Chapter 13 - Psychological Disorders Flashcards
What is a mental disorder, according to the DSM-5?
A syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation or behaviour that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological or developmental processes underlying mental functioning.
What does the word “syndrome” say about mental disorders? (2)
A group of symptoms that consistently occur together, assuming they have some common cause?
What does the term “clinically significant” mean?
The disorder must create a “serious” problem in your life and the lives of others.
What does it mean to bring “cognition, emotion regulation and behavior” into mental disorder?
These 3 factors are all interlinked. There will always be some physical or biological substrate to explain changes in behavior.
Does the DSM-5 define expectable or culturally approved responses to common stressors or loss?
No, hence making this vague and ambiguous. That said, some are rather universal. Eg: Someone dies and a person feels very sad –> this is normal.
Is socially deviant behaviour (eg politics, sexual or religious) and conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society mental disorders? Are there any exceptions?
No, unless the deviance/conflict results from a dysfunction in the individual.
Eg: Just bc someone is LGBT/communist doesn’t mean they have a mental disorder.
Why is it so difficult to define what a mental disorder is?
Because we don’t understand the underlying biological causes. Notice that socio-cultural factors also affect the biology of the organism, but eventually, the issue lies within your physical body.
Unlike physical diseases, we don’t have this level of understanding with mental disorders. We cannot match symptoms to exact causes, and consequently find accurate treatments.
List 2 types of addictive disorders.
Substance-related: Drugs, alcohol, cigarettes
Activity: Gambling, work, food
Define what addictive disorders are and one similarity between the 2 types of addictive disorders.
Compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.
They affect either dopamine or norepinephrine.
Describe three ways substances can interact with receptors.
Agonist: Drugs that occupy receptors and activate them
Antagonist: Drugs that occupy receptors but don’t activate them.
Agonist alone binds to receptor: Full activation of the cell
Agonist + Antagonist: Since both reach at the same time, there is less activation of the cell.
Antagonist: No activation.
What is drug affinity?
The tendency to bind to receptor
Different drugs have different affinity
- Low affinity means there is a low tendency to bind to receptor (not easy to bind). So you need high concentrations of the drug.
- High affinity: Low concentration may be enough to activate full potential.
What is drug efficacy?
The tendency to activate receptor.
Once molecules are bound to receptor, the more ions flow through, hence the higher the efficacy.
What is drug effects variability?
Different people have different types of receptors. Hence, different people will respond differently to drugs. We have many proteins encoded in our genome. Whatever subset of our proteins susceptible to binding to drugs.
What can drug effects variability affect?
Drug affinity.
We have a lot of variability across multiple molecules. Some drugs may have different effects on people.
List briefly 3 ways drugs can influence synaptic activity.
1) Some drugs affect the production of DA (dopamine)
2) Some drugs interfere with DA release.
3) Some drugs affect how long DA is present in the synaptic cleft.
Production, release, duration of presence in synaptic cleft.
How do drugs affect the production of dopamine?
AMPT can block the reaction that creates DA. DOPA can increase supply of dopamine.
How do drugs interfere with DA release (2) ?
- Eg: Reserpine makes vesicles leaky so dopamine escapes from the vesicle.
- Eg: Certain anti-depressants converts dopamine into an ineffective form of dopamine (DOPAC) –> Blocks original reaction.
How do drugs affect how long DA is present in the synaptic cleft?
Eg: Cocaine blocks reuptake. Typical antipsychotic drug blocks receptor (antagonist) so dopamine has less effect.
Which is the main brain structure involved in addictive disorders? What does it release?
Nucleus accumbens
Dopamine and norepinephrine
Nucleus accumbens is part of the _____________ in basal ganglia.
Ventral striatum
Describe the projection of dopamine to the ventral striatum.
- Ventral tegmental area (VTA) releases dopamine and projects to ventral striatum.
- Dopaminergic nucleus projects to nucleus accumbens, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex. All of these are thought to be part of the limbic system - related to reward processing.
