Chapter 16: Psychological Disorders 16.4 Schizophrenia and Mood Disorders
Objec?ves: 1. Describe the disorder of schizophrenia. 2. Iden?fy forms of mood disorders. 3. Describe several theories that try to explain mood disorders.
I. Introduc?on A. Sufferers of schizophrenia often have difficulty using language to communicate. B. This confused language may result because schizophrenia affects the working memory, which is used to form sentences. C. Psychologists are making progress in furthering our understanding of schizophrenia the most complex and severe psychological problem we encounter.
II. What is Schizophrenia A. Schizophrenia is a problem of cognition, but it also involves emotion, perception, and motor functions. B. Schizophrenia affects 1 in 100 people worldwide (British Columbia Schizophrenia Society, 1997), but the odds increase to 1 in 10 if schizophrenia is already in the family.
II. What is Schizophrenia Figure 16.18 The rela?ves of a schizophrenic person have an increased probability of developing schizophrenia themselves. Note that children of a schizophrenic mother have a 17% risk of schizophrenia even if adopted by a family with no schizophrenic members. (Based on data from GoResman, 1991)
II. What is Schizophrenia Figure 16.16 Although the term schizophrenia is derived from Greek roots meaning split personality, it does not refer to cases where people alternate among different personali?es. Rather, the term originally indicated a split between the intellectual and emo?onal aspects of a single personality.
II. What is Schizophrenia (con t) C. Schizophrenia involves confused and disordered thoughts and perceptions. D. With schizophrenia, a person s thought processes are somewhat disturbed, and the person has lost contact with reality to a considerable extent. E. Schizophrenia is not a single problem; it has no single cause or cure.
II. What is Schizophrenia (con t) F. Schizophrenia is a collection of symptoms that indicates an individual has serious difficulty trying to meet the demands of life. Many people with schizophrenia experience delusions and hallucinations.
II. What is Schizophrenia (con t) A person with schizophrenia may show a number of other symptoms as well including: incoherence, or a marked decline in thought processes. disturbances of affect, or emotions that are inappropriate for the circumstances. a severe deterioration in normal movement, which may occur as slowed movement, non-movement, or as highly agitated behavior. a marked decline in previous levels of functioning.
III. Types of Schizophrenia A. Psychologists classify schizophrenia into several subtypes including: 1. The paranoid type, involves hallucinations and delusions, including grandeur. 2. People with the catatonic type may remain motionless for long periods. 3. Symptoms of the disorganized type include incoherent language, inappropriate emotions, giggling for no apparent reason, generally disorganized motor behavior, and hallucinations and delusions.
III. Types of Schizophrenia (con t) 4. The diagnostic label remission type is applied to anyone whose symptoms are completely gone or still exist but are not severe enough to have earned a diagnosis of schizophrenia in the first place. 5. The undifferentiated type encompasses the basic symptoms of schizophrenia.
IV. Treatment of Schizophrenia A. Schizophrenia is a very complex condi?on, and treatment is long- term and usually requires hospitaliza?on. B. Long- term ins?tu?onaliza?on some?mes leads to a pa?ent who is burned out one who is unlikely to func?on normally in society. C. Although recovery from schizophrenia is possible, no real cure for schizophrenia exists.
V. Causes of Schizophrenia A. There are many theories on the cause of schizophrenia, and just as certainly, there is disagreement. B. In all likelihood, the ultimate cause is an interaction of environmental, genetic, and biochemical factors.
V. Causes of Schizophrenia (con t) C. The dopamine hypothesis suggests that too much of the chemical dopamine is to blame. However, it is difficult to tell if chemical differences are the cause or result of the condition. D. The diathesis-stress hypothesis suggests that a person may inherit a tendency toward schizophrenia. However, for schizophrenia to develop a person must be exposed to an environment with certain stressors (a bad family life for example).
VI. Major Depressive Disorder A. We all experience mood swings and even occasional depression is a common experience. However, some people get the sense that their depression will go on forever and that there is nothing they can do to change it. B. People with major depressive disorder, also known as clinical depression, spend at least two weeks feeling depressed, sad, anxious,?red, upset, and less able to func?on. Symptoms like these are normal with the loss of a loved one, but if symptoms occur at other?mes they may suggest the presence of a major depressive disorder.
VI. Major Depressive Disorder (con t) C. To be diagnosed with major depressive disorder an individual must exhibit problems with at least four of the following: 1. Ea?ng 2. Sleeping 3. Thinking 4. Concentra?ng 5. Decision making 6. Lacking energy 7. Thinking about suicide 8. Feeling worthless or guilty
VII. Bipolar Disorder(con t) A. Another type of mood disorder is bipolar disorder (formally called manic-depressive disorder), in which individuals are excessively and inappropriately happy or unhappy. These reactions may take the form of high elation (manic phase), hopeless depression (depressive phase), or an alternation between the two.
VII. Bipolar Disorder (con t) B. In the manic phase, a person experiences elation, extreme confusion, distractibility, and racing thoughts. C. In the depressive phase, the individual is overcome by feelings of failure, sinfulness, worthlessness, and despair. D. Some people experience occasional episodes of a manic-type or depressivetype reaction, separated by long intervals of relatively normal behavior.
VII. Bipolar Disorder (con t) E. Others exhibit almost no normal behavior, cycling instead from periods of manic-type reactions to equally intense depressive-type reactions. F. Some theorists have speculated that the manic periods serve as an attempt to ward off the underlying hopelessness of the depressive periods. G. Others believe that mania can be traced to the same biochemical disorder responsible for depression.
VIII. Season Affec?ve Disorder (SAD) A. There are people who develop a deep depression in the midst of winter. B. These people are victims of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD C. People suffering from SAD tend to sleep and eat excessively during their depressed periods. D. Researchers have proposed that the hormone melatonin may play a role.
VIII. Season Affec?ve Disorder (SAD) (con t) E. The less light available (in winter), the more melatonin is secreted by the brain s pineal gland. F. Research supports the idea that daily exposure to bright light, especially with a blue tint, is effective in treating the depressive symptoms of seasonal affective disorder [SAD]. Light Therapy is used for trea?ng individuals with SAD
VIII. Season Affec?ve Disorder (SAD) Figure 16.10 Most people feel slightly berer during the summer (when the sun is out most of the day) than during the winter (when there are fewer hours of sunlight). People with seasonal affec?ve disorder (SAD) feel good in the summer and seriously depressed in the winter (or good in the winter and depressed in the summer). Seasonal affec?ve disorder is commonest in far northern loca?ons such as Scandinavia, where the summer days are very long and bright and the winter days are very short and dark. The disorder is unheard- of in tropical loca?ons such as Hawaii, where the amount of sunlight per day varies only slightly between summer and winter.
IX. Impacts of Mood Disorders A. Psychological factors underlying mood disorders include certain personality traits, amount of social support, and the ability to deal with stressful situa?ons.
IX. Impacts of Mood Disorders B. Researchers are currently searching for possible neurotransmirers that cause mood disorders. (Biological causes) C. Researchers are also looking at gene?c factors and faulty brain structure and func?on as possible causes. (Gene?c and Biological Causes together)
X. Suicide and Depression A. Statistics show that every year more than 32,000 Americans end their lives about 1 every 16 minutes. B. More women than men attempt suicide, but more men than women succeed. C. Suicide is most common among the elderly but also ranks as the second most common cause of death among college students.
X. Suicide and Depression (con t)
X. Suicide and Depression (con t) D. Not all people who commit suicide are depressed, and not all depressed people attempt suicide. E. People may take their lives for any number of reasons. It may be to escape from physical or emotional pain. It might be an effort to end the torment of unacceptable feelings, to punish themselves for wrongs they think they have committed, or to punish others who have not perceived their needs (Mintz, 1968).