NEUR533 - Mental Illness Flashcards
learning outcomes
Biological approach to mental illness
What was the first treatment medication for mental health in 1910?
arsphenamine
What is agoraphobia?
Fear of an open marketplace
Fear of outside, travel, crowds etc
What is OCD associated with?
Obsessions; recurrent intrusive thoughts, ideas or impulses
Compulsions; repetitve behaviours to reduce anxiety
E.g. extreme cleanliness and hand washing, counting
What part in the hypothalamus secretes corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)?
Paraventricular nucleus
What hormone does corticotropin-releasing hormone stimulate in the anterior pituitary gland?
adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH)
What are the 2 key brain areas that regulate the HPA axis?
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Where does the amygdala project to activate the HPA axis?
Projects to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
What does the hippocampus do to suppress HPA axis?
- Negative feedback
- Inhibits CRH release when increased cortisol present
What’s a new target for anxiety disorder drugs?
CRH receptors
Review - serotonin SSRIs
review different types of bipolar
Review the monoamine hypothesis of mood disorders
- Treatment focus on central serotonergic and noradrenergic systems
What is the diathesis-stress hypothesis?
- Genetic predisposition
- Glucocorticoid gene receptor expression regulated by early experiences
- Impacts CRH and HPA axis
- HPA hyperactivity
What changes have they found in the anterior cingulate cortex in depression?
Increased Resting-state metabolic activity
Can be related to increased HPA activity
Treatment of affective disorders - Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
How ketamine works on a neuron firing
John Cade inducing lithium treatment for bipolar disorder
Lithium is good for helping to calm mania episodes in bipolar disorder
Deep brain stimulation approach
What area does deep brain stimulation influence?
Anterior cingulate cortex (brodmann’s area 25)
Schizophrenia overview
Genetic relationship of schizophrenia
What are biological differences in the brain with schizophrenia?
- Physical changes
- Larger ventricle to brain size ratio
- Depleted temporal lobe and frontal lobe cortexes
- Reduced myelination
- Excessive catecholamine
- Glutamate hyperexcitability
Whats a neuroleptic drug that is a potent blocker of D2 receptors?
chlorpromazine
- used for amphetamine and cocaine psychoses