Chapter Ten: Psychological Disorders

Mood Disorders

INTRODUCTION

Depression affects 15% of the American population, and is considered the "common cold" of the disorders you are reading about.

WHAT'S AHEAD

• How can you tell whether you have major depression or just the blues?
• What are the poles in bipolar disorder?
• How do some people think themselves into depression?

KEY CONCEPTS

Introduction
Depression and Mania
Theories of Depression

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Introduction (p.344)

Depression becomes a disorder when it goes beyond ordinary sadness over life's problems or the grief that accompanies tragedy and bereavement. Some additional characteristics of clinical depression are described below.

Depression and Mania (p.344)

INTRODUCTION

There are several types of depression.

KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED

..Depression

...Dysthymia

• Chronic depression but the person functions adequately.

...Major depression

• Depression that disrupts usual functioning.
  
  
• Symptoms:
  • Despair and hopelessness.
    
    
  • Lose interest or pleasure in usual activities.
    
    
  • Unable to "get going".
    
    
  • Thinking patterns are distorted.
    
    
  • Exaggerate minor failings.
    
    
  • Interpret events as evidence that nothing will ever go right.
• Low self-esteem.
  
  
• Physical changes.
  
  
  • Eating disturbances.
    
    
  • Sleep disturbances.
    
    
  • Loss of sexual desire.
    
    
  • Fatigued and tired.
    
    
• May experience a single episode, about half will experience recurrent bouts.

Mania

• Abnormally high states of exhilaration
  
  
• Symptoms:
  
  
  • Full of energy.
    
    
  • Feel ambitious, optimistic, and powerful.
    
    
  • Speaks rapidly and dramatically
    
    
• Inflated self-esteem.
  
  

.Bipolar Disorder (manic-depressive disorder)

• Cycles of depression and mania.
  
  
• Relatively rare, 1.5% of the population

Occurrence of Mood Disorders

• Bipolar = About the same for both sexes.
  
  
• Depression - Women are overrepresented.
  
  
  • One View: Women may be more depressed then men.
    
    
  • Another View: Depression in Males -
    
    
    • May be overlooked because of cultural display rules. [ future forward to Emotions, Chapter 12]
      
      
    • May be expressed in alcohol/drug addiction and violence instead of "depression" diagnosis.

GLOSSARY

	major depression
	bipolar disorder

Theories of Depression (p.340)

KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED

..Biological Causes: Genetics and Brain Chemistry

• Especially suspect when depression is not related to any event in the person's life.
  
  
• There may be a genetic component.
  
  
• Neurotransmitter imbalance:
  
  
  • Depression related to a deficiency in serotonin and/or norepinephrine.
    
    
  • Mania related to excess levels of norepinephrine.
    
    
  • Drug treatments increase serotonin and norepinephrine to combat depression, and decrease norepinephrine to treat mania.
    
    
• Lower activity in frontal lobes in depressed people.
  
  
  • Especially mechanisms involved with positive emotion.
    
    
• Does the biology cause depression or does depression cause biological changes?

..Social Influences: Conditions in one's life.

• Gender differences may be explained through social influences.
  
  
  • Women have:
    • Less satisfying work.
    • Lower work status.
      
      
  • The more children a woman has, the greater the chance for depression.
    
    
    • "Kids do drive you crazy!"

• Sexual abuse and trauma related to depression.

..Attachment Explanations: Problems with close relationships.

• Disruption of primary relationships produces high risk for depression.
  
  
• Cause and effect problem - perhaps the depression caused the relationship to be disrupted.

..Cognitive Causes: Distorted Thinking

• Learned helplessness
  
  
  • People become depressed when efforts to control their environment fail.
    
    
  • Update of model needed because some depressed people haven't failed and some have everything they could have possibly wanted.

• Pessimistic explanatory style
  
  
  • Helpless, hopeless, and they believe nothing good will ever happen to them.
    
    
  • [Future fast forward to Emotions, Chapter 12.]
    
    
• Ruminating Response Style
  
  
  • Focus inward and brood about negative feelings.
    
    
  • Longer and more intense periods of depression.
    
    
  • Women more prone to this style.

..Vulnerability-stress - "All of the above"

• Disorders result from an interaction between individual vulnerabilities and environmental stress/events.

  Upsetting Events	+	Individual Vulnerability
  loss of loved one, failure, trauma		Biological Predispositions
  		Personality Traits
  		History of Insecure Attachment
  		Pessimistic Ways of Thinking
  		Habits of Brooding
  		Negative Life Experiences
  Severe Depression

..Caution on ChoosingTHE Cause of Depression

• Depression may have different causes in different people.
  
  
• Better to consider depression as an interaction between biology, personality, and experience.

LINKS About Depression

• www.link: Depression Central
• www.link: Dysthymic Disorder Description.
• www.link: Dysthymia Links
• www.link: Bipolar Disorder description.
• www.link: Links to causes of depression.
• www.link: Heredity versus environment discussion.
• www.link: Typical Cognitive Distortions.

	The Gender Gap in Depression
	Manic-Depressive Illness and Creativity

Next Topic - Personality Disorders.........................................Chapter Contents