Download Disorders of the Brain and Linked to Depression and

Disorders of the Brain and How They are Linked to Depression and
Suicidal Thoughts
o Scientist do not have a complete understanding of what causes mental illness
o The fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology address different aspects
of the relationship between the biology of the brain and individuals’ behaviors,
thoughts, and feelings, and how their actions sometimes get out of control.
o Most scientists believe that mental illnesses results from problems with the
communication between neurons in the brain (Neurotransmission).
o The level of the neurotransmitter serotonin is lower in individuals who have
depression.
o Changes in other neurotransmitters (in addition to serotonin) may occur in
depression, thus adding to the complexity of the cause underlying the disease.
o Although scientists at this time do not know the causes of mental illnesses, they
have identified factor that put indivduals at risk. Some of these factors are
environmental, some are genetic and some are social.
o A person who has a mental illness cannot simply decide to get over it any more
than someone who has a different chronic disease such as diabetes, asthma, or
heart disease can. A mental illness, like those other diseases is caused by a
physical problem in the body.
o Attitudes about mental illness are changing, although there is a long way to go
before people accept tat mental illness is a disease with a biological basis.
o Many people have a mental illness don’t get the treatment that would alleviate their
suffering.
o Depressive disorders in young people confer a higher risk for illness and
interpersonal and psychosocial difficulties that persist after the depressive episode
is over. Depression in youth may predict more severe illness in adult life.
o Treatment, including psychotherapy and medication management, is cost-effective
for patients, their families, and society. The benefits include fewer visits to other
doctors’ offices, diagnostic, laboratories, and hospitals for physical ailments that
are based in psychological distress.
o A diagnosis of mental illness is rarely simple and straightforward. There are no
infallible physiological tests that determine
o Children and adolescents who suffer from depression are more likely to commit
suicide than are other youths. As in adults, episodes of depression are likely to
recur.
o Dysthymia is less severe than major depressive disorder, but it is more chromic.
o Genetic causes have been suggested from family studies that have shown that
between 20 and 50 percent of children and adolescents with depression have a
family history of depression and that children of depressed parents are more than
three times as likely as children with no depressed parents to experience a
depressive disorder. Abnormal endocrine function, specifically of the
hypothalamus or pituitary, may play a role in causing depression.
o Patients who continue to take their medication for at least six months after
recovery from major depression are 70 percent less likely to experience a relapse.
o Research from National Institute of Mental Health estimate that as many as seven
percent of adolescents who develop a major depressive disorder become victims
of suicide.
o The hippocampus is a seahorse-shaped region of the brain found on both the left
and right sides, buried a few inches in from the ears.
o It has a critical role in memory and is part of the connected circuit of brain regions
called the limbic system that generates and regulate our emotional lives.
o Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford neuroscientist, suggested that chromic stress might
unleash a cascade of stress hormones, which over time might kill hippocampal
cells.
o There have since been several studies that have shown that hippocampal size in
depression correlates with the length of time a person has been depressed.
o BDNF belongs to a family of genes that influence brain growth, stimulating it like
fertilizer in a garden. Antidepressants may act in part by increasing BDNF
fertilization in the hippocampus.
o On average men aged 64 years have smaller brains than men aged 60. However,
despite this shrinkage cognitive functions – like memory, attention and speed of
procession – are unaffected.
o The brain is the “command center” of the human body.
o It controls the basic functions of our bodies our movements.