Brain disease 2 Flashcards
Pathology of alzheimers?
- Profound loss of neurons
- B-amyloid aggregation (plaques)
- Neurofibrillay tangles
What causes an intracerebral haemotoma?
Damage of a blood vessel within the brain
What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
Additional to normal state
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disordered thought and speech
What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Absent from the normal state
- Alogia (illiogial thought)
- Anhedonia (not seeking pleasure)
- Asociality (unsociable)
- Avolition (don’t want to do things)
Symptoms of alzheimers?
- Short-term memory loss
Progressive:
- Apathy (lack of interest/ enthusiasm)
- Confusion
- Mood swings
- Long-term memory loss
- Withdrawal
- Loss of control of bodily functions
Risk factors of a stoke?
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- High fat diet
- Physical inactivity
- Drugs/ alcohol
- Smoking
Developmental causes of schizophrenia?
Poor diet
Asphyxia (deprivation of oxygen)
What is an ischaemic stroke caused by?
- Embolus - wandering clot
- Thrombus - locally formed clot
- Heart attack
- Venous thrombosis
2 types of epilepsy?
1) Partial/focal - initially only affect one hemisphere
2) Generalised - affects the whole or large areas of the brain
Social causes of schizophrenia?
- Environment, stressful relationships
Drug abuse:
Cannabis
Cocaine
Heroin
Pathology of depression?
- Reduced hippocampal volume
- Vascular lesions
- Reduces brain-derives neurotrophic factor (BDNF) - helps to support suvival of neurons
What causes a subarachnoid haemotoma?
Damage (eg. aneurysm) to a cerebral artery or vein - bleeding into the subarachnoid space
What is a transient ischemic attack?
A syndrome of STROKE-LIKE symptoms which resolves within 24 hours
What is a stroke?
- Neurological deficit of cerebrovascular cause that persists beyond 24 hours or is interrupted by death
What are the effects of a stroke?
- Brain function ceases 60-90 seconds after event
- Irreversible brain damage if the event lasts >3 hours
- Neurological deficit related to site and extent of damage
What is haemorrhagic stoke caused by?
- Entry of blood into CNS via rupture of blood vessel/sinus or an aneurysm
- Less blood supply more distally
- Blood into CNS can damage neurons
Treatments for schizophrenia?
1) Antipsychotics
- More effective in treating positive symptoms
2) Psycotherapy
- Social support
What are the 4 types of haematomas (solid swelling of clotted blood) in the brain?
1) Epidural
- Above dura
2) Subdural
- Between the dura mater and arachnoid layer
3) Subarachnoid
- In the subarachnoid space
4) Intracerebral
- Within the brain
Symptoms of depression?
- Hyper/hyposomnia
- Reduces ability to concentrate
- Anhedonia (not looking for joy)
- Avolution (lack of interest/engagement)
What is the pathology of schizophrenia?
Increases levels of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway
Incidence of schizophrenia?
Peak onset early 20s
What causes a subdural haemotoma?
- Rapid movement of the head tearing the cerebral vein
- Compression of the brain
Mesolimbic dopamine system?
- Frontal lobe
- Striatum
- Substansia nigra
- Ventral tegmentum area
Genetic causes of schizophrenia?
50 % concordance in identical twins (DISC-1 abnormalities)
What causes an epidural haemotoma?
Damage to the meningeal artery or dural venous sinus
eg. blow to the head
