Affective Disorders
Emotional States and The Limbic System …recommended (summer) reading: Evil Genes by Barbara Oakley
The Amygdala
Classes of Affective Disorders and Diverse Brain Dysfunction Anxiety phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder Neuropathology: limbic system Psychosis schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder Neurobiology: dopaminergic system Depression post-partum, manic-depressive Neurobiology: serotoninergic and noadrenergic systems
Anxiety hyper-alert, resistant to change, context-dependent Hippocampus Amygdala HPA Cortisol
Depression hypo-alert, ahedonia
Manic-Depressive (Bipolar) waxes and wanes across months/years, stress is normally a trigger Robert Schumann’s productivity
Really? A chemical salt to treat bipolar disorder? Lithium can replace Na++ as a generator of action potentials centrally decreases norephinephrine release and enhances serotonin synthesis efficacious in humans and in mice (see work of CA McClung [PubMed])
Schizophrenia severely out-of-touch with reality, delusions of grandeur, auditory and visual hallucinations, and highly hereditable
Neurobiology of Schizophrenia Hyperactivity in several brain areas Enlarged lateral ventricles Increased Dopaminergic Tonus (Euphoria)