PREFRONTAL CORTEX Flashcards
CRITERIA FOR MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER
You need five symptoms (both A and B) that need to be present within the same 2 week period and must be different from normal functioning.
What must be at least one of the symptoms of major depressive disorder?
1) Depressed mood or 2) loss of interest or pleasure (ahedonia)
What is the type A criteria?
- Depressed mood most of the day. Irritable mood in adolescents and children.
- Diminished interest or pleasure in all (or almost) activities most of the day everyday
- Significant weight changes.
- Insomnia or hypersomnia
- Psychomotor agitation or retardation
- Fatigue
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt- nearly everyday.
- Diminished ability to concentrate or indecisiviness.
- Recurrent thoughts of death (specific or non specific plan)
What are Type B
Clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupation or other areas important for functioning.
What happens in a major depressive episode and how does that differ from manic depression?
MDE- affective or mood symptoms depressed mood or feelings of worthlessness or guilt, cognitive and somatic symptoms but also behavioural symptoms including social withdrawal and agitation. MD- greatly elevated mood, creativity, profusion of thought and pressured speech, gradiotisty and confidence or anxiety or aggression, limitless energy, reduced need for sleep, highly distractable, irritable and exhibits poor judgement.
What areas of the brain are overactive in depression?
Orbtial/ ventral- medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala and medial thalamus.
Name some of the treatments for depression
Electroconvulsive therapy, psychotherapy, Antidepressants (tricyclics, SSRIs NERIs, MAO inhibitors)
Elaborate of electroconvulsive therapy.
Still used, still effective, large current is passed through the brain creating convulsions, can cause memory deficits, last line treatment.
What is the deal with psychotherapy?
Psychodynamic model, freudian model, cognitively address the underlying causes, efficacy is questionable but it has been shown when someone shows care in your healthy you improve.
How do tricylics, MAO inhibiters and SSRI and NERI work?
SSRI and NERI ( v common, reuptake inhibitors, NA stop clearence being effective, increase levels), MAO inhibitor- inhibit the breakdown of the inhibitor. Tricylics act on the reuptake of NA.
Treatment of affective disorders.
MAO inhibitors (destruction of all monoamine- NA,A,dop,sero), MA reuptake inhibiitors, Lithium (treats bipolar/manic depression)- mechanims not well understood but modulate phosphoinosital secondary messengers.
Psychoactive drugs
Mind altering effects, hedonic, psychedelic or stimulants.
Many abused drugs act on the diffuse neuromodulatory systems.
What are some chronic related alcohol disease?
Cancer (mouth, oropharyngeal, oesophageal, liver, breast), neuropsychiatric diseases (AUDS, unipolar major depression,epilepsy), diabetes and CVD, GI disease, conditions arising during the perinatal period
Discuss some things pertaining to the ethanol pharmacology
Works kind of like a GABA agonist, it is also a stimulant people who drink become very
What are some of the acute effects of alcohol consuption
- Alcohol potentiates and antagonises GABA effects (sedation and disinhibition)
- Chronic alcohol consumption is correalated with reduced GABA receptor denesity in the brain which is consistent with anxiety (and the use of benzodiazepines) in alcohol withdrawal. -Chronic alcohol consumption has also been associated with increased glutamate action in the hippocampus that is associated with memory.
- Serotonin and endorphin release associated with the reward- associated with the high of intoxication and the craving for alcohol.
- Increase of dopamine (Associated with motivation and reward)
