biological treatment for depression

Question 1

state the 4 drug treatment inhibitors/antidepressants involved with unipolar depression

Answer 1

• monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI’s)
• selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI’s)
• serotonin noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitors (SNRI’s)
• noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressants (NaSSA’s)

Question 2

monoamine oxidase inhibitors are the oldest antidepressants.. what do they do?

Answer 2

MAOI’S inhibit activity of monoamine oxidase enzyme so serotonin is not broken down in synapse so lifts mood for longer

Question 3

how was MAOI found?

Answer 3

discovered by accident when researchers noticed anti TB drug had side effect of improving mood of people w TB

Question 4

explain what SSRI’s are

Answer 4

Presynaptic neurone usually re-uptakes serotonin through serotonin receptors… SO SSRI’s block serotonin transporter, so serotonin can’t be recycled and remains in synapse for further use = prolongs antidepressant effects of serotonin through repeated binding w receptors on postsyn.

Question 5

why are SSRI’s better than MAOI’s?

Answer 5

are much less dangerous in overdose

Question 6

explain the function of SNRI’s?

Answer 6

work exactly the same as SSRI’s but target both noradrenaline and serotonin, inhibiting the uptake of both neurotransmitters

Question 7

side effects of SSRI’S/SNRI’S…

Answer 7

sexual dysfunction (lol)

Question 8

function of NaSSAs

Answer 8

• they inhibit re-uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline (like SNRIs)
• but also antagonists of serotonin and noradrenaline receptors by blocking them.
• NaSSAs block other serotonin receptors which increases conc. of serotonin in a specific receptor implicated w depression.

Question 9

give 3 strengths of biological treatment of depression

Answer 9

• cipriani et al used double blind technique and found drugs worked better for depression than placebo
• ethical benefit: as depression awareness increases as a medical disorder it could remove stigmatisation, encouraging more to seek treatment w/ out fear of blame
• knowing side effects linked to drugs helps manage them. Issues can be controlled by monitoring individuals diet = managing these effects increase credibility and acceptability of the treatment so ppl are more likely to continue with it

Question 10

explain 2 weaknesses of biological treatment of depression

Answer 10

• benefits of drugs are limited and not long term
• most effective drugs were also the ones with the worst compliance rate (ie. ppl were more likely to stop taking them) = antidepressants affected by individual differences and not equally useful