Mental Health Flashcards
what does the brain control?
behavior - but not all behavior can be easily controlled
what was mental illness thought to be caused by? what was a common treatment?
demons, trepanation
it is believed you can fix a person’s behavior how?
torture - asylums, prisons
who started psychotherapy?
Freud
What is a lobotomy?
needle through the eye socket and wiggle it to separate one part of the brain from another part that controls behaviour - main benefit were to the people around them
electroshock, is it used today?
zapping someone which high voltage electricity - in 50’s this was horrible and painful
we still do this they just put you under anesthesia
What did asylums turn into in the 50’s?
mental hospitals - more medical treatment
Treatment for schizophrenia (hallucinations + anxiety)
- antihistamines - calmed surgical patients
Thorazine- first effective treatment (25% achieved remission)
- dopamine antagonist- reduces psychosis
Side effects of Thorazine:
similar to Parkinson’s disease - involuntary facial expressions
What are the effects of amphetamines?
they raise dopamine amounts which produces psychosis similar to schizophrenia
most important dopamine receptor?
early drugs were D2 antagonists - this receptor is involved in the production of schizophrenia
these drugs were not very clean, and did a lot which produced more issues
What was the role of atypical antipsychotics?
weak D2 antagonist but strong serotonin agonists which remove symptoms - cleaner
anhedonia
inability to experience pleasure - people with depression
Depression treatment
Imipramine - not effective for schizophrenia - it elevates moods
it amplifies nerve signals sent by serotonin
What is re-uptake? and what happens with serotonin?
when nerve cells re-set after each transmission to send more signals.. imipramine blocks serotonin reuptake and amplifies the amount that will be used = higher mood
ipronazid
tuberculosis drug
antidepressant effect
inhibition of MAO
MAO
helps regulate neurotransmitter amounts
so inhibiting it can increase the amount of serotonin in the brain which elevates moods
Prozac = SSRI
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
- more comfortable - less side effects
side effects for depressant drugs
anxiety, sleep disturbances, sexual dysfunction, suicidal thoughts
OCD
obsessive thoughts (unwanted), rituals, magical thinking (thoughts are connected to the rest of the universe)
ex: washing hands 100x a day
what drugs can help with OCD?
drugs associated with raising serotonin activity
Bipolar Disorder
personality alternates between states - manic and low
what experiment did John Cade do to test for toxin and depression?
injected urine from manics into guinea pigs… but they died
so he added a base to the urine and found that lithium calmed manic patients
lithium therapeutic window is:
very small
valproic acid
another drug that can be used but its very small and mechanism isn’t known
Anxiety
person feels fear without reason
barbituates
GABA agonist
Benzodiazapines
cleaner drug, amplifies GABA signalling - makes the receptor more sensitive to opening
GABA receptor
ion channel = valve (allow info to flow through)
Valium
mothers little helper
is a drug similar to the placebo if placebo is 30% effective and drug is 30% effective?
No, the drug treatment would still be effective on most people, but considering the amount of people who would have a reaction to the placebo or no treatment
difference between drug and placebo
why don’t drugs work better today? why can’t we make them better?
cause the brain is just SO complex he hardly know anything about it
why are experiments with rats ealier even though their brains are different?
we have no full control over humans, difficult to measure brain activity
swim despair test
put mouse in a container of water, the animal has to swim and after a while it stops swimming - the aount of time is measured and then we give a drig to see if the animal will swim shorter or longer time
hotplate test
put mouse on a hotplate to test pain to see how long it takes for the animal to lift its feet up
me too drug
using old drug to find a new drug - to reduce side effects
