Practical Applications Flashcards
What is the medical model?
Suggests that mental health has a physical cause and that symptoms are grouped together and classified as a disorder. Mental disorders are due to biological factors within the brain
How does serotonin lead to a disorder?
Serotonin carries messages between nerve cells and regulates mood, an imbalance leads to anxiety
How does noradrenaline lead to a disorder?
if too high can cause anxiety disorders and panic attacks
How does dopamine lead to a disorder?
Dopamine causes feelings of pleasure so increased levels leads to addictive behaviours causing anxiety or schizaphernia
How does Glutamate lead to a disorder?
Allows for learning and memory, can cause hallutionations and delusions- symptoms of schizoprenia
What are the biochemical explinations of mental illness?
Suggest that imbalances in neurotransmitters can affect how the brain passes signals between neurons and lead to things like anxiety, low mood, and hallucinations
What happens biochemically for someone with depression?
People with depression have low levels of serotonin which can be due to experiencing a stressful event or it can be caused by genetics. When serotonin is released into the synapse it doesn’t bind effectively to the receptors on the post synaptic neuron before being taken back up through reuptake channels.
What happens biochemically for someone with schizophrenia?
Increased levels of dopamine are released into the synapse and binds to D2 receptors on the post synaptic neuron and too much dopamine binds and less is taken back up which causes dellusions and hallutionations
How can we treat depression with drug therapy?
SSRI(selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) this blocks the reuptake channel on the pre synaptic neuron so serotonin stays in the synapse so it has more time to bind
How can we treat schizophrenia with drug therapy?
Antipsychotic drugs balance the levels of dopamine by blocking D2 receptors on post synaptic neuron allowing normal amount of dopamine to bind resulting in no hallutinations.
Describe Gottesman’s research.
He investigated couples who have psychiatric illnesses and their offspring to calculate the risk of their offspring also being diagnosed with a psychiatric illness. The aim of the study was to investigate the importance of genetic influence, where both parents have been admitted with a severe psychiatric disorder. Patients were diagnosed with ICD-8 and ICD-10, the study measures the cumulative incidences of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in offspring up to 52 years old
Explain the findings to Gottesman’s research.
Schizophrenia- both parents= 27% one parent= 7% no parent= 0.9%
Bipolar- both parent= 25% one parent= 4% no parent= 0.5%
One parent with Schiz/ One parent with Bipoar= 16% of schiz 12% of Bipolar
