Steven Crane Compiled Section Handouts. Human Behavioral Biology 2012

[previous notes based on lecture notes. Subsequent material below based on notes from the Zebras chapter]

Neuroanatomy of depression

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  Cortex involved in depression because of abstract depressive rumination. Cut the connections between the FC and the limbic system and you're good to go. This is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
  
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    ACC responsible for recognizing negative emotional content in pictures
    
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    Resting levels of activation higher in depressives.
    
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  Amygdala overactive in depressives, especially toward sad faces.
  
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  Left PFC for happy. Right PFC for sad. More right PFC activation in depressives.
  

Genetics and Depression

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  Depression runs in families
  
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  50% concordance in twins.
  
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  We've found actual genes though
  

Immunology and depression

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  Being sick can be depressing
  
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  Chronic infections or autoimmune diseases are more likely to cause depression than other prolonged illnesses that don't involve the immune system.
  
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  Cytokines released by the immune system interact with norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin systems.
  

Endocrinology and depression

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  Too little thyroid hormone is psychomotor retardation as well
  
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  Sex difference in women suffering unipolar depression more than men because they ruminate a lot more. Depression's also about lack of power and control and women have less of that
  
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  Or estrogen and progesterone - more depression around menstruation, menopause, when taking the pill
  

How doe stress interact with the biology of depression?

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  Stress, GCs, and the Onset of Depression
  

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  Stress and depression go together. Extreme stress often leads to depression.
  
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  Having 3 or 4 episodes of depression makes you no more likely than anybody to have another, but at 5 or 6 you slip into a cycle that repeats.
  
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  Depression AND GCs can raise the pleasure threshold. Prescribing GCs makes more depression.
  
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  Having the bad gene only increases risk of depression with more highly stressful events during formative years
  

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  GC profiles once a depression has been established
  

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  Overactive stress response and stress hormones levels in depressives.
  
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  Feedback resistance in HPA axis - more GCs secreted
  

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  What are the consequences of elevated GC levels before and during a depression?
  

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  GCs affect serotonin, norepi, and dopamine. Abnormal GC levels can lead to abnormal NT levels - those ones.
  
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  GCs can damage hippocampus. Depressives have hippocampus problems.
  

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  Ant-GCs as antidepressants
  

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  Going through depression is really stressful and stimulates GC secretion. So GC eleveation can be a cause or a consequence of depression.
  
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  Lower GC secretion and depression goes down. Block GC receptors in the brain and depression goes down.
  

Stress and the Psychodymanics of Major Depressions - Freud

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  Freud answering why some people fall into depression. Depression is an internal conflict generated by ambivalence to what you lost.
  
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  Also about guilt for being happy about loss (of somebody's life or something).
  
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  Aggression turned inward
  

Stress, Learned Helplessness, and Depression - yay cognitive psychology

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  Loss of control and predictability, loss of outlets for frustration, loss of support, perception of life worsening. All stressful. Give all these to animals and they get depressed.
  
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  Like the dogs or rats you completely stress out, they give up and don't avoid painful shocks anymore. They've