Mental Health Disorders Flashcards
Neurotransmitters that affect mood
- Norepinephrine
- Serotonin and GABA
- Dopamine
How does serotonin and GABA affect the body?
- Well-being
- Calmness
- Decrease impulsivity
- Decrease aggression
- Helps with sleep
- Decreases sex drive
- Increases appetite
How does norepinephrine and dopamine affect the body?
Enhances:
- Concentration
- Ambition
- Productivity
Major Depressive Disorder: What is it?
- A constellation of signs and symptoms that have multifactorial causes, including life circumstances, biological predisposition, and epigenetic influences. Disturbances in cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and somatic regulations are common features of depression.
Major Depressive Disorder: Diagnostic Criteria
- In adults, diagnostic criteria includes anhedonia or depression and any four or more of the following:
1. Change in appetite
2. Change in sleep pattern
3. Fatigue
4. Psychomotor retardation or agitation
5. Poor self-image
6. Concentration difficulty
7. Suicidal ideation
What is anhedonia?
Is a loss of pleasure or interest in things that previously provided joy or pleasure. To be diagnosed with depressive disorder, depression and/or anhedonia must be present with other specifiers.
Major Depressive Disorder: Etiology
- Still not well understood
- Impaired synthesis and/or metabolism of norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and/or other neurotransmitters
- Evidence indicates genetic predisposition (30-40%)
- 60-70% of cases are related to specific environmental factors including adverse childhood events and ongoing or recent stress due to interpersonal adversities
Major Depressive Disorder: Risk Factors
- Psychosocial stressors
- Postpartum period
- Physical or chronic illness, especially migraines and back pain
- Prior episodes of depression and suicide attempts
- Family history of suicide
- Alcohol or substance abuse
- Children with a history of being bullied or abused
- Retirement, aging
- Significant loss (death of a spouse, loss of job, divorce)
- Isolation
- Comorbidities
Major Depressive Disorder: Assessment Findings in Children
- Anorexia
- Sleep disturbance
- Apathy and sluggishness
- Developmental delay
- Anxiety, irritability, cries easily, restlessness
- Aggression, hyperactivity
- School problems
- GI or other somatic complaints
- Poor self-esteem
- Cognitive dulling
- Suicidal thoughts or self-injury
- Withdrawal or increased clinging behaviors
Major Depressive Disorder: Assessment Findings in Adolescents
- Similar to adults
- Impulsivity
- Fatigue
- Hopelessness
- Substance abuse
Major Depressive Disorder: Assessment Findings in Adults
- Depressed mood for 2 weeks or longer and/or anhedonia (at least one must be present)
- Decreased or increased appetite
- Weight loss or gain
- Sleep disorder
- Psychomotor agitation or retardation
- Fatigue, loss of energy
- Feelings of worthlessness, inappropriate guilt
- Recurrent thoughts of death
- Difficulty thinking/concentrating or indecisiveness
Major Depressive Disorder: Non-Pharmacologic Management
- Identify suicidal risk, plan, lethality, availability and intent
- Establish safe environment
- Provide community resources
- Psychoeducation
- Psychotherapy
- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- Light therapy
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
- Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)
Major Depressive Disorder: Psychoeducation
- Ongoing information about illness, symptoms, prognosis, and therapy
- Include interpersonal relationships, work, and other health-related needs
- Discourage major life changes while in a depressive state
- Help set realistic, attainable, concrete goals
- Educate about importance of avoiding alcohol
Major Depressive Disorder: Psychotherapy
- Treatment of choice with or without pharmacologic interventions in mild to moderate depression
- Pharmacologic treatment works best when accompanied with psychotherapy
- Establish and maintain a supportive therapeutic relationship
- Remain available during times of crisis
- Maintain vigilance for signs of destructive impulses
- Strengthen expectations of help and hope for the future
- Enlist support of others in patient’s social network
Major Depressive Disorder: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- Indicated for depression in which a rapid antidepressant response is imperative: depression coupled with psychotic features, catatonic stupor, mania, severe suicidality, suicidality in pregnancy, or severe nutritional compromise
- Indicated for patients who prefer this method of treatment, or who have responded unsatisfactorily to antidepressant medication in the past
- High rate of therapeutic success
- Chief side effects are transient postictal confusion and memory impairment that resolve in a few days
Major Depressive Disorder: Light Therapy
- Particularly effective for seasonal affective disorder
- Exposure to bright white artificial light for 30 minutes or more in morning and/or evening
- May be used along with pharmacotherapy
Major Depressive Disorder: Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
- Use in resistant depression
- Side effects are significantly reduced
- Treatment is 4-5 times per week for 4-6 weeks
Major Depressive Disorder: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)
- Approved for adult patients with long-term or recurrent major depression
- Requires surgical implantation of a stimulator that runs from collarbone to vagus nerve
Major Depressive Disorder: Pharmacologic Management
- Determine coexisting substance use disorders and general medical conditions
- SSRIs are first-line treatment
- SNRIs
- Novel antidepressants
- TCAs
- MAOIs are not used first or second-line due to food and drug interactions. These drugs are usually prescribed by psychiatric specialists
- Atypical antipsychotics may be used to augment poor response to antidepressants alone. When used, these medications should be monitored for side effects common with all antipsychotics
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
- Fluoxetine
- Citalopram
- Escitalopram
- Paroxetine
- Sertraline
- Vilazodone
Selective and Neuroepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs)
- Duloxetine
- Venlafaxine
- Desvenlafaxine
Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs)
- Amitriptyline
Norepinephrine and Dopamine Inhibitors
- Bupropion
Serotonin Antagonists and Reuptake Inhibitors (SARI)
- Trazodone
Noradrenaline and Specific Serotonergic Agents (NaSSAs)
- Mirtazapine
Multimodal Antidepressants
- Vortioxetine
Anxiety: What is it?
Psychic and physical experience of dread, foreboding, apprehension, or panic in response to emotional or physiologic stimuli; may be acute or chronic. Many anxiety disorders develop in childhood and tend to persist if untreated.
Anxiety: Etiology
- Behavioral theory: anxiety is the conditioned response to specific environmental stimuli
- Genetic component (first-degree relative increases likelihood eigthtfold)
- Biologic theories:
1. Norepinephrine, serotonin, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are poorly regulated
2. The autonomic nervous system inappropriately responds to stimuli
3. Functional cerebral pathology causes anxiety disorder symptoms
4. Hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis highly implicated
Anxiety: Assessment Findings in Children
- Excessive anxiety about separation after age 3-4 years
- Note: DSM-5 states that separation anxiety may be present in adulthood
- Unrealistic worry about harm to self or family
- Persistent worry about past behavior, competence, or future events
Anxiety: Assessment Findings in Adults
- Complaints of apprehension, restlessness, edginess, distractibility
- Insomnia
- Somatic complaints:
- Fatigue, headaches
- Paresthesia, near syncope, derealization, dizziness, diaphoresis
- Palpations, tachycardia, chest pain/tightness
- Dyspnea, hyperventilation
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,
- Excessive rumination
Anxiety: Diseases that Masquerade as Anxiety
- Angina, arrhythmias, MI
- Anemias
- Hyperthyroidism
- Hypoglycemia
- Essential tremor
- Asthma, COPD, PE
- Carcinoid syndrome
Anxiety: Drugs that Masquerade as Anxiety
- Caffeine, cocaine
- Pseudoephedrine
- Theophyline
- Drug withdrawal (BNZs, EtOH)
- Benadryl
- TCAs
- Dopaminergics
Anxiety: Non-Pharmacologic Management
- Psychotherapy
- Regular exercise and healthy diet
- Adequate sleep and limit caffeine intake
- Serial office visits
** Advise patients to avoid alcohol consumption because it increases risk of drug interactions and is associated with high rates of abuse and rebound anxiety