1. Mental Illness HSP3M

2. A Beautiful Mind  Discussion –Challenges/obstacles created by Nash’s illness? –Why did he go off his meds?  Assignment: Type up the questions and the answers to the handout questions –Due: Wednesday

3. Homework from p. 100  Questions #1: –A) Characteristics of Abnormal Behaviour  Irrational  Personal suffering/personal unhappiness  Interpersonal maladjustment/inability to function in society –B) Why is abnormal behaviour alone not enough to indicate mental health/illness  What defines “normal”?  “It’s no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society”

4. Homework from p. 100  Question #2: Important developments in how mental illness is viewed and treated? –Middle ages: Mental illness caused by evil spirits  Exorcism, execution –18 th -20 th century: asylums –20 th century saw real efforts to treat mental illness  Psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, medication

5. Homework from p. 100  Question #3: Why were Philippe Pinel’s reforms the beginning of the modern era regarding the treatment of mental illness? –Patients no longer in chains –Freedom to move –Better efforts to treat the illness

6. Treating Mental Illness  Psychotherapy –Ex: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (modifying patterns of thought/behaviour), Psychoanalysis  Medication –Antidepressants, Mood stabilizers, Antipsychotics  Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)  Psychosurgery  Others: Music therapy, diet, peer support

7. Psychosurgery  1890 German researcher removes portions of his dog’s frontal lobes –Result: Dogs calmer, less aggressive  Swiss mental institution lobotomizes 6 schizophrenics –Result: some are calmer, two die  Portugese researcher develops technique where two holes are drilled on either side of the forehead, surgical knives inserted to sever prefrontal cortex from rest of brain

8. The “Lobotomy”  American physicians Walter Freeman and James Watts did thousands of lobotomies from 1936 onwards  The “icepick lobotomy”  Used to treat depression, psychosis, neurosis, criminality  Frontal lobes control higher functions (planning, judgement, foresight, empathy, concentration, creativity, etc.)

9. ECT  See article  According to psychiatrists, when is ECT helpful?  What are some of Hugh Tapping’s complaints about ECT?  According to the Canadian Psychiatric Association, what are six adverse (negative) effects of ECT?

10. More on mental illness  What would have happened to John Nash without adequate support from family and colleagues?

11. More on mental illness  About 66% of homeless persons have a diagnosed mental illness  Almost every homeless person who has a mental illness also has had a diagnosed substance abuse disorder

12. Categories of Mental Illness  Complete handout using textbook