused by psychological and emotional rather than by physical and organic. In other words psychological problems are expressed through some physiological pathology. According to Alexender (1950) – each type of psychosomatic disorder may be connected with specific type of stress.
What is an example of psychoneuroimmunology?
Psoriasis. Psoriasis is a great example of how your immune system, CNS, mental health, and stress levels are all intertwined. It's a chronic condition that causes your skin cells to grow too quickly. Your body usually sheds extra skin cells, but if you have psoriasis, these extra cells build up on your skin's surface.
Psychophysiological treatments may include:
Relaxation and mindfulness-based training techniques. Mindfulness-based biofeedback (MBB) treatment.
- Anxiety disorders.
- Behavioural and emotional disorders in children.
- Bipolar affective disorder.
- Depression.
- Dissociation and dissociative disorders.
- Eating disorders.
- Obsessive compulsive disorder.
- Paranoia.
A medical professional determines a diagnosis by interviewing you about your history of symptoms. Sometimes a doctor will require a couple of medical tests to rule out possible physical ailments, but we cannot evaluate mental health itself through blood tests or other biometric data.
Psychosocial factors included social resources (social integration and emotional support), psychological resources (perceived control, self-esteem, sense of coherence, and trust), and psychological risk factors (cynicism, vital exhaustion, hopelessness, and depressiveness).
Psychological stress arises from a stressor placed on an individual that leads to both emotional and physiological responses. The latter is referred to as psychophysiological stress.
Psychophysiologic reactivity refers to cardiovascular and biological responses to situations that are perceived as stressful, threatening, and/or physically harmful. Reactivity is defined as the response with respect to resting values.
Psychophysiology is one of the cornerstones of clinical health psychology and is of prime importance in understanding how psychological and social experience can influence health and disease.
Can depression cause heart disease or heart attack? When you experience depression, anxiety or stress your heart rate and blood pressure rise, there's reduced blood flow to the heart and your body produces higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Over time, these effects can lead to heart disease.
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a discipline that has evolved in the last 40 years to study the relationship between immunity, the endocrine system, and the central and peripheral nervous systems.
What is the gas syndrome?
General adaptation syndrome (GAS) describes the process your body goes through when you are exposed to any kind of stress, positive or negative. It has three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. If you do not resolve the stress that has triggered GAS, it can lead to physical and mental health problems.