Schizophrenia
What does the finding that actual incidence in monozygotic twins is less than 50% tell us?
Either several genes are involved in schizophrenia OR having a "schizophrenia gene" imparts a susceptibility to develop schizophrenia that may never be triggered
____ and ____ pathways are involved in reinforcement mechanisms
Dopamine; mesolimbic
Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft are all examples of _____
SSRIs
The frontal cortex plays a critical role in development of _____
depression
What do dopamine antagonists do (think: dopamine hypothesis)?
eliminate some of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Compensatory mechanism of long-term drug treatment of schizophrenia - receptors become ________ if inhibited for a period of time by a drug that blocks them
more sensitive
What is a REALLY effective treatment for major affective disorders specifically depression?
electroconvulsive therapy ; can see effects even in nearly catatonic individuals
What is one of the most effective antidepressant treatments of depression?
total or selective sleep deprivation
What do dopamine agonists do? what are they?
think: dopamine hypothesis
they produce some schizophrenia-like symptoms -> they are pharmaceuticals, drugs, etc.
What is the evidence for a brain abnormality in schizohprenia? What does this abnormality indicate?
enlarged ventricles which indicate atrophy in the brain/less gray matter overall
Deep brain stimulation leads to _______ improvement + remission rates, ______ relapse
better; less
________ serves as important focal point in the network of brain regions that are involved in mood regulation
subgenual ACC
What is chlorpromazine?
an antipsychotic medication based on the dopamine antagonists; have a dramatic effect on people with positive symptoms
**not very effective in treating neuroses or affective psychoses, but has dramatic effects on schizophrenia
What is responsible for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Hypofrontality - decreased activity of prefrontal cortex believed to be responsible for neg sxs of schizophrenia
What biological treatment has about the same effectiveness as medication
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
- this is strong, localized magnetic field in prefrontal cortex of brain; there is a high relapse ate and response rate is < 30%
Total Sleep Deprivation
mesolimbic pathway; positive
What do atypical antipsychotics act as? What does that mean?
Partial agonist; this is a drug that has very high affinity for a particular receptor BUT activates that receptor less than a normal ligand does and serves as agonist in regions of low concentration of normal ligand and as antagonist in regions of high concentration
What is the monoamine hypothesis?
Low activity of one or more monoaminergic synapses cause depression
What type of sleep deprivation do you continue to see improvement in even after the deprivation is discontinued?
Selective deprivation of REM sleep procedure