issues in mental health topic 2- the medical model

Question 1

background - biochemical explanation of depression

Answer 1

-neurotransmitters like serotonin levels can be low which means serotonin molecules may be reabsorbed back into the pre-synaptic nerve cell too soon meaning messages do not get passed effectively across synaptic clefts
-so depression is caused by a lack of serotonin as the body is not responding to the stimulus it receives because there is too little serotonin to transmit these messages
-SSRIs can be used to increase the effect of serotonin by preventing it being taken back up by the pre-synaptic cell

Question 2

background - biochemical explanation of schizophrenia

Answer 2

-schizophrenia could be related to high levels of dopamine within the nervous system causing an overload of dopamine to reach the post-synaptic nerve cells
-anti-psychotic drugs bind to dopamine receptors preventing an overload of dopamine reaching the post-synaptic cell

Question 3

background: the genetic explanation of mental illness

Answer 3

disorders can be passed from parents to children through genetic transference.
Possible for one child to have a tendency and a sibling not to as genes come from half each parent
Gottesman- bipolar/schizophrenia inc if both parents have it.
could use embryo manipulation to reduce inheritance of genetic disorders

Question 4

evolution theory- Darwin

Answer 4

genetic traits are passed on via evolution if they were advantageous to our survival
explains why people are more phobic of spiders as we have evolved the ability to associate certain stimuli with danger and this ability explains phobias to animals that are no longer a threat.
Ohman- showed participants pictures of faces,houses or snakes with a mild electric shock. stress was higher to be conditioned to fear snakes more.

Question 5

background: brain abnormality as an explanation of mental illness

Answer 5

differences in brain structure of people with schizophrenia:
-post-mortem studies of the brains of those with schizophrenia show they were 6% lighter and had enlarged lateral (hollow areas in the brain)
-Weinberger MRI scans on identical twins with one having schizophrenia found differences in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus volume

Question 6

brain abnormality explanations of depression

Answer 6

patients with depression can show a smaller hippocampus volume
people with depression have experienced stress leading to the release of cortisol which can destroy hippocampal cells which can not respond to serotonin normally causing depression
sheline et al - study of elderly women whose depression was in remission the hippocampus was smaller than normal women of the same age

Question 7

Gottesman et al aim+ sample

Answer 7

aimed to investigate in a large sample the probability of a child being diagnosed with a mental disorder if either or both of their parents had it.
sample was 2.7 million people and their parents in denmark aged between 10-52

Question 8

Gottesman et al procedure

Answer 8

identified 4 groups using data from the psychiatric central register:
-2 parents admitted to a psychiatric hospital with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar or depression
-1 parents admitted same
-neither admitted
-the ‘general public’ (no data available)

Question 9

Gottesman et al findings