Chapter 7 Flashcards
The two key moods involved in mood disorders are:
depression, mania
– Depression:
involves feelings of extraordinary sadness and
dejection
– Mania:
often characterized by intense and unrealistic feelings of excitement and euphoria
Unipolar depressive disorder:
a person experiences
only depressive episodes
• Bipolar disorder:
a person experiences both depressive
and manic episodes
– Depressive episode:
when a person is markedly depressed or
loses interest in formerly pleasurable activities for at least 2 weeks
– Manic episode:
markedly elevated, expansive, or irritable mood
for at least 4 days
▪ Hypomanic episode:
abnormally elevated, expansive, or irritable
mood for at least 4 days; the person must also have at least 3 other symptoms similar to those involved in mania
Major Depressive Disorder
• Diagnostic criteria for MDD require that a person must
be in a major depressive episode and never had a
manic, hypomanic, or mixed episode
Unipolar Depressive Disorder
recurrent disorder
Onset of unipolar depressive disorders most often
occurs during late adolescence up to middle adulthood Incidence of depression rises sharply during adolescence
Recurrence:
the onset of a new episode of depression
– Occurs in about 40-50 percent of people who experience a depressive episode
Relapse:
the return of symptoms within a fairly short
period of time
Specifiers:
different patterns of symptoms or features
• Major depressive episode with melancholic features:
includes loss of interest, not reacting to usually pleasurable stimuli or desired events
• Severe major depressive episode with psychotic features:
depression is accompanied by psychotic symptoms
• Major depressive episode with catatonic features
includes a range of psychomotor symptoms
• Criteria for recurrent major depressive episode with a
seasonal pattern
(seasonal affective disorder) include at
least 2 episodes of depression in the past 2 years at the same time of year
POSTPARTUM “BLUES”
• Symptoms include changeable mood, crying easily,
sadness, and irritability, often intermixed with happy
feelings
• Symptoms occur in up to 50-70 percent of women within 10 days of giving birth
• Postpartum Depression (different)
unipolar mood disorders GENETIC INFLUENCES
• Family studies have shown that the prevalence of mood
disorders is about 2-3 times higher among blood
relatives of persons with clinically diagnosed unipolar
depression
• One candidate for a specific gene that might be
implicated is the serotonin-transporter gene
– Involved in the transmission and reuptake of serotonin
– One of the key transmitters involved in depression
causal factors unipolar mood disorders ABNORMALITIES OF HORMONAL REGULATORY AND
IMMUNE SYSTEM
• Majority of attention has been focused on the hypothalamic-
pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
– Recent evidence suggests that dexamethasone nonsuppression may
be a general indicator of mental stress rather than specific to depression
• The other endocrine axis relevant to depression is the
hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis
– Drugs used to increase thyroid hormone and lower depression in people who show dysregulation of this axis