Steven Crane Compiled Section Handouts. Human Behavioral Biology 2012

Christmas truce during WWI

Restraint from aggression with cooperation across trenches during fighting in WWI.

Depression

What behaviors/symptoms are associated with aggression?

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  Anhedonia
  
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  Grief and guilt
  
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  Psychomoter retardation (despite a hightened internal stress response)
  
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  Abnormal cognition and thought like memory issues, cognitive distortions (like seeing ambiguous faces as sadder, or seeing an unrealistically pessimistic interpretation of the world).
  
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  Rumination where the frontal cortex is less active and people/animals perseverate in doing the same non- functional behavior over and over
  
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  Suicide and self-injury. How does this play out in terms of gender and progression through depression?
  

  • Higher "success" in men with suicide

  • Higher rates of attempts in women

  • Most dangerous time for this: when "coming out" of a super deep depression. Interpretation: in the deepest of depressions there's no power to take an action or control over the situation, but when the symptoms are improved just enough that the individual can take action in the world but is still feeling terrible, that's when suicide is most common.

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  Vegetative symptoms:
  
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    Elevated GC load/stress level
    
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    Elevated sympathetic tone
    
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    Early morning wakening
    
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    Disrupted sleep architecture
    
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    Food intake disruption
    
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  Health consequences:
  
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    Shortened life expectancy, even controlling for suicide.
    
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    CV disease, diabetes, chronic inflamation. Why would we get these?
    
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      Could be due to different health behaviors like worse diet and poor exercise routines.
      
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    Telomeres are shorter in those with chronic stress including depression
    

What are the different subtypes of depression?

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  Reactive depression: happens in response to some life event
  
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  Endogenous depression: happens because of some internal chemical malfunction
  
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  Unipolar depression: standard major depressive disorder
  
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  Bipolar depression: basic depression but also with cycles of mania (faster, more euphoric, sometimes bordering on insane).
  

Where does the DSM play into this?

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  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is used in psychiatry to define what's normal and what counts as a disorder.
  
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  The line between what's a "normal" period of grief following a terrible event vs. abnormal shifts a lot.
  
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  Mostly in response to insurance and drug companies in what they'll pay for.
  

What are the demographics of depression?

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  15% lifetime incidence
  
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  2x rate in women vs. men for unipolar depression. No difference in bipolar.
  
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  In 25 years it will be the second leading cause of disability on earth.
  
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  High rates of drug-resistant depression
  
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  It's becoming more prevalent over the last 50 years, and it's NOT just a reporting confound