Lecture 9 = Mental Health Flashcards
describe issues with the brain
physical or chemical issues with brain
results in mental illness and corresponding change in behaviour
when is behaviour not easily controlled?
when you have a mental illness because persons brain is not functioning the way it is supposed to
is there a genetic basis for personality and mental illness?
yes
some mental illnesses are more likely to occur in some families
what were original beliefs/treatments surrounding mental illness?
thought to be caused by demons
mentally ill were tortured, institutionalized, and underwent trepanation
what is trepanation
common treatment in early days
consisted of drilling hole in head to fix brain
what did it mean if someone was institutionalized for mental health? how did this differ in Europe vs. Middle Easy and Africa
put into mental asylums and prison and were hidden away from populations
Middle East and Africa were slightly more accepting and didn’t necessarily exile people
What did Freud do?
developed psychotherapy in 1896
was first time a scientific approach was taken towards treating mental health issues
what was lobotomy and when did it take place
involve sticking needle in persons brain to severe connection between to parts
thought to make behaviour more manageable
didn’t do much for person will illness - just the people around them
1940s-1950s
describe electroshock therapy and when it took place
strap down a person and send large voltage through them
would sometimes reduce symptoms
common in 50s, but still performed today
when did asylums become mental hospitals? what else happened during this time
1950s
people weren’t exiled as much, but were put into mental institutions instead to get care
attitudes towards mental health changed a bit
first drugs for mental illnesses came out during this time
describe schizophrenia
lots of psychosis
auditory hallucinations, confused thinking, false beliefs, magical thinking, anxiety disorders, lack of emotion, etc.
describe how first schizophrenia drug was discovered
discovered by accident when trying to find drugs to reduce nerves for surgical patients
antihistamines tended to have an anxiety reducing effect
led to use of Thorazine for schizophrenia (because anxiety is a characteristic of disorder)
describe Thorazine
1952 - first effective schizophrenia treatment
reduced overall symptoms (reduced feelings of anxiety, and amount of psychotic episodes)
25% achieved remission
describe side effects of Thorazine
wasn’t a clean drug
had some strong/permanent effects such as uncontrollable facial expressions (similar to Parkinsons)
describe the theory that high dopamine activity is related to schizophrenia and what this means for Thorazine drug and amphetamines
believed that high dopamine was related to schizophrenia
thorazine was dopamine antagonist - so decreased dopamine signals - therefore symptoms of schizophrenia reduced (specifically psychosis)
amphetamines raise dopamine in the brain - so could produce psychosis similar to schizophrenia
what are the 5 dopamine receptor subtypes and what do they do? which is most important
range from D1 to D5
allow dopamine in different parts of the brain
create different pathways for dopamine to transfer information
D2 most important
what type of agonist/antagonist were all early antipsychotics? were they clean?
all D2 antagonists
not very clean + had lots of side effects
how were subsequent drugs discovered
identified through animal studies
researchers identified patterns of behaviour that drugs produce
main improvements were reducing side effects (not necessarily efficacy)
what was the main atypical antipsychotic? describe
1972 - Chlozapine
was a weak D2 antagonist and strong serotonin agonist (5-HT)
different chemical structure than most regular D2 antagonists
less likely to cause motor control disabilities
cleaner side effect pattern
what type of drug is Imipramine and what does it treat?
tricyclic antidepressants (1951)
depression
how does imipramine (tricyclic antidepressant) work? how was it discovered
accidentally discovered when trying to treat schizophrenia
works by blocking serotonin reuptake by pre-synaptic cell (nerve still resets self, but doesn’t allow serotonin back in)
net effect is amplifying serotonin signals for elevated mood
what are the side effects of imipramine
inhibits serotonin reuptake (intended)
inhibits norepinephrine reuptake
dopamine/acetylcholine/histamine antagonist
not clean drug
what is Iproniazid
originally a tuberculosis drug
found to have antidepressant effects
works by inhibiting/blocking monoamine oxidase (MAO) leading to an increase in amount of serotonin in brain
how to monoamine oxidase drugs work (ex. Iproniazid)
inhibits monoamine oxidase (which typically destroys serotonin)
allows for the destruction of serotonin to slow down
leads to increase in levels of serotonin inside the brain
