Cross Examining Psych Doctors - Tip #41-Causation of Mental Disorders

In order to more effectively deal with medical-legal psych cases it is important to understand the cause of pathology.  In the most general sense, there are four sets of circumstances that can produce mental disorders or psychological injuries.  First, biological factors are known to produce some disorders.  A second set of mental disorders is produced as a result of a physical injury.  The third type of injury is what has sometimes been called a “pure stress injury.”  This is the type of injury where some aversive psychological circumstances in the person’s environment have produced a DSM-IV-TR psychological disorder.  And, of course, there is a fourth set of circumstances, which is simply a combination of the first three factors.  

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