Essay Questions
1)Discuss the role of stress in the etiology of affective disorder. As part of your answer please include a description of the HPA axis. What is the evidence that the HPA axis is disrupted in depressed patients?
2)Discuss the evidence that circadian sleep rhythms are disrupted in depressed patients (compare typical depressed patient with typical sleep patterns). Discuss sleep deprivation therapy
3)Describe the various animal models of depression. Include in your answer reserpine induced sedation, forced swim test, maternal separation, and stress-diathesis model.
4)Discuss therapies for affective disorders. Include in your answer MAO-Is, TCAs, SSRIs, SNRIs, ECT, TMS, and Lithium.
5)Discuss the evidence that serotonin dysfunction plays a role in depression. Discuss the evidence that norepinephrine dysfunction plays a role in depression. Discuss the serotonin-norepinephrine hypothesis
6)Describe the five principle categories of anxiety disorders.
7)Describe and compare the relative benefits of the various pharmacological treatments for anxiety (barbiturates, benzodiazepines, Buspirone, SSRIs, TCAs, and MAO-Is.
8)Describe schizophrenia. Include demographics and symptoms. As part of your description include the different forms of schizophrenia and positive vs. negative symptoms. How was schizophrenia treated prior to the advent of pharmacological treatments?
9)Discuss the various preclinical models of schizophrenia: stimulant models, amphetamine-induced stereotypy, blockade of apomorphine-induced motor activity, PCP-induced psychosis, and prepulse inhibition of startle.
10)Describe the traditional neuroleptics. How effective are these drugs? How do we know that dopamine antagonism plays a large role in the effectiveness of these drugs? Discus the side effects.
11)Describe the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia. Discuss the role of heredity and the role of environmental factors. If the damage occurs early in development why does it take so long for the symptoms to emerge?
Shorter Answer
1)Unipolar depression (describe general symptoms).
2)Bipolar depression (describe general symptoms).
3)Diagnosis of depression is on the rise and occurs at younger and younger ages. Discuss why this might be the case.
4)Discuss the evidence that there is a role of heredity in developing affective disorder. Are there forms of affective disorder that seem to have a greater component of heredity?
5)Describe the monoamine hypothesis of depression. What is the problem with the theory?
6)Discuss the neurotrophic hypothesis of depression. Potential drugs?
7)Light-dark crossing test
8)Elevated plus maze
9)Water-lick suppression test
10) Conditioned response suppression
11) How do barbiturates affect the GABAA receptor?
12) How do benzodiazepines affect the GABAA receptor?
13) Describe the atypical antipsychotics
14) Describe the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia