Classical Adlerian psychology makes a distinction between primary and secondary inferiority feelings.

- A primary inferiority feeling is said to be rooted in the young child's original experience of weakness, helplessness and dependency. It can then be intensified by comparisons to siblings, romantic partners, and adults.

- A secondary inferiority feeling relates to an adult's experience of being unable to reach a subconscious, reassuring fictional final goal of subjective security and success to compensate for the inferiority feelings. The perceived distance from that reassuring goal would lead to a negative/depressed feeling that could then prompt the recall of the original inferiority feeling; this composite of inferiority feelings could be experienced as overwhelming. The reassuring goal invented to relieve the original, primary feeling of inferiority which actually causes the secondary feeling of inferiority is the "catch-22" of this dilemma, where the desperate attempt to obtain therapeutic reassurance and delivery from a depressing feeling of inferiority and worthlessness repeatedly fails. This vicious cycle is common in neurotic lifestyles.

An inferiority complex occurs when the feelings of inferiority are intensified in the individual through discouragement or failure. Those who are at risk for developing a complex include people who: show signs of low self-esteem or self-worth, have low socioeconomic status, or have a history of depression symptoms. Children reared in households where they were constantly criticized or did not live up to parents' expectations may also develop an inferiority complex. Many times there are warning signs to someone who may be more prone to developing an inferiority complex. For example, someone who is prone to attention and approval-seeking behaviors may be more susceptible.

According to Adler "Everyone (...) has a feeling of inferiority. But the feeling of inferiority is not a disease; it is rather a stimulant to healthy, normal striving and development. It becomes a pathological condition only when the sense of inadequacy overwhelms the individual and, far from stimulating him to useful activity, makes him depressed and incapable of development."

Socioeconomic status has also been looked at as a potential cause for personality disorders. There is a strong association with low parental/neighborhood socioeconomic status and personality disorder symptoms. In a recent study comparing parental socioeconomic status and a child's personality, it was seen that children who were from higher socioeconomic backgrounds were more altuistic, less risk seeking, and had overall higher IQs. These traits correlate with a low risk of developing personality disorders later on in life. In a study looking at female children who were detained for disciplinary actions found that psychological problems were most negatively associated with socioeconomic problems. Furthermore, social disorganization was found to be inversely correlated with personality disorder symptoms.

Child abuse and neglect consistently show up as risk factors to the development of personality disorders in adulthood. A study looked at retrospective reports of abuse of participants that had demonstrated psychopathology throughout their life and were later found to have past experience with abuse. In a study of 793 mothers and children, researchers asked mothers if they had screamed at their children, and told them that they did not love them or threatened to send them away. Children who had experienced such verbal abuse were three times as likely as other children (who did not experience such verbal abuse) to have borderline, narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive or paranoid personality disorders in adulthood. The sexually abused group demonstrated the most consistently elevated patterns of psychopathology. Officially verified physical abuse showed an extremely strong correlation with the development of antisocial and impulsive behavior. On the other hand, cases of abuse of the neglectful type that created childhood pathology were found to be subject to partial remission in adulthood.

Causes of avoidant personality disorder are not clearly defined, but appear to be influenced by a combination of social, genetic, and psychological factors. The disorder may be related to temperamental factors that are inherited. Specifically, various anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence have been associated with a temperament characterized by behavioral inhibition, including features of being shy, fearful, and withdrawn in new situations. These inherited characteristics may give an individual a genetic predisposition towards avoidant personality disorder. Childhood emotional neglect and peer group rejection are both associated with an increased risk for the development of avoidant personality disorder. Some researchers believe that a combination of high sensory processing sensitivity coupled with adverse childhood experiences may heighten the risk of an individual developing AvPD.

Avoidant personality disorder is reported to be especially prevalent in people with anxiety disorders, although estimates of comorbidity vary widely due to differences in (among others) diagnostic instruments. Research suggests that approximately 10–50% of people who have panic disorder with agoraphobia have avoidant personality disorder, as well as about 20–40% of people who have social anxiety disorder. In addition to this, avoidant personality disorder is more prevalent in persons who have comorbid social anxiety disorder and generalised anxiety disorder than in those who have only one of the aforementioned conditions.

Some studies report prevalence rates of up to 45% among people with generalized anxiety disorder and up to 56% of those with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder is also commonly comorbid with avoidant personality disorder.

Avoidants are prone to self-loathing and, in certain cases, self-harm. In particular, avoidants who have comorbid PTSD have the highest rates of engagement in self-harming behavior, outweighing even those with borderline personality disorder (with or without PTSD). Substance use disorders are also common in individuals with AvPD—particularly in regards to alcohol, benzodiazepines and heroin—and may significantly affect a patient's prognosis.

Earlier theorists proposed a personality disorder with a combination of features from borderline personality disorder and avoidant personality disorder, called "avoidant-borderline mixed personality" (AvPD/BPD).

Attraction to disability or devotism is a sexualised interest in the appearance, sensation and experience of disability. It may extend from normal human sexuality into a type of sexual fetishism. Sexologically, the pathological end of the attraction tends to be classified as a paraphilia. (Note, however, that the very concept "paraphilia" continues to elude satisfactory definition and remains a subject of ongoing debate in both professional and lay communities) Other researchers have approached it as a form of identity disorder. The most common interests are towards amputations, prosthesis, and crutches.

“Mongrel complex" ("Complexo de vira-Lata" in Portuguese) is an expression used to refer to a collective inferiority complex felt by some Brazilian people in comparison to Europe or the United States. The reference to a "mongrel" (as opposed to "pure-bred") carries negative connotations attributed to most Brazilians being racially mixed as well as a perception of lacking cultural refinement.

Until the 1990s, it tended to be described mostly as acrotomophilia, at the expense of other disabilities, or of the wish by some to pretend or acquire disability. Bruno (1997) systematised the attraction as factitious disability disorder. A decade on, others argue that erotic target location error is at play, classifying the attraction as an identity disorder. In the standard psychiatric reference "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", text revision (DSM-IV-tr), the fetish falls under the general category of "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders" and the more specific category of paraphilia, or sexual fetishes; this classification is preserved in DSM-5.

Prevalence estimates for muscle dysmorphia have greatly varied, ranging from 1% to 54% of men. Samples of gym members, weightlifters, and bodybuilders show higher prevalence than do samples from the general population. Rates even higher have been found in users of anabolic steroids. The disorder is rare in women but does occur, especially in sexual-assault victims. Crossing cultures, muscle dysmorphia is known to occur in China, South Africa, and Latin America. Yet this may be mediated substantially by exposure to Western ideals of muscularity, as populations less exposed tend to have lower prevalence.

Although muscle dysmorphia's development is unclear, several risk factors have been identified.

- Trauma and bullying: Versus the general population, persons manifesting muscle dysmorphia are more likely to have experienced or observed traumatic events like sexual assault or domestic violence, or to have sustained adolescent bullying and ridicule for perceived deficiencies such as smallness, weakness, poor athleticism, or intellectual inferiority. The perceived need for increased body mass may seem to reduce the threat of further trauma or harassment.

- Psychological traits: Low self-esteem associates with higher levels of body dissatisfaction and of muscle dysmorphia. Body-size or muscular preoccupations may also reflect insecurity about sexual abilities, whereas muscularity is a male secondary sex characteristic suggesting virility and the prowess to protect partners and offspring.

- Media exposure: Western media often emphasized physical attractiveness, and some marketing campaigns exploit male body-image insecurities. Over the past 20 years, the number of men's-fitness magazines and of partially-undressed, well-muscled men in advertisements have increased. Such media provoke bodily comparisons and pressure individuals to conform, yet increase the gap between men's perceptions of their own muscularity versus their desired muscularity. In college-aged men, a strong predictor of a muscularity quest is internalization of the idealized male bodies depicted in media.

- Athletic involvement: Athletes tend to share some psychological factors that may predispose to muscle dysmorphia, factors including high levels of competitiveness, need for control, and perfectionism. And athletes tend to be more critical of their own bodies and body weight. Athletes who also fail to achieve performance standards may resort to the extreme body-modifying measures of muscle dysmorphia. Involvement in sports such as American football and wrestling, where size, strength, and weight raise competitive advantages or lessen disadvantage, is associated with muscle dysmorphia. Athletic ideals reinforce the social ideal of muscularity. Conversely, those already disposed to muscle dysmorphia may be more likely to participate in such sports.

Don Juanism or Don Juan syndrome is a non-clinical term for the desire, in a man, to have sex with many different female partners.

The name derives from the Don Juan of opera and fiction. The term satyriasis is sometimes used as a synonym for Don Juanism. The term has also been referred to as the male equivalent of nymphomania in women. These terms no longer apply with any accuracy as psychological or legal categories of psychological disorder.

It was originally coined by novelist and writer Nelson Rodrigues, in which originally he referred to the trauma suffered by Brazilians in 1950, when the National Soccer team was defeated by the Uruguayan national team in the final match of the Soccer World Cup in Maracanã. Brazil would just recover in 1958, when it won the World Cup for the first time.

For Rodrigues, the phenomenon was not exclusive related to soccer. According to him:

The expression "mongrel complex" was rediscovered in 2004 by the American journalist Larry Rohter, in an article for "The New York Times" about the Brazilian nuclear program, he wrote:

A number of the effects that had been thought after early studies to be attributable to prenatal exposure to cocaine are actually due partially or wholly to other factors, such as exposure to other substances (including tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana) or to the environment in which the child is raised.

PCE is very difficult to study because of a variety of factors that may confound the results: pre- and postnatal care may be poor; the pregnant mother and child may be malnourished; the amount of cocaine a mother takes can vary; she may take a variety of drugs during pregnancy in addition to cocaine; measurements for detecting deficits may not be sensitive enough; and results that are found may only last a short time. Studies differ in how they define heavy or light cocaine use during pregnancy, and the time period of exposure during pregnancy on which they focus (e.g. first, second, or third trimester. Drug use by mothers puts children at high risk for exposure to toxic or otherwise dangerous environments, and PCE does not present much risk beyond these risk factors. PCE is clustered with other risk factors to the child, such as physical abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and prenatal exposure to other substances. Such environmental factors are known to adversely affect children in the same areas being studied with respect to PCE.

Most women who use cocaine while pregnant use other drugs too; one study found that 93% of those who use cocaine or opiates also use tobacco, marijuana, or alcohol. When researchers control for use of other drugs, many of the seeming effects of cocaine on head size, birth weight, Apgar scores, and prematurity disappear.

Addiction to any substance, including crack, may be a risk factor for child abuse or neglect. Crack addiction, like other addictions, distracts parents from the child and leads to inattentive parenting. Mothers who continue to use drugs once their babies are born have trouble forming the normal parental bonds, more often interacting with their babies with a detached, unenthusiastic, flat demeanor. Conversely, low-stress environments and responsive caregiving may provide a protective effect on the child's brain, potentially compensating for negative effects of PCE.

Many drug users do not get prenatal care, for a variety of reasons including that they may not know they are pregnant. Many crack addicts get no medical care at all and have extremely poor diets, and children who live around crack smoking are at risk of inhaling secondary smoke. Cocaine using mothers also have a higher rate of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

In some cases, it is not clear whether direct results of PCE lead to behavioral problems, or whether environmental factors are at fault. For example, children who have caregiver instability may have more behavioral problems as a result, or it may be that behavioral problems manifested by PCE children lead to greater turnover in caregivers. Other factors that make studying PCE difficult include unwillingness of mothers to tell the truth about drug history, uncertainty of dosages of street drugs and high rates of attrition (loss of participants) from studies.

Studies have found after controlling for other factors that some effects are present in pregnancies involving cocaine: abruptio placenta, prematurity, low birth weight, and small size compared to babies of the same gestational time. PCE newborns have smaller heads and shorter bodies. PCE effects are more severe when the amounts of cocaine are greater. As many as 17–27% of cocaine-using pregnant women deliver prematurely. In association with prematurity, growth in the womb is reduced, and low birth weight is connected to PCE. There are also data showing that spontaneous abortion is associated with cocaine use. Cocaine reduces the appetite and has been linked with reduced maternal weight gain during pregnancy; in addition, constriction of the blood vessels may further limit supply of nutrients to the fetus. Using cocaine while pregnant also heightens the chances of maternal and fetal vitamin deficiencies,

respiratory distress syndrome for the baby, and infarction of the bowels. Early reports found that cocaine-exposed babies were at high risk for sudden infant death syndrome; however, by itself, cocaine exposure during fetal development has not subsequently been identified as a risk factor for the syndrome. Some, but not all, PCE children experience hypertonia (excessive muscle tone), and reduced reflexes and motor function have been found in babies four to six weeks old.

While newborns who were exposed prenatally to drugs such as barbiturates or heroin frequently have symptoms of drug withdrawal (neonatal abstinence syndrome), this does not happen with babies exposed to crack "in utero"; at least, such symptoms are difficult to separate in the context of other factors such as prematurity or prenatal exposure to other drugs.

Psychiatrist Carl Jung believed that Don Juanism was an unconscious desire of a man to seek his mother in every woman he encountered. However, he didn't see the trait as entirely negative; Jung felt that positive aspects of Don Juanism included heroism, perseverance and strength of will.

Jung argues that related to the mother-complex "are homosexuality and Don Juanism, and sometimes also impotence. In homosexuality, the son's entire heterosexuality is tied to the mother in an unconscious form; in Don Juanism, he unconsciously seeks his mother in every woman he meets...Because of the difference in sex, a son's mother-complex does not appear in pure form. This is the reason why in every masculine mother-complex, side by side with the mother archetype, a significant role is played by the image of the man's sexual counterpart, the anima."

One of Theodore Millon's five narcissist variations is the amorous narcissist which includes histrionic features. According to Millon, the Don Juan or Casanova of our times is erotic and exhibitionistic.

In chiropractic, vertebral subluxation is a purported misalignment of the spinal column, not necessarily visible on X-rays, leading to a set of signs and symptoms sometimes termed vertebral subluxation complex. It has no biomedical basis, lacks clinical meaningfulness, and is categorized as pseudoscientific by leading chiropractic authorities. Traditionally, the "specific focus of chiropractic practice" is the chiropractic subluxation and historical chiropractic practice assumes that a vertebral subluxation or spinal joint dysfunction interferes with the body's function and its innate intelligence, as promulgated by D. D. Palmer, the inventor of chiropractic.

The chiropractic subluxation is the heart of the split between "straight" and "mixer" chiropractors. Straight chiropractors continue to follow Palmer's vitalistic tradition, claiming that subluxation has considerable health effects and also adding a visceral component to the definition, while mixers, as exemplified by the United Kingdom's General Chiropractic Council, consider it a historical concept with no evidence identifying it as the cause of disease.

Within the chiropractic tradition, a vertebral subluxation complex is believed to be a dysfunctional biomechanical spinal segment which actively alters neurological function, which in turn, is believed to lead to neuromusculoskeletal and visceral disorders. The WHO acknowledges this difference between the medical and chiropractic definitions of a subluxation: medical doctors only refer to "significant structural displacements" as subluxations, whereas chiropractors suggest that a dysfunctional segment, whether displaced significantly or not, should be referred to as a subluxation. This difference has been noted in the proceedings of the chiropractic profession's "Mercy Center Consensus Conference": "The chiropractic profession refers to this concept as a 'subluxation'. This use of the word "subluxation" should not be confused with the term's precise anatomic usage, which considers only the anatomical relationships."

The chiropractic vertebral subluxation complex has been a source of controversy since its inception in 1895 due to the lack of empirical evidence for its existence, its metaphysical origins, and claims of its far reaching effects on health and disease. Although some chiropractic associations and colleges support the concept of subluxation, many in the chiropractic profession reject it and shun the use of this term as a diagnosis. In the United States and in Canada the term "nonallopathic lesion" may be used in place of "subluxation".

A 2009 review concluded that epidemiologic evidence does not support the chiropractic subluxation, concluding:

In 2015, internationally accredited chiropractic colleges from Bournemouth University, University of South Wales, University of Southern Denmark, University of Zürich, Institut Franco-Européen de Chiropraxie, and University of Johannesburg made an open statement which included: "The teaching of the vertebral subluxation complex as a vitalistic construct that claims that it is the cause of disease is unsupported by evidence. Its inclusion in a modern chiropractic curriculum in anything other than an historic context is therefore inappropriate and unnecessary".

, one of the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan, occurred in the city of Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture, Japan, between 1960 and 1972. The burning of petroleum and crude oil released large quantities of sulfur oxide that caused severe smog, resulting in severe cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and bronchial asthma among the local inhabitants. The generally accepted sources of the sulfur oxide pollution were petrochemical processing facilities and refineries that were built in the area between 1957 and 1973.

The reported incidence of constriction ring syndrome varies from 1/1200 and 1/15000 live births. The prevalence is equally in male and female.

Fetomaternal factors like prematurity, maternal illnes, low birth weight and maternal drug exposure are predisposing factors for the constriction ring syndrome.

No positive relationship between CRS and genetic inheritance has been reported.

This is a rare disease with prevalence about 1 in 200,000 to 1 in 600,000. Studies showed that mutations in "CUBN" or "AMN" clustered particularly in the Scandinavian countries and the Eastern Mediterranean regions. Founder effect, higher clinical awareness to IGS, and

frequent consanguineous marriages all play a role in the higher prevalence of IGS among these populations

It has been proposed that a vertebral subluxation can negatively affect general health by altering the neurological communication between the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system. Although individuals may not always be symptomatic, straight chiropractors believe that the presence of vertebral subluxation is in itself justification for correction via spinal adjustment.

Chiropractic treatment of vertebral subluxation focuses on delivering a chiropractic adjustment which is a high velocity low amplitude (HVLA) thrust to the dysfunctional spinal segments to help correct the chiropractic subluxation complex. Spinal adjustment is the primary procedure used by chiropractors in the adjustment. Adjustment/manipulation has been shown to help with low back pain, neck pain and tension type headaches, but further studies are inconclusive on the use of spinal manipulation outside the treatment of neuromusculoskeletal disorders.

In 1955, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry began its policy to transition Japan's primary fossil fuel source from coal to petroleum. To accomplish that goal, construction of the Daichi Petrochemical Complex was begun in 1956. The complex contained an oil refinery, a petrochemical plant, and a power station. This was the first petrochemical complex constructed in Japan.

In 1960, the government of Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda accelerated the growth of petrochemical production as part of its goal to double individual incomes of Japanese citizens over a 10-year period. Also in 1960, MITI announced that a second complex was to be constructed on reclaimed land in northern Yokkaichi. The second complex went online in 1963. As demand for ethylene and other petrochemicals rose, a third complex was constructed which began production in 1972. Yokkaichi transferred its energy production from coal to oil more quickly than the rest of the nation. The oil used in Yokkaichi was primarily imported from the Middle East, which contained 2% sulfur in sulfur containing compounds, resulting in a white-colored smog developing over the city.

AIDS-related complex, or ARC, was introduced after discovery of the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) when the medical community became aware of the inherent difficulties associated with treating patients suffering from an advanced case of HIV which gave rise to the term Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The necessity for doctors to quickly and accurately understand the special needs of unknown patients suffering from AIDS in an emergency room situation was addressed with the creation of the term ARC.

ARC is "A prodromal phase of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Laboratory criteria separating AIDS-related complex ( ARC) from AIDS include elevated or hyperactive B-cell humoral immune responses, compared to depressed or normal antibody reactivity in AIDS; follicular or mixed hyperplasia in ARC lymph nodes, leading to lymphocyte degeneration and depletion more typical of AIDS; evolving succession of histopathological lesions such as localization of Kaposi's sarcoma, signaling the transition to the full-blown AIDS."

Clinical use of this term was widely discontinued by the year 2000 in the United States after having been replaced by modern laboratory criteria.

Since the essential pathology is due to the inability to absorb vitamin B from the bowels, the solution is therefore injection of IV vitamin B. Timing is essential, as some of the side effects of vitamin B deficiency are reversible (such as RBC indices, peripheral RBC smear findings such as hypersegmented neutrophils, or even high levels of methylmalonyl CoA), but some side effects are irreversible as they are of a neurological source (such as tabes dorsalis, and peripheral neuropathy). High suspicion should be exercised when a neonate, or a pediatric patient presents with anemia, proteinuria, sufficient vitamin B dietary intake, and no signs of pernicious anemia.

Ashman phenomenon, also known as Ashman beats, describes a particular type of wide QRS complex, often seen isolated that is typically seen in atrial fibrillation. It is more often misinterpreted as a premature ventricular complex.

It is named for Richard Ashman (of New Orleans) (1890 –1969), after first being described by Gouaux and Ashman in 1947.