PSY100H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Catatonia, Twin, Psychosis

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100H1
• Professor: Dan Dolderman

Document Summary

Mood disorders have cognitive, situational, and biological components. Disorders can result in loss of jobs, friends, family etc and at a higher danger of suicide so important to understand causes of major depression and treating it. Studies of twins, families, and adoption support the notion that depression has a genetic component: concordance rates between identical twins are 4 times higher than the rates between fraternal twins eg. bipolar disorder. Families with bipolar disorder, successive generations have more severe disorders and earlier age of onset. Biological factors are involved in depression (a deficiency of one or more monoamines- neurotransmitters that regulate emotion and arousal) Medications that increase availability of norepinephrine, a monoamine, alleviate depression whereas those that decrease levels can cause depression. Prozac- a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (ssri)- increase another monoamine- serotonin. Damage to left prefrontal cortex can lead to depression but damage to right does not- may be kind of biological maker of predisposition to depression.