A biological hypothesis that suggests that the cause of depression is low levels of the monoamine neurotransmitters
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What are the 3 monoamine neurotransmitters (MAN) and what do they do?
1) Serotonin (regulates other MAN and sleep), 2) Noradrenaline (attention and reward), 3) Dopamine (Alertness and energy)
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What can low levels of these MAN cause?
Insomnia or hypersomnia, lack of pleasure and energy and maybe even anxiety
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What gene is thought to control the levels of MAN?
the 5-HTT gene is thought to regulate serotonin levels which in turn regulates the other 2 monoamines, an underactive 5-HTT gene can lead to low levels of MAN and cause symptoms of depression
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What does Rosenthals Diathesis-stress model propose?
That a person may have the version of the gene that causes the mental disorder, however they need something to trigger it, like a stressful environment
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What is MAO-A and what does it do?
Monoamine Oxidase A is an enzyme in the synapses that removes the monoamine neurotransmitters
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What can too much MAO-A do?
It can remove too much monoamine neurotransmitter, leading to under active monoamine synapses
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Supporting Evidence
SSRI's are effective drugs by increasing MAN showing boosting MAN can reduce symptoms of depression, Post-mortem studies on brains of suicides show love serotonin levels but high serotonin receptors, compensating but increasing symptoms more
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Conflicting Evidence
Thase et al found that there was a high level of noradrenaline in patients with severe depression
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Other Explanations
Some evidence shows that the hippocampus relates to depression as in brain studies, people with depression tend to have a smaller hippocampus
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Usefulness
It has lead to the development of treatment drugs, however they do not help everyone
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Testability
Brain scans and post mortem studies can show the low levels of serotonin etc, however these studies are reductionist and correlational (cant establish cause-effect relationship)
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What are the 3 monoamine neurotransmitters (MAN) and what do they do?
Back
1) Serotonin (regulates other MAN and sleep), 2) Noradrenaline (attention and reward), 3) Dopamine (Alertness and energy)
Card 3
Front
What can low levels of these MAN cause?
Back
Card 4
Front
What gene is thought to control the levels of MAN?
Back
Card 5
Front
What does Rosenthals Diathesis-stress model propose?
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