Module 3: Part 3 Flashcards
What do MRI studies show of the pathogenesis of schizophrenia?
- Decreased brain volume - Decreased size of hippocampus, amygdala & parahippocampal gyrus
What do PET studies show of the pathogenesis of schizophrenia?
- Decreased activation of the frontal lobe - Increased activation of the temporal lobe
What is the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia?
- Increased dopamine —> +ve symptoms - Decreased dopamine (in mesocortical areas) —> -ve symptoms - Amphetamine + Levodopa —> Increased dopamine —> +ve symptoms in non-schizophrenics - D2 receptor antagonists are effective antipsychotics
What is the serotonin hypothesis of schizophrenia?
- Increased serotonin —> psychotic symptoms - 5HT receptor agonists (Psilocybin) —> +ve symptoms in non-schizophrenics - 5HT receptor antagonists —> -ve symptoms
What is the excitatory amino acid hypothesis?
- Decreased EAAs or decreased receptors —> Schizophrenia - SCZ have low CSF glutamate & low glutamate receptors in temporal lobe - NMDA receptor antagonists —> +ve and -ve symptoms in non-schizophrenics
What is the phospholipid membrane hypothesis?
- Abnormalities in phospholipid metabolism (neuronal membrane) —> Schizophrenia
What is the management of schizophrenia?
- Antipsychotics - Talking therapies - ECT - Hormones (conflicting evidence)
What is the prognosis of schizophrenia?
- Rule of 1/3 - 1/3 good outcomes - 1/3 have longer and repeated episodes - 1/3 chronic treatment resistance
What are some sex differences between males and females in schizophrenia?
- Males have: - Earlier onset - More -ve symptoms - Poorer prognosis
What are some potential mechanisms for sex differences between males and females?
- Higher incidence of birth injuries in boys - Buffer of early marriage in females (early marriage so more likely to have strong social relationships) - Sexually dimorphic brain anatomy - Differential effects of androgens and oestrogens
Describe the sexually dimorphic brain anatomy to explain sex differences in schizophrenia
- Brain template is female - At 6 weeks of gestation, testosterone differentiates male characteristics
Describe the activational effects of oestrogen in schizophrenia (Later in life)?
- Oestrogen may be protective against psychosis - Increased incidence after menopause, decreased psychosis during pregnancy and increased psychosis post-partum - Oestrogen antagonises dopamine receptors —> less positive symptoms - Oestrogen’s biphasic effects: effective in the short term but wears off - Oestrogen may up or down-regulate dopaminergic receptors - Oestrogen KO in mice —> Apoptosis of hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons (does not occur in females) - Variants in Oestrogen receptor alpha genes and mRNA (ESR1 variant associated with increased risk of psychosis)
What are the organisational effects of testosterone (Early in life)?
- Perinatal organisation effects of sex hormones on sexual differentiation - During development: in males: Increased testosterone to masculinise hypothalamus (not in females) - Testosterone modulates pre-frontal cortex and amygdala (organisational effects)
How does testosterone and oestrogen affect the disruption of pre-pulse inhibition in schizophrenia?
- Normally: loud noise —> startle response and quiet noise followed by loud noise —> decreased startle response - SCZ have disrupted startle PPI response so same startle response to loud and quiet + loud noise - Testosterone promotes disruption of pre-pulse inhibition - Oestrogen protects against disruption of pre-pulse inhibition
What domains do most child mental health problems fall into?
- Emotional problems - Conduct problems - Developmental delays - Relationship difficulties
What is a framework for child mental health assessment?
SIRSE - Symptoms: What sort of problem is it? - Impact: How much distress or impairment is it causing? - Risks: What has initiated or maintained the problem? - Strengths: What assets are there to work with? - Explanatory model: what beliefs or expectations do the family or young person bring with them?
What is the epidemiology of Child/Adolescent Mental Health?
- Overall prevalence of CYP disorder- 6.8% - In CYP, if there is a brain disorder, CYP disorders are 44% - Emotional disorders: Female and Male: 1:0.7 - Conduct disorder: Female and Male 1:4:
What is autism?
- Triad of impairment 1) Communication 2) Social interactions 3) Restricted, repetitive and stereotypic patterns of behaviours - Spectrum - Strongly associated with Intellectual Disability but increasing prevalence now 70% have normal range IQ - Boys:Girls; 4:1 - ICD-10 - Regression 20-30%
Describe impairment in communication in Autism
Verbal - Speech delay - Stereotypic speech (utterances) Non-verbal - Poor gestures - Lack of varied spontaneous make-believe and creative play
Describe impairment in social interaction in Autism
- Impaired reciprocal interaction - Miss social-emotional cues and lack reciprocity - Lacking ‘Theory of mind’ - Literal, concrete understanding - Failure to develop peer relationships - Lack of shared enjoyment and pleasure
Describe restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of interests and behaviours
- Tendency not to use objects in intended functional fashion (e.g. repetitive use, unusual sensory interests) - Little imaginative play - Stereotyped motor mannerisms (e.g. hand and finger/complex mannerisms) - Adherence to non functional routines/rituals - Unusual pre-occupations or circumscribed interests
What is Childhood Autism?
- Triad of impaired communication, impaired social relationships and restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behaviour - Abnormal and/or impaired development before 3 years old - Non specific problems: fears/phobia, sleeping/eating disturbances, aggression, self-injury
What is Asperger’s Syndrome?
- Autism BUT no delay in language or cognitive development - M > F - Strong tendency for abnormalities to persist into adolescence and adulthood
Describe development in Autism
- A continual childhood process - Behaviours ‘normal’ at one age may be ‘abnormal’ at another - ASD has to be viewed developmentally for accurate diagnosis, assessment and intervention (deviance and/or delay) - Quality of social overture is more important in High Functional Autism and older children
What are examples of early age behaviours in autism?
- Feeding problems - Dislike of physical contact/content to be alone ‘angel baby’ - Lack of social pointing and eye contact - Inability to play reciprocal games - Babbling limited in quantity and quality
What is the epidemiology of Autism?
- Onset in early life - M > F - 1% of adult population - Associated with intellectual disability - Increasing prevalence? Improved diagnosis and increased awareness
Why is there increasing rates of Autism in migrant populations?
- Viral infections - Consanguineous
What are the co-morbidities of Autism?
- Intellectual disability (70%) - ADHD (30%) - Increasing rates of epilepsy
What are genetic factors of Autism?
- Monozygotic twins in 36-60% concordance rates - Presumed X-linked due to M>F, but families some Male-to-Male transmission?
What are the environmental factors of Autism?
- Obstetric complications (traumatic births) - Possible: ?Diet, Allergies, ?MMR Vaccine (now disproved)
What is the psychological hypothesis of Autism?
- Evidence of persistent cognitive dysfunction in Autism - ?Less activation in pre-frontal cortex
What is the DDx of autism?
- Language disorder - Expressive, receptive, both - Was development ever normal? - If yes then consider - Elective mutism - Disintegrative disorder - Schizophrenia - Severe psychological deprivation (e.g. Romanian orphans) —> Language delay, abnormal social behaviour, unusual habits - Deaf children: talk late, less socially skilled - Visual impairment: Autism is just a stage blind children go through due to issues with mother-infant relationships
What is included in the history and examination of Autism?
- Wood’s light - Cafe-au-lait spots - Height, weight and head circumference (Rett’s) - Shape of the head IF INDICATED - Bloods - TORCH screen for prenatal infections - Toxoplasma - Rubella - Cytomegalo virus - Herpes simplex - Chromosomal karyotyping - CT or MRI
What are some diagnostic tools for Autism?
- ADOS-2: Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (looking at the triad of impairment) - ADI-R: Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised - DISCO: Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders (Outdated) - 3di: The Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview
What are some screening tests for Autism?
- CHAT: Checklist for Autism in Toddlers - m CHAT - SCDC
What are the challenges of Autism diagnosis?
- Cluster of symptoms important - Quality as well as presence or absence of phenomena - Comorbidity and other delay - Family styles - Behaviour patterns (and IQ) may change with increasing age
What does management of Autism involve?
- No cure - Pharmacotherapy: Risperidone - Treat co-morbidities: Methylphenidate for co-morbid ADHD (30%) - Special needs education: Create a friendly environment - Speech and Language Therapist - Macaton: for non-verbal children, cards with symbols to help them communicate - Occupational therapy (for dyspraxia) - Behaviour management: reduce unwanted behaviours
What are specialist interventions for Autism?
- Lovaas-behavioural technique- 20,000 pounds per year - applied behaviour analysis to treat Autism - PACT study: Pre-school Autism Communication Trial —> Decreased symptom severity at long-term follow up 6yr 12 month early intervention (vs TAU) to train child to interact socially, tell mother to act certain way
What is the prognosis of Autism?
- Early symptoms tend to disappear with age - Social/Communication impairments may remain
What are the domains of development?
- Emotional - Physical - Cognitive - Social
Describe social and emotional development between birth to 12 months
- Birth to 3 months: Smiles/shows pleasure in response to interact, comforted by familiar adult - 3 to 6 months: initiates interaction, smile spontaneously, peek a boo - 6 to 9 months: differentiates emotions, distinguish friends/strangers, prefer familiar people - 9 to 12 months: separation anxiety, imitation, self regulation
Describe social and emotional development between 1 years to 4 years
- 1 to 2 years: sense of self, assertive, direct others, pride and pleasure with accomplishments - 2 to 3 years: explore more, self help skills, self as good/bad etc., aware own feelings vs others - 3 to 4 years: more interested in other children, initiate/join, play with others, share toys
How does the brain develop in early years?
- Child’s brain doubles in size in the first year - By age 3: reaches 80% of its adult volume - The back-and-forth interactions of babies and adults shape a baby’s brain architecture - Supports development of communication and social skills
What are emotions?
- Feeling or state of mind - Generated from interaction with biochemical (internal) and/or environmental (external) factors - Positive or negative valence - Involves: - Physiological arousal - Expressive behaviours - Conscious experience
What is temperament?
- How a young child acts and responds to different situations & individuals
What is an attachment?
- Emotional bond between a child and caregiver
What is emotional regulation?
- The ability of a child to control his or her emotions and reactions to the environment
What are social skills or social competence?
- Ability to get along with others
How do basic emotions develop?
- Joy (3 months) - Sadness (3 months) - Disgust (3 months) - Anger (2-6 months) - Surprise (first 6 months) - Fear (6-9 months)
How do self conscious emotions develop?
- Empathy (1.5-2 years) - Jealousy (1.5-2 years) - Embarrassment (1.5-2 years) - Pride (2.5 years) - Shame (2.5 years) - Guilt (2.5 years)
What are the functions of early emotions?
- Communicate needs - Solicit external response from a caregiver - Promote survival e.g. hunger - Relational - A way to engage in interactions with others and to understand others emotions
Describe the visual cliff experiment
- If baby is encountering an insignificant situation, they will turn to the significant other (e.g. caregiver) and will respond depending on the significant other’s non-verbal cues
Describe temperament (in depth)
- Individual differences or early dispositions - Simple, non-motivational, non-cognitive, stylistic characteristics that represent meaningful ways of describing individual differences (Rutter, 1987) - Child bring characteristics that contribute to his/her development - “Biological”, influence social/cognitive development, foundation for personality but different
Describe Thomas & Chess experiment
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Describe Kagan’s temperament categories
Two types of temperament - Inhibited temperament (highly reactive): More reserved, more guarded and introverted - Uninhibited (low reactive): More outgoing, extroverted, very comfortable in social situations Characteristics —> influence later behaviour depending on how they interact with the environment
What are the origins of individual differences? (Temperament)
GENETICS - Behavioural genetics: Modest to high heritability esp. fearfulness - Molecular genetics: dopamine receptor gene, serotonin receptor gene, gene environment interaction, e.g. certain allele —> different outcome depending on maternal sensitivity EPIGENETICS - Preconception, pre- and perinatal influences: Maternal health, substance abuse, birth difficulties
How does temperament relate to stability?
- Temperamental characteristics in first couple of years —> low correlation with supposedly comparable characteristics in adolescence - More consistency between between early school years and teenage period (correlations 0.3-0.5). - Consistency for extreme characteristics greater than for same characteristics in middle range.
What are the implications of temperament for psychopathology?
- Temperament predicts development of later emotional and behaviour disorders in normal and high risk samples - Association between difficult temperament and higher rate of accidents, sleep difficulties and infantile colic - Predicts behavioural deviance at school - Increases psychiatric risk by altering others responses
Describe Bowlby’s Attachment theory
1) Children need their primary caregiver(s) to be: - A secure base for exploration - A safe haven for protection 2) Children’s perception of the caregiver form basis for “internal working models”: Of self, caregiver, others 3) As individuals grow to adulthood, internal working models influence interpersonal behaviour
Describe Mary Ainsworth’s Attachment theory
- Strange situation procedure - Observation of child’s behaviour - Exploratory - Reaction to parent departures and return - Classification of child’s behaviour on parent’s return
Describe Mary Ainsworth’s 2nd Attachment theory
- A) Insecure - avoidant: Infant is detached on separation, avoids parent on reunion, engages in displacement exploration that is devoid of true interest - B) Secure: infant engages in positive exploration, is upset by separation but gives a positive response to parent upon reunion, with a rapid return to exploration - C) Insecure - resistant/ambivalent: Infant is preoccupied with parent’s availability. Shows distress or separation and anger/ambivalence upon reunion and is difficult to comfort - D) Disorganised: Inconsistent contradictory behaviors, dysregulated in presence of caregiver
Describe stability/association/outcomes in attachment
- Stability: longitudinal research mixed, methodologically complex - Stress response: cortisol increase in Strange Situation (Bernard et al 2010) - Secure attachment: none Disorganised and Insecure: present - Disorganised pattern strongest predictor for childhood psychopathology and adjustment - More: vulnerable to stress, difficulty regulating negative emotions, hostile, oppositional, aggressive behaviour - Early school years: internalizing /externalizing difficulties, self esteem, peer relations
What is emotional regulation?
- The processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions - During early development: dyadic - Becoming more capable of managing feelings, one of the most challenging tasks of development - Attention allocation important component - Impact of peers / stress on emotion regulation e.g. bullying & blunted cortisol response (Oellet-Morin et al 2011) - Adolescent impulsivity - Time of maximal maturity difference between subcortical and cortical brain structures - Adol’s better cognitive response inhibition than younger children - Difficulty suppressing reward related cues- ? Link with risk taking
What do twin studies for depression show us?
- Monozygotic twins reared together show 76% concordance - Monozygotic twins reared apart show 67% concordance - Dizygotic twins reared together show 19% concordance
What are the environment risks of adolescent depression?
- Parental depression - Family discord - Maltreatment - Peer victimisation - Bereavement
How does puberty occur?
- Gonadal hormones —> ? Direct CNS effect mood, cognition, motivation - Rapid growth —> change in body shape/sexual maturation —> ? negative experience - Timing e.g. early or late developer - NB Mid puberty - Circadian rhythm changes
How does the brain develop during adolescent development changes?
- Prefrontal cortex: grey matter thinning, synaptic pruning, myelination - Remodelling cortical and limbic circuits - Changes to face processing - Amygdala: PFC connectivity associated with: increased adolescent suicidal ideation/attempts (Alacron et al, 2019) - Positive parenting —> Decreased amygdala growth, increased cortical thinning (Whittle et al, 2013)
What are cognitive and emotional changes during adolescent development changes?
- Cognitive changes Thoughts more logical, abstract, reasoning Alternative outcomes, consequences, ambiguity Ability to ruminate and ask ‘what if’? - Increased intensity of mood states - Changes to self-regulation - Establishment of identity Reflect on own thoughts and perspective in relation to others Sense of self across time Reputation with peers
What are social and relationship changes during adolescent development?
- Family Relationships transformed Shift —> autonomy and independence Less time with family Cognitive changes —> discussion/arguments Question rules & values —> minor squabbles - Peers More times & more importance —> confidantes & models of behaviour Romantic & sexual relationships - Social world Autonomy —> Increased responsibility Increased exposure to media stereotypes ‘digital natives’ Experimentation tobacco, alcohol, drugs
What are the differences between normal adolescent angst and psychiatric disorders?
- Normal adolescent angst: Mastering the tasks of development: physical, social, emotional, cognitive, moral - Psychiatric disorder: Symptoms —> serious suffering & impairment: impact on personal, family, peers, education/work
What is the epidemiology of adolescent depressive disorder?
- Prevalence: 2-6% - Cumulative probability by late adol: 10-20% - Time trends: suggestions may be increasing over time
What are the differences of adolescent depressive disorders from that of adults?
- Irritability instead of sadness/low mood especially in boys - Somatic complaints and social withdrawal are common - Psychotic symptoms are rare before mid-adolescence