Mood Disorders Flashcards
Define unipolar affective disorder
Patients suffer from depressive episodes alone, although they are commonly recurrent.
Define bipolar affective disorder
Patients suffer bouts of both depression and mania. Although mania can rarely occur by itself without depressive mood swings (thus being ‘unipolar’), it is far more commonly found in association with depressive swings, even if sometimes it takes several years for the first depressive illness to appear
What is depression?
Condition where symptoms of unhappiness become qualitatively different and pervasive or interfere with normal functioning.
Is depression more common in men or women?
women
General Criteria for diagnosis of depression?
A. The depressive episode should last at least 2 weeks
B. There have been no hypomanic or manic symptoms sufficient to meet the criteria for hypomanic or manic episode at any time in the individual’s life
Core and Additional Features needed for diagnosis of depressive episode?
CORE: (need 2/3)
1) depressed mood
2) loss of interest or pleasure
3) decreased energy
ADDITIONAL: (need at least 1, total to make 4)
1) Loss of confidence
2) guilt
3) suicidal ideas or behaviours
4) poor concentration
5) agitation/ retardation
6) sleep disturbance
7) changes in appetite
Define dysthymia?
Mild or moderate depressive illness that lasts intermittently for 2 years or more
Explain what psychotic depression is?
Occurs in some with severe depression where thinking becomes psychotic
Usually hallucinations with theme of depression e.g. voices saying they are a failure
Nihilistic delusions can occur where it is believed by the patient that a part of them is dead or decomposed or annihilated or they don’t exist entirely as a human being (called Cotard syndrome)
List some clinical features of depression?
Mood: Depressed, miserable or irritable
Talk: Impoverished, slow, monotonous
Energy: Reduced, lethargic, lacking motivation
Ideas: Feelings of futility, guilt, self-reproach, unworthiness, hypochondriacal preoccupations, worrying, suicidal thoughts, delusions of guilt, nihilism and persecution
Cognition: Impaired learning, pseudodementia in elderly patients
Physical: Insomnia (especially early waking), poor appetite and weight loss, constipation, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, bodily pains
Behaviour: Retardation or agitation, poverty of movement and expression
Hallucinations: Auditory – often hostile, critical
Explain the difference between the two main classifications of bipolar disorder?
Bipolar I
– Has to have met criteria for mania, although previous episodes may have been hypomanic and/or depressive
– Represents the ‘classic’ form of manic-depressive psychosis in the last century
Bipolar II
– Current or past hypomanic episode and current or
past depressive episode
– Has never met criteria for manic episode
– Represents the most common form of illness
- not a milder form, still a large amount of disability
A single episode of hypomania or mania even if the patient hasn’t been depressed is ________
bipolar (mania doesn’t occur as a unipolar disorder)
The first episode of hypomania or mania on a background of recurrent depression means that _________
the diagnosis is bipolar disorder and not depression anymore
Define what is meant by hypomania?
A level of disturbance below mania
What is the criteria for a hypomanic episode?
A. The mood is elevated or irritable to a degree that is definitely abnormal for the individual concerned and sustained for at least 4 consecutive days
B. At least three of the following signs must be present, leading to some interference with personal functioning in daily living:
- increased activity or physical restlessness;
- increased talkativeness;
- difficulty in concentration or distractibility;
- decreased need for sleep;
- increased sexual energy;
- mild spending sprees, or other types of reckless or irresponsible behaviour;
What is the criteria for a manic episode?
A. Mood must be predominantly elevated, expansive or irritable, and definitely abnormal for the individual concerned. The mood change must be prominent and sustained for at least 1 week (unless it is severe enough to require hospital admission)
B. At least three of the following signs must be present (four if the mood is merely irritable), leading to severe interference with personal functioning in daily living
- Increased activity or physical restlessness;
- Increased talkativeness (‘pressure of speech’);
- Flight of ideas or the subjective experience of thoughts racing;
- Loss of normal social inhibitions resulting in behaviour which is inappropriate to the circumstances;
- Decreased need for sleep;
- Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity;
- Distractibility or constant changes in activity or plans;
- Behaviour which is foolhardy or reckless and whose risks the subject does not recognize e.g. spending sprees, foolish enterprises, reckless driving;
- Marked sexual energy or sexual indiscretions.
Length of manic episode vs hypomanic episode?
hypomanic: at least 4 consecutive days
manic: mood change must be prominent and sustained for at least a week (unless severe enough to require hospital admission)
Prevalence of bipolar disorder?
1-4%
Mean age of onset of bipolar disorder? How does this compare to depression?
age 21, this is earlier than depression
Is bipolar more common in men or women?
it is equally common
Is there genetic factors in bipolar?
yes there is strong evidence of genetic factors, multiple genes each with small effects
Patients with bipolar 1 and 2 typically spend about _______ of the time with syndromal mood disturbance
50%
In both types of bipolar what is the most common mood disturbance?
depression
Compared to bipolar 2, bipolar 1 has slightly higher percentage time spent in ____
mania or hypomania
In bipolar disorder explain subsyndromal symptoms?
These are symptoms of depressed or elated mood that don’t necessarily meet criteria for a depressive or manic episode but can still be very disabling
Explain what the monoamine hypothesis is?
This states that depression results from a functional deficit of monoamine transmitters in particular serotonin (5-HT) and noradrenaline
This was based off the evidence that drugs that deplete stores of monoamines e.g. reserpine can induce low mood
Also CSF from depressed patients have reduced levels of monoamines or metabolites
Most drugs that treat depression act to increase monoaminergic transmission
But it’s NOT that simple, these are just parts of the complex pathway that are modifiable
Give some examples of SSRIs?
fluoxetine, citalopram, sertraline, paroxetine