Depression and schizophrenia

2. RE

3. Objectives
 To gain an understanding of the history of Mental
Illness and it’s treatment
 Recap on psychological approaches
 Explain the biological explanations for schizophrenia
and depression

4. Trepanning
Madness caused by devils so a hole
Was drilled into the head to let the
Demons out!

5. Hippocrates

6. Phlebotomy

7. From Drills to Pills

8. Main theoretical approaches
 All have an explanation for disorders
 Some are better than others at explaining certain
disorders
 No single explanation accounts for all the complex
aspects of particular mental disorders

10. Biochemical explanation of mental
illness
 Our bodies have a balance of chemicals that can
become imbalanced and this can affect how we think
and behave.

11. Neurons
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyNkAuX29OU

12. Neurotransmitters
 Serotonin -involved in things like body temperature,
mood, appetite and sleep.
 Dopamine - Involved in the control of
movement, posture and mood.
 Noradrenaline – influences emotions, sleeping and
learning.
 Acelylcholine - Drugs to increase acetylcholine
 levels are sometimes used to treat alzeimers

13. Neurotransmitters
Serotonin transmits messages across
the synaptic gap between the two
neurons
Once the message has been passed
the serotonin is taken back (reuptake)
Post –synaptic cell
Pre-synaptic cell
If serotonin levels are low the message
may not be passed before the serotonin
is taken back.

14. Depression
 Monoamine hypothesis
 Serotonin (a monoamine) is regarded by some
researchers as a chemical that is responsible for
maintaining mood balance, and that a deficit of
serotonin leads to depression.
 Drug treatments of selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors (SSRI’s) to increase serotonin levels

15. Schizophrenia
 The Dopamine Hypothesis
This theory claims that excessive amounts of
dopamine or an oversensitivity of
brain to dopamine is the cause of
schizophrenia
 There is strong empirical support which
suggests that dopamine plays an
important role in schizophrenia – e.g
drugs which block dopamine
(Phenothaiazines) also seem to reduce the
symptoms of schizophrenia.

16. The Dopamine Hypothesis
 L-Dopa – a drug for Parkinson’s disease actually
increases dopamine – this in turn can produce
symptoms of schizophrenia.
 Post mortems of schizophrenics, show an increase of
dopamine in parts of the brain. (Seeman 1987)

17. Brain structure - Depression
Studies show that patients suffering
from depression can have smaller
hippocampus than non depressed
people.
Cortisol is produced when we are stressed.
This can destroy hippocampal cells, some of
which may be cells that respond to
serotonin, so the effect of serotonin would
be reduced

18. Brain Structure - Schizophrenia
There is evidence that suggests schizophrenia is down
to physical abnormalities in the brain.
Szesko et al found that the ‘asymmetry’ found in
normal brains – in the prefrontal cortex is absent in
people with schizophrenia.

19. Brain Structure
People with schizophrenia
have abnormally large
ventricles in the brain.
Ventricles are fluid filled
cavities. This means that the
brains of schizophrenics are
lighter than normal.

20. Genetic explanations
 There is some evidence that some disorders or a
disposition towards a disorder can be passed from
parent to child.

21. Gottesman & Shields (1972)
 Schizophrenia
 58% concordance rate for monozygotic twins
 12% concordance rate for dizygotic twins
What does this suggest?

22. Quiz Trade
 You each make a card with a relevant question or
unfinished statement on it
 Until all questions have been answered

23. Flipped learning
 http://www.g2conline.org/
 This is an excellent resource – masses of information
about the brain, biochemistry, genes and mental
illness. Many short videos with psychologists.