16 Schizophrenia And The Affective Disorders Flashcards
Positive symptom
Symptom of schizophrenia evident by its presence: delusions, hallucinations, or font disorders.
Schizophrenia
Serious mental disorder characterized by disordered thoughts, delusions, hallucinations, and often bizarre behaviors.
Thought disorder
Disorganized, irrational thinking.
Delusion
Belief that is clearly in contradiction to reality.
Hallucination
Perception of a nonexistent object or event.
Negative symptom
Symptom of schizophrenia characterized by the absence of behaviors that are normally present: social withdrawal, lack of affect, and reduced motivation.
Cognitive symptom
Symptom of schizophrenia that involves cognitive deficits, such as difficulty in sustaining attention, deficits in learning and memory, poor abstract thinking, and poor problem-solving.
Chlorpromazine
Dopamine receptor blocker; a first generation antipsychotic drug.
Tardive dyskinesia
Movement disorder that can occur after prolonged treatment with antipsychotic medication, characterized by involuntary movements of the face and neck.
Supersensitivity
Increased sensitivity of neurotransmitter receptors; caused by damage to the afferent axons or long-term blockage of neurotransmitter release.
Clozapine
Atypical antipsychotic drugs; the blocks D4 receptors in the nucleus accumbens.
Epidemiology
Study of the distribution and causes of diseases and populations.
Seasonality effect
Increased incidence of schizophrenia in people born during late winter and early spring.
Hypofrotality
Decreased activity of the prefrontal cortex; believed to be responsible for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Partial agonist
Drug that has a very high affinity for a particular receptor but activates that receptor less than the normal ligand does; serves as an agonists and regions of low concentration of the normal ligand and as an antagonist in regions of high concentrations.
Bipolar disorder
Serious mood disorder characterized by cyclical periods of mania and depression.
Major depressive disorder (MDD)
Serious mood disorder that consist of unremitting depression or periods of depression that do not alternate with periods of mania.
Tricyclic antidepressant
Class of drugs used to treat depression; inhibits the reuptake of norepinephrine enough and serotonin but also affects other neurotransmitters; named for the molecular structure.
Specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)
Antidepressant drug that specifically inhibits the reuptake of serotonin without affecting the reuptake of other neurotransmitters.
Norepinephrine and serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SNRI)
Antidepressant drug that specifically inhibits the reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin without affecting the reuptake of other neurotransmitters.
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Brief electrical shock applied to the head, that results in an electrical seizure; used therapeutically to alleviate severe depression.
Treatment-resistant depression
Major depressive disorder symptoms are not relieved after trials of several different treatments.
Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (subgenual ACC)
Region of the medial prefrontal cortex located below the knee at the front of the corpus callosum; plays a role in the symptoms of depression.
Lithium
Chemical elements; lithium carbonate is used to treat bipolar disorder.
Monoamine hypothesis
Hypothesis that states that depression is caused by a low level of activity of one or more monoaminergic synapses.
Tryptophan depletion procedure
Procedure involving a low tryptophan diet and a tryptophan-free amino acid cocktail that lowers brain tryptophan and consequently decreases the synthesis of 5-HT.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Mood disorder characterized by depression, lethargy, sleep disturbances, and craving for carbohydrates during the winter season when days are short.
Phototherapy
Treatment of seasonal affective disorder by daily exposure to bright light.
