Anxiety and Depression Flashcards
Can mental health be defined?
Mental health is hard to define as human behaviour is highly variable, both within and between individuals
What influences human emotions?
Biological and cultural factors can influence human emotions and how they’re interpreted.
What is the DSM-5?
A group of mental health conditions that tries to describe a range of signs and symptoms to help diagnose.
What types of conditions are included in the DSM-5?
Anxiety Disorders, Major depressive disorder/Depression, Bipolar Disorder.
What is true about the neurological basis of these conditions?
It is incompletely understood and often inferred by understanding the mechanism of action of useful drug therapies.
Define anxiety disorder.
An inappropriate, or excessive, anticipatory manifestation of the fear response, often to a stressor.
What is the difference between a normal fear response and that in an anxiety disorder?
In an anxiety disorder, the fear response is anticipatory and can occur without the stressor actually being present.
“For understanding: The response is to the stressor but the stressor is not present.”
What may you expect in a fear response in an anxiety disorder?
Defensive behaviours, autonomic reflexes, corticosteroid secretions, and negative emotions.
What are the types of anxiety disorders?
Multiple types exist, including General anxiety disorder, Phobic anxiety, and Panic Disorder.
How do we move from normal to pathological anxiety?
Understanding normal anxiety and brain involvement is crucial, particularly the role of the hypothalamus.
What is the relationship of the hypothalamus to stress?
The hypothalamus is involved in the neuroendocrine response to stress via the HPA axis.
Describe the normal response to a stressor.
Activation of the Paraventricular nucleus in the hypothalamus leads to cortisol production, which negatively feedbacks to reduce its own production.
Describe the anxiety disorder response to a stressor.
The system can be activated without the presence of an external stressor, leading to increased cortisol and impaired negative feedback.
What triggers the hypothalamus in anxiety disorders?
Structures in the limbic system, such as the neocortex, amygdala, and hippocampus, can activate the hypothalamus in the absence of a stressor.
What are different methods to treat anxiety disorders?
Self-help, psychological methods (e.g., CBT), and pharmacological treatments.
What links the different methods of treating anxiety disorders?
Positive intervention across these methods often reverses the neuroplastic process that led to the anxiety disorder.
What are anxiolytic drugs?
Drugs used for pharmacological treatment of anxiety disorders.
What factors decide which drug to give for anxiety?
The nature of the predominant systems and the duration of treatment needed.
What are the three types of anxiolytic drugs?
B-adrenoreceptor antagonists (beta blockers), benzodiazepines, and monoaminergic drugs.
What are B-adrenoreceptor antagonists used for?
They reduce somatic symptoms due to elevated adrenaline and are used for situation phobias.
What drugs are often used in the short term for anxiety?
Benzodiazepines such as diazepam and nitrazepam, which have anxiolytic and hypnotic effects.
What is the mechanism of action of benzodiazepines?
They enhance GABAergic transmission by binding to an allosteric site on the GABA A receptor.
Where in the brain do benzodiazepines act?
Critical areas of the limbic system, such as the pre-frontal cortex and amygdala.
What are the side effects of benzodiazepines?
Sedation and acute overdose, which can lead to profound sedation and respiratory depression when combined with alcohol.
