1. Affective Disorders

2. Emotional States and The Limbic System …recommended (summer) reading: Evil Genes by Barbara Oakley

3. Anxiety hyper-alert, resistant to change, context-dependent Amygdala HPA Hippocampus Cortisol

4. Depression hypo-alert, ahedonia

5. Manic-Depressive (Bipolar) waxes and wanes across months/years, stress is normally a trigger Robert Schumann’s productivity

6. 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])

7. Schizophrenia severely out-of-touch with reality, delusions of grandeur, auditory and visual hallucinations, and highly hereditable

8. Neurobiology of Schizophrenia Hyperactivity in several brain areas Enlarged lateral ventricles Increased Dopaminergic Tonus (Euphoria)

9. The Amygdala

10. 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

11. Genetic Changes Due to Environmental Stressors (Epigenetics) affects DNA transcription and translation which can have a HUGE impact on neuron function How? adding of DNA methyl groups, preventing or enabling unwinding of DNA around chromatin, to name a few Hugely popular in psychiatric research