Mental Health

Question 1

what does the brain control?

Answer 1

behavior - but not all behavior can be easily controlled

Question 2

what was mental illness thought to be caused by? what was a common treatment?

Answer 2

demons, trepanation

Question 3

it is believed you can fix a person’s behavior how?

Answer 3

torture - asylums, prisons

Question 4

who started psychotherapy?

Answer 4

Freud

Question 5

What is a lobotomy?

Answer 5

needle through the eye socket and wiggle it to separate one part of the brain from another part that controls behaviour - main benefit were to the people around them

Question 6

electroshock, is it used today?

Answer 6

zapping someone which high voltage electricity - in 50’s this was horrible and painful
we still do this they just put you under anesthesia

Question 7

What did asylums turn into in the 50’s?

Answer 7

mental hospitals - more medical treatment

Question 8

Treatment for schizophrenia (hallucinations + anxiety)

Answer 8

1. antihistamines - calmed surgical patients

Thorazine- first effective treatment (25% achieved remission)
- dopamine antagonist- reduces psychosis

Question 9

Side effects of Thorazine:

Answer 9

similar to Parkinson’s disease - involuntary facial expressions

Question 10

What are the effects of amphetamines?

Answer 10

they raise dopamine amounts which produces psychosis similar to schizophrenia

Question 11

most important dopamine receptor?

Answer 11

early drugs were D2 antagonists - this receptor is involved in the production of schizophrenia

these drugs were not very clean, and did a lot which produced more issues

Question 12

What was the role of atypical antipsychotics?

Answer 12

weak D2 antagonist but strong serotonin agonists which remove symptoms - cleaner

Question 13

anhedonia

Answer 13

inability to experience pleasure - people with depression

Question 14

Depression treatment

Answer 14

Imipramine - not effective for schizophrenia - it elevates moods

it amplifies nerve signals sent by serotonin

Question 15

What is re-uptake? and what happens with serotonin?

Answer 15

when nerve cells re-set after each transmission to send more signals.. imipramine blocks serotonin reuptake and amplifies the amount that will be used = higher mood

Question 16

ipronazid

Answer 16

tuberculosis drug
antidepressant effect
inhibition of MAO

Question 17

MAO

Answer 17

helps regulate neurotransmitter amounts

so inhibiting it can increase the amount of serotonin in the brain which elevates moods

Question 18

Prozac = SSRI

Answer 18

selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

• more comfortable - less side effects

Question 19

side effects for depressant drugs

Answer 19

anxiety, sleep disturbances, sexual dysfunction, suicidal thoughts

Question 20

OCD

Answer 20

obsessive thoughts (unwanted), rituals, magical thinking (thoughts are connected to the rest of the universe)

ex: washing hands 100x a day

Question 21

what drugs can help with OCD?

Answer 21

drugs associated with raising serotonin activity

Question 22

Bipolar Disorder

Answer 22

personality alternates between states - manic and low

Question 23

what experiment did John Cade do to test for toxin and depression?

Answer 23

injected urine from manics into guinea pigs… but they died

so he added a base to the urine and found that lithium calmed manic patients

Question 24

lithium therapeutic window is:

Answer 24

very small

Question 25

valproic acid

Answer 25

another drug that can be used but its very small and mechanism isn’t known

Question 26

Anxiety

Answer 26

person feels fear without reason

Question 27

barbituates

Answer 27

GABA agonist

Question 28

Benzodiazapines

Answer 28

cleaner drug, amplifies GABA signalling - makes the receptor more sensitive to opening

Question 29

GABA receptor

Answer 29

ion channel = valve (allow info to flow through)

Question 30

Valium

Answer 30

mothers little helper

Question 31

is a drug similar to the placebo if placebo is 30% effective and drug is 30% effective?

Answer 31

No, the drug treatment would still be effective on most people, but considering the amount of people who would have a reaction to the placebo or no treatment

difference between drug and placebo

Question 32

why don’t drugs work better today? why can’t we make them better?

Answer 32

cause the brain is just SO complex he hardly know anything about it

Question 33

why are experiments with rats ealier even though their brains are different?

Answer 33

we have no full control over humans, difficult to measure brain activity

Question 34

swim despair test

Answer 34

put mouse in a container of water, the animal has to swim and after a while it stops swimming - the aount of time is measured and then we give a drig to see if the animal will swim shorter or longer time

Question 35

hotplate test

Answer 35

put mouse on a hotplate to test pain to see how long it takes for the animal to lift its feet up

Question 36

me too drug

Answer 36

using old drug to find a new drug - to reduce side effects