Anxiety and Depression Flashcards
What is Psychopathology Psychopathology is a term which refers to either the study of mental ill_____ or mental dis______ or the manifestation of be________ and exp_________ which may be indicative of mental illness or psychological imp________.
What is Psychopathology Psychopathology is a term which refers to either the study of mental illness or mental distress or the manifestation of behaviours and experiences which may be indicative of mental illness or psychological impairment.
What is psychological-good health? ‘A state of complete phy____, me____ and soc__ well-being and not merely the absence of di___ or in______.’ (WHO, 1946)
What is psychological-good health? ‘A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ (WHO, 1946)
What are the ‘biological’ nomothetic explanations?
Genetic and Neurochemical
What are the Cognitive nomothetic explanations?
Thought patterns
What are the learnt nomothetic explanations?
Reinforcements and experiences
Which qualities also have ideographic qualities
Approaches to research from cognitive and learnt theories
What is the ideographic approach?
The approach tends to include qualitative data, investigating individuals in a personal detailed way.
What is the nomothetic approach?
Psychologists who adopt this approach are mainly concerned with studying what we share with others (i.e. similarities between people.
Who assesses mental illness
Technically only a medical doctor (usually a psychiatrist can make an actual diagnosis).
Who is the DSM-5 intended for
It can be used by mental health and other health professionals, including psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, occupational and rehabilitation therapists and counsellors.
What are the genetic risk factors for depression and anxiety?
While there is strong evidence for a family history of depression and anxiety. There is little evidence of a significant genetic risk.
Is there a causal relationship for disorders and genetic risk?
No, even disorder with high genetic risk is still not fully causal. e.g. Schizophrenia
Has a specific gene been found that is known to cause mental conditions?
No, there is no evidence for single or a small numbers of genes. Many genes influence each other.
What is the prevalence of depression during a lifetime?
Lifetime prevalence is 2.6%
By what percentage does having a parent or sibling with depression increase the risk of also getting depression?
Sibling or parent with depression, increases risk by 3, therefore 7.8
What is seen as various (debatable) causes of depression?
- Allergy
- Changes in digestive system
- Obesity
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Dental disease
- Poor sleep
- Poor diet
- Smoking
- Stress
- Low vitamin D
How can a person with a biological risk to depression offset the chances of getting the condition?
A hypothetical person with a bioloical risk but with good coping and support is likely to offset the risk.
Is depression purely a biological/genetic condition?
No, there are environmental causes of depression (e.g. separation poverty, stress) lead to lower levels of brain serotonin.
How does serotonin affect the chances of getting depression?
Depression may involve decreases in levels of brain serotonin, and can be helped by drugs increasing brain serotonin. Does this mean that depression is a biological/genetic condition?
What treatments are available to help treat depression?
Biological (drug) treatments and psychological therapies are equally effective at treating mild to moderate depression i.e. we can influence brain serotonin either directly (drugs) or indirectly (psychological therapies)
What is the link between serotonin and depression?
In theory, all anti-depressant increase 5HT availability in the brain, by increasing release or blocking reuptake. Getting direct evidence for drug-related changes in 5HT activity difficult to collect. However, tryptophan is an amino acid essential for 5HT production; lowering dietary tryptophan leads to depression relapse in SSRI-treated patients; may lead to depression in control.
What is the evidence of drug treatment in depression?
- Found to work very effectively
- Another issue is that many people do not respond to treatment.
- However, double-blind controlled studies sometimes show little or no advantage over placebo; mainly because of large placebo response in anxiety and depression.
- -Psychological factors underestimated in anxiety and depression
What are the criticism of drug treatments
- As much as 90% of effects may be placebo effects -Do not “cure” the disorder, they manage the symptoms but not all the symptoms. - Placebo effect -While they may manage/reduce the biological risk factors they cannot address all of them. - Do not increase/ improve protective factors - High relapse rate and aversive “discontinuation syndrome” when clients stop taking drugs.
What other problems are connected with anti-depressants
- There is much evidence that antidepressant medications are not benign treatments - Many antidepressants are cardiotoxic, have dangerous side effects, and are often used in suicide attempts. - They also result in: relatively poorer compliance than psychotherapy, have a higher drop-out rate, result in as much as a 60% non response rate with some patient populations.
Why are there variations in the prescription of anti-depressants?
- Drugs only recommneded for severe depression - but given to people with mild/moderate depression - Mild/Moderate group would be better treated by psychological treatments.
What are other bio-social factors?
Links to depression - low levels of vitamin B and high levels of homocysteine - low levels of omega 3 fatty acid - high in-take of refined sugar - Vitamin D and mood - a range of diet and lifestyle factors has a dramatic impact on depressive disorders.
