Aetiologies of Depression

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What is one physiological aetiology of uni-polar depression?
It is linked to brain chemistry and neurotransmitter dysfunction
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such as what?
the monoanime hypothesis - MAOH
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What is it thought about neurotransmitters that cause negativie thinking?
low levels of serotonin and noradrenaline
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What do studies add to this theory?
SSRI drugs, which raise serotonin levels by blocking serotonin reuptake
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What can this do?
lift the mood of someone with depression.
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Where are low levels of noradrenaline by products found?
In the urine of people with depression
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What does this suggest their brains?
low levels of noradrenaline
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What high levels of the stress hormone is linked to depression?
Cortisol
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What does cortisol production inhibit?
the production of serotonin causing depressive symptoms
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What is a second physiological aetiology od depression?
the disorder is inherited through genes
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People with depression have what faulty gene?
5-HTT gene
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What gene and where is this found?
the serotonin transporter gene on chromosome 17
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What does this lead to?
little serotonin being produced
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What does the short version of the allele lead to?
a reduced serotonin production.
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Where does evidence of a genetic link come from?
twin and adoption studies
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What % of the general population suffer with depression?
17
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What is the concordance rate for MZ twins?
40-50%
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How much for DZ twins?
20%
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What do adoption studies also suggest>
genetic aetiology
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as?
research shows that the biological parents of adopted children who develop depression are eight times more likely than adoptive parents
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Where does supporting evidence come from?
McGuffin
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What did he study?
177 pairs of same sex MZ and DZ twins
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Where one of the twins had been diagnosed with?
Depression
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What did he find as a concordance rate for MZ twins?
46%
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What was the rate for DZ twins?
20%
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What does this suggest?
there is a strong genetic aetiology in depression
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in methodological terms, the physiological explanation is to be applauded because the twin, adoption and brain research on which it is based is?
objective, scientific and thus reliable.
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For example, the effect of an?
IV (MZ or DZ twin) on the DV (risk of developing Depression
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in studies such as what? enables what to be made?
McGuffin, comparisons
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What do critics draw attention to?
the fact that MZ twins are often treated in a more similar way than DZ twins
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Which could be what?
an environmental aetiology for Depression
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What was one weakness of the physiological explanation?
can be seen as deterministic
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What does it see depression as?
shaped and controlled by forces such as the 5HTT gene, neurotransmitters and hormones over which the ndividual has no control
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What does this suggest about the aetiology of D?
is very pessimistic as nothing can be done to alter one's genes
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What might one argue?
SSRI drugs such as Prozac are effective in raising serotonin levels
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What does the psychological explanation reject?
these ideas based on nature and instead favours the idea that nurture causes Depression
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What does the cognitive approach suggest about depression?
negative and distorted processing in the middle box of the computer analogy
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What did Beck do?
Interviewed many patients with depression
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What did he find?
they tend to think using negative schemas
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What did he talk about them using?
A negative triad
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What does this lead a person with D. to think?
They hold a negative and pessimistic view of themselves, the world and the future
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For example?
A person might think they are not clever, they will not be able tope with an exam, thus will fail
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What did Beck believe this negative tendency is triggered by?
a person encounters a situation that is similar to the conditions when they originally learn the schema
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This is usually when?
in childhood and adolescence
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What is the second psychological explanation?
centres that depression is a form of learned helplessness
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Where did this idea emerge from?
Seligman's research with dogs
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In this case what does a person try to do but fails?
control unpleasant life events (eg. domestic violence)
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What do they gain?
a sense of inability to control their own life
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What do they feel?
helpless
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What do these people fail to learn?
strategies for coping with stressful life events
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such as what?
illness
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What can this lead to?
Depression through the overuse of internal attributes
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Even in cases when?
they could exercise control over their lives
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What is one strength of this psychological explantations come in?
supporting evidence from langer and Rodin
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What they find?
enabling old to make decisions whilst in an old people's home, had a postive effect on mental and physical health
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What did choice and responsibility increase the level of?
pps feeligns of happiness,
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And reduced the level of ?
helplessness
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What doe this reduce?
their chance of becomming depressed
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What does this suggest?
aetiology of depression is closely related to learned helplessness
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What does psychological explanation supply?
qualitative data about the thoughts and feelings of the depressive pateint
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What does this provide?
depth and insight
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And thus high on what?
validity
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However what do critics argue?
unstructured nature of interviews such as beck's means the questions are not consistent
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What do the findings lack?
reliability and could well be subjective
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What is emphasised?
negative thinking and learning in causing depression it tends to neglect the importance of genetics and brain chemicals
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such as?
5HTTT and serotonin, and is thus oversimplified
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What is the physiological explanation?
equally reductionist
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What is the way forward?
diathesis-stress explanation
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What does it duggest about people who develop depression?
born with a genetic tendency to depression
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What does this take?
negative thinking and loss of control over life events to triggeer it off
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In terms of aplication why are these useful?
They combine CBT and SSRIs
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such as what?

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the monoanime hypothesis - MAOH

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What do studies add to this theory?

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What can this do?

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