PSY 309 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Biology Of Depression, Major Depressive Episode, Bipolar Disorder
Lecture note 18 PSY 309:
• Mood disorders
• Sometimes referred to as affective disorders and can refer to a number of things
• Mood
• Emotions and feelings
• Mania
• Extreme moods, extreme euphoria, elevated, easily irritable. There is no diagnosis but
one must have elevated mood and 3 other symptoms for 1 week for it to be classified as
this. Formerly known as Manic-depression
• Mania symptoms
• Inflated self-esteem
• Decreased need for sleep
• Flight of ideas/racing thoughts
• Distractibility
• Increase in goal directed activities
• Excessive potentially negative activities ex. Shopping spree spending all of money or lots
of risky sex
• Emil Kraeplin
• First to identify mania as different than psychosis
• Hypomania
• Milder version of mania that lasts for less time, not a problem
• Clinical depression
• Clinical levels of sadness, causes harm and is making life worse
• MDD
• MDE without Mania/Hypomania. Must have 5 symptoms with *at least one of either:
sad mood, Anhedonia (loss of interest in pleasurable activities) for majority of time for 2
weeks/majority of a month. Major Depressive Disorder. Women are about twice as
likely to get this than men
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• MDD symptoms
• Sad mood
• Anhedonia
• Insomnia
• Concentration difficulties
• Feeling excessive guilt/worthlessness
• Psychomotor agitation/retardation ie. slow
• Sudden change in weight/loss or gain in appetite
• Energy loss
• Thoughts of death or suicide
• MDE
• Most symptoms for 2 weeks, not a diagnosis but can be criteria for Bipolar. Stands for
Major Depressive Episode
• Bereavement
• One may experience this with a death of somebody close, can be diagnosed as MDD
according to DSM5, diagnosing this as MDD can lead to over treatment and appearance
of depression rising statistically
• Rumination
• Thinking about something over and over so much so that it causes pain and difficulty
with sleep and concentration. Word comes from cow digestion
• 20%
• MDD lifetime prevalence
• 7%
• MDD annual (yearly) prevalence
• Bipolar 1
• Must have mania
• Have/had or has never had depression
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Bipolar 2
• Depression with hypomania
• 4%
• Lifetime prevalence of Bipolar
• 2.5%
• Annual prevalence of Bipolar
• Bipolar treatments
• Antipsychotics
• Mood stabilizers ie. Lithium (extremely toxic, must be monitored)
• Note anyone with Bipolar disorder can't just be on antidepressants bc it will increase
manic episodes
• Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression
• Belief depression is caused by a lack of or imbalance of neurotransmitters ie. serotonin.
Supporting evidence: SSRIs work
• Debunking evidence: 86% of effectiveness is due to placebo effects, takes 6-8 weeks to
reduce depression, can take opposite medication and have same effect of reducing
symptoms
• Ultimately this theory is proven to be false
• Neurotransmitters
• Chemical release that send signals between 2 neurons
• ex. Serotonin
• SSRIs
• Any anti-depression medication. Releases positive neurotransmitters and inhibit the re-
uptake (allows neurotransmitters to sit in synapse for longer so more can be absorbed)
• Side effects of SSRIs
• -Increased suicidality (thoughts about death/suicide for adolescents/young adults)
• -Serotonin syndrome (too much free floating serotonin, overly active)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture note 18 psy 309: mood disorders, sometimes referred to as affective disorders and can refer to a number of things, mood, emotions and feelings, mania, extreme moods, extreme euphoria, elevated, easily irritable. There is no diagnosis but one must have elevated mood and 3 other symptoms for 1 week for it to be classified as this. Inflated self-esteem: mania symptoms, decreased need for sleep, flight of ideas/racing thoughts, distractibility, excessive potentially negative activities ex. Shopping spree spending all of money or lots. Must have 5 symptoms with *at least one of either: sad mood, anhedonia (loss of interest in pleasurable activities) for majority of time for 2 weeks/majority of a month. Women are about twice as likely to get this than men. Releases positive neurotransmitters and inhibit the re- uptake (allows neurotransmitters to sit in synapse for longer so more can be absorbed: side effects of ssris. Increased suicidality (thoughts about death/suicide for adolescents/young adults)
