Download Mood Disorders

Mood Disorders
Extremes of mood ranging from
depression to mania.
I. Depressive Disorder
• Characteristics:
– Deep depression
– Loss of interest or pleasure in activities
– Weight loss
– Problems with concentration
– Thoughts about death
• Very widespread
– 15% of population will suffer from depressive
disorder
• Women are twice as likely to suffer from
depression as men
• Reasons for depression
– Stress:
• physical illness, geographic moves, & deaths of
friends are often followed by depressions
• How does stress lead to depression?
– Intense brain activity that is associated with stress
depletes the levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in
the area of the brain known as the hypothalamus which
is responsible for mood.
•
Factors that protect people from stressrelated depression
– Social support: having friends to turn to for
help during periods of stress cause people
to be less likely to become depressed.
– The number of friends is not as important as
the quality of friends.
– Aerobic exercise: jogging, swimming ,
cycling, etc.
•
Why?
1. People in good physical condition have smaller
physiological responses to stressors than other
individuals
2. The body produces more serotonin during aerobic
exercise, which helps protect individuals from
depression
• Reasons for depression cont.
– Some people are more likely to become
depressed due to physiological predisposition
to depression
– Genetic factors cause some people to have
lower levels of serotonin. Diathesis-stress
– Incorrect negative beliefs
• Persistent negative thoughts will lead the individual
to see themselves, their world, and the their future
as negative. Those negative beliefs then lead to
depression.
Do the negative beliefs cause
the depression?
Or does the depression
cause the negative
beliefs?
• Treatment
– Psychotherapy
• Patient learns how to avoid or cope with stress
and the therapist provides social support.
– Cognitive therapy
• Used to change negative beliefs
• Evidence shows that cognitive therapy can be as
effective as drug therapy without the negative side
affects often associated w/ drug therapy
Physiological Causes
• Neurotransmitters
– Serotonin & Norepinephrine
• Crucial because they play a central role in the
operation of the hypothalamus (structure of the
brain that controls mood)
• Low levels of neurotransmitters results in low
activity in the hypothalamus, which causes a
depressed mood.
• Tryptophan
• Brain Damage
– Strokes often result in depression
– More likely if stroke occurs in the left
prefrontal cortex.
– MRI’s confirm this conclusion
• Genetics
– Best predictor of whether an individual will
suffer from depression is a biological family
history of depression.
Physiological Treatments
• Becoming the most widely used treatments
• Antidepressant drugs: corrects problem with
neurotransmitters
• Stimulants and herbal medicines:
– Example: amphetamines & cocaine
• Increase production of neurotransmitters like serotonin.
– Quick fix
– Not used as treatment: When an individual stops
taking the stimulant the depression becomes worse
than before.
• Herbal
– Omega 3
– Saint John’s wort
• Studies show SJW was more effective than
placebos and about as effective as prozac for
treating depression
• Most investigative patients were suffering from
mild depression.