Reproductive Psychiatry and Human Development Flashcards
What is the difference between gender and sex?
Gender is what culture or society expects for a male or a female
Sex is based on biology
What is the difference between organizational and activational effects of gonadal hormone?
Organizational effects of gonadal hormones occur early in development (in utero or early postnatal) and are considered to be permanent
Activational effects of gonadal hormones occur late in development and are transient and superimpose themselves on organizational effects.
What psychiatric disorders exhibit a gender bias?
Women > men: typically affective disorders
- Major depression disorder
- Panic disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- PTSD
- Borderline personality disorder
- Seasonal affective disorder
Men > women
- Autism
- Schizophrenia
- Alcoholism
- Drug addiction
- Antisocial behavior
- ADD
- Tourette’s syndrome
What medical conditions exhibit a gender bias?
Women > men: typically autoimmune
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Osteoporosis
- Cushing disease
- Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
- Grave’s disease
- MS
- Scleroderma
- Alzheimers
Men > women
- Hepatocellular carcinoma
- Kidney disease
- Ankylosing spondylitis
- Goodpasture’s syndrome
- Heart disease
- Parkinson’s disease
Describe the effects of estrogen in the brain.
Describe the effects of progesterone on the brain.
Describe the effects of oxytocin on the brain.
Oxytocin is largely responsible for milk let down and uterine contractions. It impacts affiliate behavior and has an anti-glucocorticoid effect to minimize stress. It also modulates neural circuitry for social recognition and fear (reduced amygdala activation in response to threatening faces or scenes). Oxytocin levels are increased by partner intimacy and are linked to lower BP and HR.
What causes masculinization of the brain?
Androgen exposure in utero results in a masculine brain. Decreased androgen exposure defaults to feminization of the brain.
What is prementrual dysphoric disorder?
Criteria: irritability, depressed mood, affective lability, anxiety, or tension that markedly interfere with work, school, or usual activities or relationships. Other symptoms include decreased interest, lack of energy, change in sleep, physical symptoms, feeling out of control, change in appetite, and difficulty concentrating. They must not be an exacerbation of another disorder and must be confirmed before two menstrual cycles.
PMDD is responsive to treatment with SSRI’s regularly or during the luteal phase alone.
Relevance: hormones are important in modulating mood, cognition, and behavior
What is the importance of social attachment?
Social attachment is the foundation for healthy personality and functioning in society. It influences cognitive abilities, development of conscience, coping skills, relationship development, ability to handle perceived threats, and ability to handle negative emotions.
What types of attachment are biologically relevant?
Attachment is bidirectional
- Infant attachment: clinging, suckling, cooing, separation response
- Parent behavior: maternal-infant (nursing, retrieval, nest building, grooming defense) and paternal-infant (retrieval, nest building, grooming, defense, feeding)
- Pair bond formation: cohabitation, partner preference, mate guarding, separation response
What is attachment behavior?
Behavior that promotes proximity to or contact with the persons to whom an individual is attached. It is discriminating, specific, and reciprocal.
What hormones, neurotransmitters, and neural circuits are important in attachment?
Dopamine and oxytocin are involved in rat pup attachment to mother (olfactory bulbs, locus ceruleus, amygdala). Maternal behavior is mediated by oxytocin and estrogen, which regulates the number of oxytocin receptors in the CNS, as well as dopamine.
Oxytocin binding in the prelimbic cortex and nucleus accumbens mediate maternal behavior and pair bonding in prarie voles.
What was the long term impact of wire surrogate mothers on monkey development?
What are the necessary conditions for the development of attachment? How does attachment develop?
In order to develop attachment, the infant must have sufficient interaction with the caretaker, be able to distinguish the caretaker from others, be able to engage in a reciprocal cycle of interaction, and be able to recognize the caretaker’s permanent and independent existence.
Attachment develops with the infant has a need and reacts leading to the caregiver supplying the need. This permits gratification, relief, and building of trust.
What is the first phase of attachment and its corresponding behaviors?
Phase 1: indiscriminate sociability (0-2 months)
- Infant behaves the same toward anyone who interacts in caregiver role
- Reciprocal interactions minimize crying
- Smiling, crying, vocalization, visual tracking, clinging, sucking
Phase 2: attachments in the making (2-7 months)
- Infant begins differentiating familiar caregivers
- Differential crying and smiling, climbing, vocalizations, greeting response
Phase 3: clear cut attachments (7-24 months)
Phase 4: goal-coordinated partnership with linguistic involvement (>2 years)
What is the second phase of attachment and its corresponding behaviors?
Phase 2: attachments in the making (2-7 months)
- Infant begins differentiating familiar caregivers
- Differential crying and smiling, climbing, vocalizations, greeting response
What is the third phase of attachment and its corresponding behaviors?
Phase 3: clear cut attachments (7-24 months)
- Infant consolidates attachment
- More complex motor, cognitive, and communicative changes
- Intentional control over attachment behavior
- Develops person permanence
- Differential response to people and new situations
- “Still face experiment”–abnormal response if the mother has not been emotionally available
- Stranger anxiety: 6-8 months
- Separation anxiety: 10-18 months
What is the fourth phase of attachment and its corresponding behaviors?
Phase 4: goal-coordinated partnership with linguistic involvement (>2 years)
- Can alter attachment behavior
- Can negotiate a shared plan for proximity
- Can understand objectively the causal relations between caregiver’s goals and behavior
