Please answer the following questions based on the textbook, lecture notes and t
ID: 3451957 • Letter: P
Question
Please answer the following questions based on the textbook, lecture notes and this website and Out of the Shadow video. 1. What is mood disorder? 2. Name and define types of mood disorders. ( Different types of depression) 3. What are the primary distinctions between unipolar versus bipolar disorders? 4. What are the biological and environmental causal factors of depressive disorders? 5. What are common treatments and options for someone with depression? 6. Who in the video did you find most interesting and why? 7. What did you learn about depression from the video that you didn't know before? before doing this please follow this web link http://allpsych.com/disorders/mood/ also this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAJbbnLiNNc
Explanation / Answer
Mood disorder is a psychological disorder characterized by disturbances in the mood of the person ranging from mania to depression.
Unipolar depression: In unipolar depression, the person experiences depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure and reduced energy for at least two weeks. Anxiety symptoms are also seen with many people who suffer from depression. They also have feels of guilt, low self-worth and helplessness. They have disturbed patterns of sleep and appetite and sometimes have medically unexplained symptoms. An individual with a mild depressive episode will have some difficulty at work and social situations but does not cease to function completely in daily life. But in a severe episode of depression the person is quite unlikely to continue with social, work and other daily life activities.
Bipolar Depression: In bipolar mood disorder both manic and depressive episodes exist along with some episodes of normal mood. Manic episode involves elevated or irritable mood along with over activity, increase in speech, inflation in self-esteem and decreased need for sleep. Each phase can result for days, weeks or months. They have major mood swings from low to high and back again.
Causes of mood disorders
Biological factors: Neurotransmitters are chemical substances that carry information from one neuron to another. Norepinephrine and serotonin are two neurotransmitters found to have a role in depression. Inadequate amount of these neurotransmitters result in the symptoms of mood disorders. Lower levels of dopamine is also detected in depressed patients high levels of it results in mania. Psychological and environmental factors can affect the brain chemistry in some people. This explains why some people develop mood disordersand others do not.
Environmental factors: The environemnt of a person also play an important role in developing mood disorders. the financial burden, certain life events and daily stressors can also cause disturbances in the mood. If a child grows up with a parents having mood disorder, he / she is more likely to develop a mood disorder later in life
Common treatments for depression
Pharmacotherapy: This is the most commonly used method os treatment where the patient is given antidepressants to bring the levels of neurotransmitters to optimum level to regulate the mood
Psychotherapy: Commonly used Psychotherapy is the Cognitive Behavioural therapy to correct the irrational thoughts which lead to depression triad; hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness.
The most interesting thing I found is this video was that anybody irrespective of their individual differences can develop depression. The human mind is so fragile. People have little control over their biology and certain changes in the brain can lead a person to fall into depression.