Mental Health Topic 2 Flashcards
What is the medical model?
Explains mental disorder due to physical causes such as:
Brain structure,
genetics and biochemistry.
How is the medical model deterministic?
as it emphasizes that a person has no more free choice or control over a mental disorder than a physical illness.
Is the medical model restuctionist or holistic?
The medical model is reductionist as it oversimplifies causes of mental illness, ignoring psychological and environmental factors. In the other hand, recent biological explanations are looking at complex interactions between genes and environment, therefore becoming more holistic.
What is the basic biochemical principals?
-Brain cells transmit information in the form of electrical impulses around the brain.
-Between brain cells are gaps (synapses)
-For info to pass from one cell to the next, neurotransmitters must pass across the synapse.
-different neurotransmitters are important in different parts of the brain and are believed to be important in regulating different mental processes.
-One explanation for MI is the possibility that symptoms are due to abnormal neurotransmitter levels or action.
What is the monamine hypothesis?
Low levels of certain monamines which are a group of neurotransmitters that regulate mood can cause MI.
What does serotonin do?
Regulates the other neurotransmitters. Without this regulation, brain functioning becomes erratic. When serotonin levels drops so does noradrenaline’s and dopamine’s
What does noradrenaline do?
Is needed for alertness and low levels can be linked to a lack of pleasure.
What does dopamine do?
Related to alertness, energy, motivation and to feel pleasure/rewards Low levels of dopamine are linked to anxiety.
How is the gene 5-HTT linked to depression
Linked to regulating serotonin levels. People with variations to the 5-HTT gene that are under-active seem more likely to suffer from depression after stressful life events.
How is the chemical MAO-A linked to depression?
Removes monamines from the synapse. This is an important brain function called “re-uptake” that recycles neurotransmitters when they don’t appear to be needed. If there is too much MAO-A in the synapse, it will remove monamines that are needed, starving the brain of serotonin, noradneranaline and dopamine leading to symptoms of depression.
What is the basics for anti-depressant drugs?
Inhibit the activity of MAO-A. This leads to more monamine activity and a reduction in the symptoms of depression.
What is the genetic explanation of mental illness?
genetic inheritance may determine features of our behavior, appearance, personality and achievements. Genes may also influence individual psychological characteristics including metal illness
What are concordance rates?
Similarities between two relatives can be measured using a term concordance rat yes. a researcher would compare people that are genetically related on a basis of weather they have the same disorder.
What are the family studies?
Family studies commonly show relationships between tarits and inheritance. Family studies tend to compare first-degree relatives to individuals and assess concordance rate. you would expect higher CR for first-degree relatives.
What are the twin studies?
A quasi experiment in which we compare CR for identical (monozygotic) and non identical twins (dizygotic). You would assume that MZ twins have higher CR due to the fact they are genetically identical. However twins are often brought up in the same environment.
What are the adoption studies?
Individuals who have been adopted as children are assessed in terms of characteristics and compared to biological and adoptive parents. Genetic factors are involved if CR are higher amongst biological relatives compared to adoptive relatives.
What did Allen (1976) find?
CR for MZ twins and depression was 40% but this falls to 11% for DZ twins, providing evidence for genetic contribution to depression.
What did Wender et al find?
Showed clear evidence for genetic effects. they found that biological relatives of a depressed adoptee were eight times more likely that adoptive relatives to also have depression.
What is the brain abnormality explanation?
Refers to how a mentally ill patient’s brain is different from a neuro-typical person’s brain, or how their brain differs from when they were mentally healthy. Focuses on abnormality of the structure in the brain rather than biochemical abnormalities.
What is the prefrontal cortex responsible for?
beahavioural control- damage causes issues with self-control and emotional processing.
What is the amygdala responsible for?
Feelings of fear and emotional memory storage.
What is the hippocampus responsible for?
processing memories and responding to stress hormones. When damaged associated with memory loss.
What scans are used to investigate brain differences?
PET and MRI
what happens to the hippocampus with depression?
May cause it to shrink or weaken.
Repeated stress may cause neurons in the hippocampus to shrink.