Depression Flashcards
What are the core features of depression?
- Pervasive low mood
- Anergia
- Anhedonia (loss of enjoyment)
What are the physical symptoms of depression?
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Diurnal variation of mood
- Poor sleep
- Loss of libido
- Constipation
- Psychomotor slowing or agitation
What are the psychological symptoms of depression?
- Poor concentration
- Feelings of guilt
- Feeling of hopelessness
- Low of self esteem
- Indecisive
- Suicidal ideation
- Delusions
What are the treatments for depression?
Medications: Antidepressants
Psychological therapies: CBT
Social prescribing: Exercise, being in social company
What can depression be conceptualised as?
A self perpetuating network of positive feedback loops arising from normally adaptive responses
What are the symptoms of anxiety?
Psychological: Feeling of fear and dread
Physical:
- Palpitations
- Sweating
- Dry mouth
- Splanchic vasoconstriction (butterflies)
- Tremor
- Paraesthesia (pins and needles)
-Depersonalisation
- Syncope
How can anxiety be classified?
- Generalised anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Agoraphobia
- Simple phobia
- Social phobia
- OCD
- PTSD
When is anxiety considered a disorder?
If it is excessive, impacts on life or out of context
What is the most common cause of mental disorder?
Anxiety
What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?
Hallucination
Delusion - fixed false beliefs
Abnormal behaviour
Disorganised speech
Disturbances of emotions
What is the treatment for schizophrenia?
Antipsychotics eg. risperidone
Psychological therapies
Family therapy
Arts therapies
What is formal thought disorder?
- impaired capacity to sustain coherent discourse
- indicates a disturbance of the organization and expression of thought
Is schizophrenia hereditary and if so how?
Yes.
- 10% chance of inheriting from a single affected parent
- 50% of inheriting from both affected parents
- Usually caused by more than 200 genes rather than single ones
What genes affect schizophrenia?
Genes for D2, neurodevelopment and inflammation
What is the pathophysiology of schizophrenia?
- Excess of striatal dopamine especially in response to stress
- Abnormal organisation of default mode network stimulated by increased independent thought and slef-reflection
What is the default mode network?
A network of interacting brain regions that is active when a person is not focused on the outside world
What type of mental disorder is schizophrenia?
Psychosis
What is psychosis?
- Usually defined as hallucinations and delusions or reality failure
- Represents a large group of different disease processes which have a similar end result
What is the treatment for psychosis?
- Antipsychotics eg. Antidopamiergic or other a antiNT-ergic drugs as error in NT can cause excess reward prediction or increased sense of importance attached to perceptions
- Psychological therapies
- Social support
What is self harm?
Non suicidal self injury that typically occurs in the context of low self worth and persistent distress
What is OCD
- Intrusive thoughts and images and compulsive behaviours which serve to relieve state of anxiety.
- Negative reinforcement driven by the distress caused by the intrusive thoughts
How are eating disorders conceptualised?
As means of reducing intense distress, particularly feelings of loss of control
