Psychological Disorders

These flashcards cover key terms and concepts related to psychological disorders, including definitions and significant statistics.

Mental Illness Prevalence

25% of U.S. adults suffer from mental illness; 46% experience it at some point in their lifetime.

Psychosis

Severe disturbances in reality and thinking, characterized by symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.

Heritability in Schizophrenia

Estimated to be between 60% and 90%, indicating a significant genetic component.

Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Delusions and hallucinations that are potentially reversible.

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Poverty of speech and lack of affect, often irreversible.

Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

Suggests that excess dopamine activity leads to enhanced significance of ordinary stimuli.

Glutamate Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

Too much glutamate due to hypofunction of NMDARs may cause symptoms similar to schizophrenia.

Affective Disorders

Include major depression and bipolar disorder; characterized by mood disturbances.

Major Depression Symptoms

Sadness, hopelessness, social withdrawal, and changes in sleep and appetite.

Bipolar Disorder Features

Alternation between periods of depression and mania or hypomania.

Bipolar 1

Alternate between periods of major depression and mania

Bipolar 2

Alternate between periods of major depression and hypomania and psychotic features

Cyclothymic disorder

Individuals cycle rapidly between hypomania and mild depression

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

A form of therapy that can be more effective when combined with medication.

Monoamine Hypothesis of Depression

Suggests depression is linked to reduced activity at neurotransmitter synapses, especially norepinephrine and serotonin.

Lithium in Bipolar Treatment

Most effective during manic episodes by stabilizing neurotransmitter activity.

Which brain regions show volume deficits and decreased activity in affective disorders?

• Prefrontal cortex (especially dorsolateral PFC)

• Hippocampus

Which brain regions show increased activity in affective disorders?

• Ventromedial PFC (vPFC) → state-related increases

• Amygdala → trait-related increases (persistently heightened emotional reactivity)

What is the proposed role of the vPFC in affective disorders?

• May act as a “depression switch”, contributing to depressed mood when overactive.

What is the role of the subgenual prefrontal cortex in bipolar disorder?

• May act as a “bipolar switch”, associated with the onset of mania when dysregulated

Anxiety Disorders Heritability

Family and twin studies show genetic influences on anxiety disorders ranging from 20% to 47%.

•Generalized anxiety

chronic unease/worry

•Panic disorder

intense attacks, feeling of impending disaster

•Phobia

intense fear/avoidance of certain objects or situations

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Prolonged stress reaction to a traumatic event, with around 30% heritability.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Characterized by recurring thoughts (obsessions) and irresistible impulses to act (compulsions).

Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

Includes pharmacological treatments like SSRIs and therapeutic approaches such as exposure therapy.

Neural Circuits in Anxiety

Involves hyperactivity in the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex, related to anxiety symptoms.

General anxiety, Panic disorder, Phobias

Anterior cingulate cortex hyperactive

•Phobias, PTSD

–Insular cortex hyperactive

Brain Anomalies: Schizophrenia

Reduced gray matter, limbic volume, increased ventricular size

Poor Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance

measures: cognitive flexibility, ability to shift strategies, working memory

prefrontal cortex (PFC)

The part of the brain responsible for planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and shifting attention.

Hypofrontality

Reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC)

DA deficiency in dlPFC

flat affect, social withdrawal, cognitive impairments (working memory, planning, flexibility)

What does decreased neural connectivity in schizophrenia correlate with?

• Reduced white matter integrity

• Impaired auditory gating

• Difficulty filtering sensory input

What is impaired auditory gating in schizophrenia?

• Reduced ability to suppress irrelevant environmental sounds

• Reflected as no reduction in the EEG P50 wave on repeated auditory stimuli

What does a lack of P50 suppression indicate?

• Failure to “gate” or filter out repeated auditory information

• Suggests sensory overload and difficulty focusing attention

What does increased neural connectivity in certain brain areas correlate with?

• Hallucinations

• Hyper-excitability in sensory regions

• Overactive interpretation of sensory signals

•Aberrant neural migration in _____

temporal and frontal lobes

•Deficiency in Reelin protein, no “stop” signal for migration in ____

hippocampus and PFC

•Severe synaptic pruning of ___ pathways

Dopamine and Gutamate

•Salience network

Error detection between intended and appropriate responses

•Ventral attention network

Excessive stimulus-driven attention