Final Flashcards
Psychosis
-Loss of contact with reality
-Perceptual emotional, and intellectual deficits
-Inability to function in life
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
-social withdrawal
-flat affect (blunted emotional responses)
-Anhedonia (loss of pleasurable feelings)
-reduced motivation; poor focus on tasks
-Alogia (reduced speech output)
-Catatonia (reduced movement)
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia
hallucinations, bizarre behaviors, disordered thought processes, delusions of grandeur, persecution, etc.
Brain anomalies in schizophrenia
-increased ventricular size
-reduced gray matter and limbic area volume
Dopamine hypothesis for schizophrenia
schizophrenia is characterized by abnormally low prefrontal dopamine activity, leading to excessive dopamine in mesolimbic dopamine neurons
Antipsychotic drug side effects
-Dyskinesia: initial, maladaptive motor symptoms
-tardive dyskinesia: late onset, repetitive, involuntary movements; irreversible; may be due to dopamine receptor supersensitivity
-supersensitivity psychosis: marked increase in positive symptoms of schizophrenia upon discontinuation of antipsychotic drugs
Glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia
schizophrenia is caused by an underactivation of glutamate receptors
What gene is associated with schizophrenia?
DISC 1
Integrative/Vulnerability Model of Schizophrenia
threshold of causal forces must be exceeded in order for the illness to occur. Environmental changes- stress- combine with a person’s genetic vulnerability to exceed threshold
Lobotomy
surgical separation of the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain
First-generation antipscyotics
block postsynaptic dopamine D2 receptors
Second-generation antipsychotics
have lower affinity for D2 dopamine receptors- their highest affinity is for other transmitter receptor
immediate conscious experience of emotional feelings happens where?
working memory in prefrontal cortex
Where does dependent associative learning happen?
amygdala
What does dependent explicit memory happen?
hippocampal
What happens to sleep as a result of depression?
-stage 3 of slow-wave sleep is reduced
-patients enter REM sleep very quickly, with an increase of REM sleep in the first half of the night
Brain changes because of depression
-volume deficits and decreased activity in prefrontal areas, especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
-increased activity in ventral prefrontal cortex
-volume deficits and decreased metabolic activity in hippocampus
-increased volume and activity of amygdala
SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants do what?
block neurotransmitter reuptake
Where do adolescents not take SSRIs?
increased risk of suicide
Ketamine
NMDA receptor antagonist- produces almost immediate improvement
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
reduces depression by inducing a seizure
What is the depression switch in bipolar disorder?
ventral prefrontal cortex
what is the bipolar switch?
subgenual prefrontal cortex
What is a treatment for bipolar disorder?
lithium as it increases gray matter
What are neurotransmitter deficits of GAD
GABA and serotonin
What is PTSD caused by?
prolonged stress reaction to traumatic event
Criterion of PTSD
-stressor (trauma event)
-intrusion symptoms (trauma is re-experienced)
-avoidance
-negative alterations in cognitions and mood
-alterations in arousal and reactivity
-longer than a month
-functional significance
-exclusion (not due to medication, etc.)
Brain changes due to PTSD
-hippocampal volume is reduced (predisposing factor rather than a result)
-decreased medial prefrontal cortex activity
-hyperactive amygdala, anterior cingulate, insular cortex
Treatment for PTSD
-exposure therapy, cognitive restructuring, stress inoculation training
Obsessions
recurring thoughts
compulsions
irresistible impulses to act, repetitive behaviors
