Mental Illness Flashcards

1
Q

What are the three types of mental disorders?

A

Anxiety disorders

Affective disorders (mood disorders)

Schizophrenia

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2
Q

What are psychosocial approaches to mental illness?

A

Psychotherapy treatment: -relies solely on verbal communication to help the patient

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3
Q

What is the difference between mood and emotions?

A

Emotions: transient responses to specific stimuli in the environment (danger), the body (pain), or mind (thoughts)

Mood: an emotional state that is prolonged, one’s predominant emotional state

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4
Q

What is fear?

A

Adaptive response to threatening situations expressed by the sympathetic division of the ANS

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5
Q

What do mood and anxiety disorders involve? Give examples

A

Negative emotional states.

  • overlapping neural circuits
  • overlapping risk factors
  • 60% of patients with major depressive disorder also suffer from an anxiety disorder
  • anxiety disorder most commonly precedes the onset of depression
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6
Q

What are anxiety disorders?

A

Abnormal regulation of the emotion of fear

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7
Q

What are disorders characterized by increased anxiety?

A
  • PTSD

- OCD

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8
Q

What is normal stress response?

A
  • avoidance response to real threat
  • avoidance behavior
  • increased vigilance and arousal
  • activation of sympathetic division of ANS
  • release of cortisol from the adrenal glands
  • usually transient
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9
Q

What is the HPA axis responsible for the normal stress response?

A

Hypothalamus: in response to stress, secretes corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH)

Pituitary: in response to CRH, releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)

Adrenal: in response to ACTH, releases cortisol:

  • increases blood pressure
  • increases available blood glucose for fight or flight
  • increased vigilance and arousal in the brain
  • reduced immune activity
  • transient
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10
Q

What regulates the HPA axis?

A

Hypothalamic secretions of CRH are regulated by input from hippocampus and amygdala

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11
Q

What is the amygdala important for?

What does a disregulation of the amygdala entail?

A
  • critical to fear responses

- disregulation of amygdala is associated with some anxiety disorders

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12
Q

What does the hippocampus do?

A
  • has glucocorticoid receptors which respond to cortisol

- suppresses CRH release in response to cortisol

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13
Q

What do we call the way the amygdala and the hippocampus regulate the HPA axis?

A

Push-pull fashion

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14
Q

What do we associate anxiety disorders with (regarding amygdala and hippocampus)

A

Hyperactivity Of the amygdala or hypo activity of hippocampus

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15
Q

What are the two types of remedies for anxiety disorders?

A

-psychotherapy: gradually expose the patient to the stimuli that produce the anxiety——Reinforce the notion that the stimuli are not dangerous

-Anxiolytic (anxiety-reducing drugs)
2 types: benzodiazepines: bind to GABA receptor and enhance function —> suppress activity in brain circuits including those used in stress response
Alcohol has same effect

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16
Q

What is another type of anxiolytic drug (not benzodiazepine or ethanol)?

A

SSRI’s (serotonin-selective Reuptake inhibitors)

-prolong actions of 5-HT by blocking Reuptake

17
Q

What is SSRI’s effect on the hippocampus?

A
  • increase number of glucocorticoid receptors in hippocampus
  • increase neurogenesis in the hilpocampus
18
Q

What are the two types of mood disorders?

A
  • major depression

- bipolar depression

19
Q

What is the monoamine hypothesis?

A
  • idea that mood disorders arose from depleted levels of serotonin and neuroepinephrine
  • monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO inhibitors) used to treat tuberculosis caused elevations in mood
20
Q

What do antidepressant drugs do?

A

Elevate levels of serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine in synapse

21
Q

What are the three types of treatments for depression?

A

MAO inhibitors: enhance NE and 5-HT action by preventing enzymatic destruction

Tricyclics: enhance NE and 5-HT action by blocking Reuptake

SSRI’s: enhance 5-HT action by blocking Reuptake of 5-HT

22
Q

What is another hypothesis for affective disorders? (Not monoamine hypothesis)

What does the keyword mean

A

The diathesis - stress hypothesis
Diathesis: genetic predisposition

This hypothesis says that there is a hyperactivity of the HPA system associated with anxiety disorders

  • elevated cortisol
  • elevated CRH
  • enlargement of the amygdala
  • reduced volume of hippocampus
23
Q

What is another reason for affective disorders? Not the 2 first ones

A

Anterior Cingulate Cortex Dysfunction

Activity here increased by autobiographical recall of sad event

24
Q

Is schizophrenia only transmitted through genetics? If not, explain.

A

Mainly but not only. There are other factors influencing the appearance of schizophrenia:

  • New mutations
  • Epigenetics (how environment, nutrition and social conditions affect how genes are expressed)
  • drug use or difficult pregnancy/birth
25
Q

What does the neurodevelopmental hypothesis say about the biological basis of Schozophrenia?

A
  • Schizophrhenia patients show réductions in brain volume and altered neural circuits, loss of dendrites and dendritic spines
  • Loss of gray matter counterbalances by enlarged ventricles

-hypothesis: schizophrenia is the result of neurodevetlopmental alterations

26
Q

What does the dopamine hypothesis say about schizophrenia?

A

Hypothesis: schizophrenia results from too much dopamine

Why? —> high doses of amphetamines can produce psychotic symptoms with positive symptoms

27
Q

What does the glutamate hypothesis say about schizophrenia?

A

Hypothesis: schizophrenia arises from NMDA glutamate receptor deficits

  • Schizophrenic patients have low levels of glutamate receptors
  • PCP and ketamine are NMDA glutamate receptor antagonists
28
Q

What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?

A
  • repeating episodes of extreme high mood and depressed mood

- Mania

29
Q

Difference type 1 and 2 of bipolar disorder?

A

1: mania with or without periods of extreme depression, 1% of population
2: hypo mania with extreme depression (hypomania = increase in efficiency, accomplishment or creativity), 0.6% of population

30
Q

What the three types of symptoms of schizophrenia? Define each

A

Positive: - symptoms that are not present in healthy patients but appear in schizophrenics (delusions, hallucinations)

Negative: impairment of normal functions (reduced expression of emotion, withdrawal of social interactions)

Cognitive: impaired working memory and executive function

31
Q

What does the dopamine hypothesis say about schizophrenia?

A

Hugh doses of amphetamines(enhance dopaminergic synapses causing release of dopamine) can produce psychotic symptoms with positive symptoms identical to those of schizo

  • blocking dopamine receptors lowers symptoms