Week 21 Flashcards
Describe the diagnostic criteria for mood disorders.
Cyclothymic-must experience symptoms at least half the time with no more than 2 consecutive symptom free months-must cause distress or impairment
Understand age, gender, and ethnic differences in prevalence rates of mood disorders.
Although the onset of MDD can occur at any time throughout the lifespan, the average age of onset is mid-20s, with the age of onset decreasing with people born more recently . Prevalence of MDD among older adults is much lower than it is for younger cohorts
Another large community-based study found that although prevalence rates of mood disorders were similar across ethnic groups, Hispanic Americans and African Americans with a mood disorder were more likely to remain persistently ill than European Americans
The prevalence of BD is substantially lower in older adults compared with younger adults
Identify common risk factors for mood disorders.
Genetic factors
Environmental stressors like stressful life events, experiencing early adversity (childhood abuse or neglect)
Attributional styles and general ways of thinking (pessimistic attributional style tends to make internal, global and stable attributions to negative events
anhedonia
loss of interest or pleasure
Know effective treatments of mood disorders.
MDD-antidepressant medications (target neurotransmitters)
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and deep brain stimulation
Bipolar disorders-pharmacotherapy, antidepressants like SSRIs and SNRIs are the primary choice of treatment for depression
Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy
Early adversity
single or multiple acute or chronic stressful events, result is a stress response
Social zeitgeber
Zeitgeber is German for “time giver.” Social zeitgebers are environmental cues, such as meal times and interactions with other people, that entrain biological rhythms and thus sleep-wake cycle regularity.
Describe the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.
Delusions (false beliefs that are often prefixed)
Hallucinations
Disorganized speech and behavior (weird clothes, odd makeup)
abnormal motor behavior
negative symptoms
Describe the most well-replicated cognitive and neurobiological changes associated with schizophrenia.
Cognitive problems in schizophrenia are a major source of disability and loss of functional capacity
Problems with episodic memory, working memory and other tasks that require control
Processing speeds are also slow
Describe the potential risk factors for the development of schizophrenia.
Genetic contributions-summation of genes ‘
Environmental factors-problems during pregnancy like increased stress, infection, malnutrition, diabetes
Complications at birth are also associated with risk for developing schitxophrenia
Describe the controversies associated with “clinical high risk” approaches to identifying individuals at risk for the development of schizophrenia.
Many scientists and clinicians have been worried that including “risk” states in the DSM-5 would create mental disorders where none exist, that these individuals are often already seeking treatment for other problems, and that it is not clear that we have good treatments to stop these individuals from developing to psychosis. However, the counterarguments have been that there is evidence that individuals with high-risk symptoms develop psychosis at a much higher rate than individuals with other types of psychiatric symptoms, and that the inclusion of Attenuated Psychotic Syndrome in Section III will spur important research that might have clinical benefits.
Describe the treatments that work for some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.
he first line of treatment for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders is the use of antipsychotic medications. There are two primary types of antipsychotic medications, referred to as “typical” and “atypical.”
