Psychiatric Advance Directives

Domestic violence, which encompasses intimate partner violence,* refers to physical, sexual or psychological harm done to an individual by a current or former partner or spouse. Domestic violence is associated with a range of physical and mental health effects. Domestic violence can affect anyone and is, unfortunately, common. More than one in three women, and one in four men, have experienced physical violence, rape or stalking victimization by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Domestic violence accounts for about 20% of all violent crimes. More than half of transgender and nonbinary people (54%) have experience from some type of intimate partner violence in their lives.

The use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, involves using electronic cigarettes to inhale vapor created from a liquid heated inside a device. The devices use batteries to power heating elements that create the vapor that is inhaled by the user. E-cigarettes take different forms: some look like regular cigarettes or pipes and some look like pens, flash drives and other everyday items.

Perinatal depression refers to depression occurring during pregnancy or after childbirth. The use of the term perinatal recognizes that depression associated with having a baby often begins during pregnancy. (Postpartum depression refers to depression experienced after childbirth.) Perinatal depression is a serious, but treatable medical illness involving feelings of extreme sadness, indifference and/or anxiety, as well as changes in energy, sleep, and appetite. It carries risks for the mother and child. An estimated one in seven women experiences perinatal depression.

Personality refers to an individual’s pattern of behavior and traits that are long-standing and present since adolescence or early adulthood. Aspects of personality include the way people tend to think about themselves, how they relate to people, how they interpret and deal with events in the environment, and how they react emotionally to all of this. Of course, everyone has a bad day and behaves in an uncharacteristic way at times. However, when long-standing patterns of thinking, behaving, and emotional response are rigid, inflexible, and cause significant distress or impairment in functioning then a personality disorder is diagnosed.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or series of traumatic events. The individual often experience the event or events as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening. Examples include, but are not limited to, abuse (physical, sexual, emotional), natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat exposure, intimate partner violence, and medical illness. However, most individuals who experience traumas do not go on to develop PTSD.

Grief is a natural response to the loss of a loved one. For most people, the symptoms of grief begin to decrease over time. However, for a small group of people, the feeling of intense grief persists, and the symptoms are severe enough to cause problems and stop them from continuing with their lives. Prolonged grief disorder is characterized by this intense and persistent grief that causes problems and interferes with daily life.