Psychiatric Disorders Flashcards
What is schizophrenia?
- “splitting of psychic functions”
- refers to the breakdown of integration of emotion, thought and action
What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Hallucinations (especially auditory)
- Delusions (especially persecutory)
- disorganized thought and nonsensical speech
- bizarre behaviors
What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
- flat emotion (esp in face)
- reduced social interaction
- anhedonia (no feeling of enjoyment)
- avolition (less motivation/initiative)
- alogia (speaking less)
What is the dopamine theory of schizophrenia?
- drugs that inhibited dopamine receptors are effective in treating schizophrenia
- amphetamine and cocaine are dopamine agonists and produce psychosis
- schizophrenia associated with dopamine overactivity
What are the limitations of the dopamine theory of schizophrenia?
- schizophrenia associated with reduced brain volume with little damage to dopamine circuitry
- antipsychotics work quickly at the synapse, but don’t relieve symptoms for weeks
What is mania?
overconfidence, impulsivity, distractibility, high energy
What is depression?
- normal reaction to loss
- abnormal when it persists or has no cause
What is the difference between unipolar and bipolar depression?
- Bipolar depression has cycles of mania and depression
- unipolar depression is constant
What are the major classes of antidepressant drugs?
- Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
- Tricyclic antidepressants
- Selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
- Selective norepinephrine-reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
How do SSRIs work?
- serotonin is deactivated in the synapse by reuptake into the presynaptic neuron
- blocks the reuptake of serotonin, thus increasing the activation of serotonin receptors
What is the most commonly used mood stabilizer for bipolar disorder?
Lithium
What is the diathesis-stress model of depression?
- genetic susceptibility + stress = depression
- support is indirect, depressed people tend to release more stress hormones
What are the five classes of anxiety disorders?
- Generalized anxiety disorders
- phobic anxiety disorders
- panic disorders
- obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD)
- posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
What are the medications commonly used for the pharmacological treatment of anxiety disorders?
- Benzodiazepines
- Serotonin agonists
- antidepressants
What is translational research?
- research designed to translate basic scientific discoveries into effective clinical treatments
- usually moves to clinical trials of the treatment
