Class 23 - Psychiatric disorders

Question 1

What are the two subtypes of schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Acute schizophrenia (positive symptoms responsive to neuroleptics) and chronic schizophrenia (negative symptoms)

Question 2

What are some DSM-IV symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 2

Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior, blunted emotions, loss of interest and drive

Question 3

What are the brain abnormalities in schizophrenia?

Answer 3

Below average weight, enlarged ventricles, reduction in number and abnormal neurons in prefrontal cortex/hippocampus

Question 4

What are the biochemical abnormalities implicated in schizophrenia?

Answer 4

Changes in dopamine, glutamate and GABA function

Question 5

When does schizophrenia usually develop?

Answer 5

During late adolescence, but it can depend on a combination of genetics and environment

Question 6

What are the three major features of depression?

Answer 6

Prolonged sad feelings, anhedonia, vegetative signs

Question 7

What characterizes mania?

Answer 7

Excessive euphoria, hyperactivity and emotional lability

Question 8

What is bipolar disorder?

Answer 8

Periods of depression and mania

Question 9

What are some of the neurochemical bases of depression?

Answer 9

Not enough brain derived neurotrophic factors, reduction of monoamines, too much cortisol secretion

Question 10

What is a treatment of depression?

Answer 10

Fluoxetine is an SSRI that can inhibit serotonin reuptake, stimulate BDNF and neurogenesis in the hippocampus

Question 11

Where in depressed brains do we see increased activity? Decreased activity?

Answer 11

Decreased: dorsolateral and medial prefrontal regions
Increased: orbital regions (to inhibit amygdala activity), amygdala and medial thalamus

Question 12

What neuropsychological traits do depressed people show deficits in?

Answer 12

Processing speed, attention and recall memory

Question 13

Where is there a decrease in gray matter for bipolar patients?

Answer 13

Temporal lobe and cerebellum

Question 14

What is the sensitization model for bipolar patients?

Answer 14

Bipolar patients are sensitive to stress and drugs and over time, their brain become primed to elicit bipolar responses

Question 15

Can nutrition be responsible for mood symptoms?

Answer 15

Yes, through alterations in gene expression, epigenetic alterations, long latency effects and inborn metabolism errors

Question 16

What are hyperkinetic and hypokinetic motor disorders?

Answer 16

Hyperkinetic: increased motor activity.
Hypokinetic: loss of movement

Question 17

What is Huntington’s chorea?

Answer 17

A autosomal dominant genetic disorder that causes involuntary movements, personality changes, anxiety, bipolar and cognitive impairments

Question 18

What are some brain abnormalities in Huntington’s disease?

Answer 18

Shrinkage of cortex, atrophy of basal ganglia and death of basal GABA and ACh neurons

Question 19

What is Tourette’s Syndrome?

Answer 19

The combination of chronic motor and vocal tics (echolalia = repeating what others say, coprolalia = obscene or lewd speech)

Question 20

Where is the origin of Tourette’s syndrome in the brain?

Answer 20

Small cells in the basal ganglia and frontal subcortical loops

Question 21

What are some treatments for Tourette’s syndrome?

Answer 21

Antidopaminergic drugs and norepinephrine receptor agonists

Question 22

Where is the degeneration in the brain for Parkinson’s disease?

Answer 22

degeneration in the substantia nigra

Question 23

What are some of the positive symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?

Answer 23

Resting tremor, muscular rigidity, involuntary movements (akathesia and oculogyric crisis)

Question 24

What are some of the negative symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?

Answer 24

Disorders of posture, righting, locomotion (festination, getting ahead of your feet), speech and akinesia

Question 25

What are some of the causes of parkinsonism?

Answer 25

drug induced, post encephalitic, familial, viral origin

Question 26

What are some of the treatments of Parkinson’s disease?

Answer 26

Physical therapy, pharmacological therapy (increase DA, decrease ACh), stem cell research, deep brain sitmulation

Question 27

What are the two major characteristics of dementia?

Answer 27

Memory impairment and one other cognitive impairment

Question 28

What is the difference between degenerative and non-degenerative dementias?

Answer 28

Degenerative = gets worse with age, non-degenerative = doesn’t get worse with age

Question 29

What are the two characteristic brain pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 29

Neuritic (amyloid) plaques and paired helical filaments (neurofibrillary tangles)

Question 30

What is the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 30

Impairment in recent memory

Question 31

What are the neocortical changes in Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 31

Degeneration/shrinkage of the association cortices (paralimbic cortex), shrinking of neurons and arborizations, reduction in two or more NT systems

Question 32

What are some of the putative causes of Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 32

Genetics, trace aluminum, immune reactions the degenerate neurons, low CNS blood flow, abnormal proteins that accumulate in the brain