Ch.8 – Mood Disorders and Suicide
8.1 – General Characteristics of Mood Disorders
­
Mood Disorders
o Involve disabling disturbances in emotion from sadness of depression to the
elation and irritability of mania
o They are often associated with other disorders like panic attacks, substance
abuse, sexual dysfunction and personality disorders
Depression: Signs and Symptoms
- Depression is an emotional state marked by great sadness and feelings of worthlessness
and guilt
- Sleep and appetite are also affected
- Lack of attention
- Depression in children usually results in somatic complains  i.e headaches or stomachs
- In adults it is usually characterized by distractibility and complains of memory loss
- Symptoms vary across vultures
o Non-westerns emphasizes somatic symptoms
o Westerns emphasize emotional
- Psychologizers
o People who emphasize the psychological aspects of depression
Mania: Signs and Symptoms
- It is an emotional state or mood of intense but unfounded elation accompanied by
irritability, hyperactivity, talkativeness, flight of ideas, distractibility and impractical
plans
- People who experiences episodic periods of depression may suddenly become manic at
times
- Manic episodes can last from several days to several hours
Formal Diagnostic Listings of Mood Disorders
- Two major mood disorders are
o Major depressive disorder (unidepression)
o Bipolar disorder
- Other depressive disorders added to the DSM 5 include disruptive mood dysregulation
disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder
-
Diagnosis of Depression
o Major depressive disorder (MDD) requires the presence of 5 of the following
symptoms for at least 2 weeks
o (theyre listed)
-
DSM 5 also includes a diagnostic category of persistent depressive disorder
o This combines chronic depression and dysthymia
o Diagnosis of chronic depression included comorbid diagnoses, a younger age of
onset and a history of frequent episodes of depression
Diagnosis of Bipolar disorder
- Bipolar 1 disorder involves episodes of mania and mixed emotions that include
symptoms of depression and mania
- A formal diagnosis requires the presence of elevated or irritable mood an abnormally
and persistently increased goal – directed activity or energy and 3 additional symptoms
(four if the mood is irritable)
o Theyre listed in the TB
- The symptoms must be sufficiently severe to impair social and occupational functioning
(causing a disorder)
- Onset is usually 20s
- Equal occurrence in men and women
Bipolar 2 disorder
- Individuals have episodes of major depression accompanied by hypomania
o Hypomania is a change in behaviour that is less extreme than full blown mania
Seasonal affective disorders
- Both Bipolar and Unipolar Disorders can Seasonal
- They get diagnosed as seasonal if they occur during some specific time of the year (i.e
winter and depression)
- Thought that biological factors contribute to vulnerability to seasonal affective disorders
- In cyclothymic disorder the person has frequent periods of depressed mood and
hypomania which may be mixed with or alternate with or separated by periods of
normal mood (lasting at least 2 months)
o These individuals have paired sets of symptoms in their periods of depression
and hypomania
o During depression they feel inadequate
o During hypomania their self-esteem is inflated
8.2 – Psychological Theories of Mood Disorders
Psychoanalytic view emphasize the unconscious conflicts associated w/grief and loss
Cognitive theories focus on the depressed person’s self defeating thought process
Interpersonal factors emphasize how depressed ppl interact with others
Psychoanalytic Theory of Depression
- Frued said that potential for depression is created in childhood  during the oral period
where the child’s needs mat be insufficiently/over sufficiently graditifed causing the
person to become fixated in the stage and dependent on the instinctual gratifications
particular to it  this can cause the individual to be dependant on others for support in
self esteem
-
It goes onto to talk about how usually the death of a loved one will cause separation or
withdrawal from affection, and then they identify with the loved one perhaps in a
fruitless attempt to undo the loss  the unconscious brings up these negative feelings
toward those we love and they become an object of their own anger and hate (turned
inwards on themselves
Cognitive Theories of Depression  Beck’s Theory of Depression
- Ppl are depressed bc their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations
- 3 cognitive activities underlie depression
1) Negative tried  pessimistic views of self, world and future
2) Negative Schemas/Beliefs  a tendency to see the world negatively. Can be
activated by the depressed person in any new situation. These negative
schemas are fueled by cognitive biases
3) Cognitive Biases  an arbitrary influence (lead the individual to misperceive
reality.
- The Negative Triad
o Negative views on self, world, and future
 world = person’s judgement that he or she cannot coop with demands of
the environment
 There isn’t a concern with global events (i.e 911 has mad the world
terrible)
 instead they have a negative personal concern with events (i.e I cannot
coop with demands and responsibilities)
- Dysfunctional Attitudes
o Aka assumptions that bias the interpretations of
events
o These are assessed through a 40-item self-report
 2 main themes it discovered
1) Dysfunctional beliefs reflecting the need
for approval
2) Dysfunctional beliefs reflecting the need
for achievement and perfection
- Following list the principal cognitive Biases of Depressed
Individuals (according to beck)
The New Wave of Research
- Thought that the way depressed people process negative
events (cognitive accessibility) is what differentiates them from nondepressed  NOT
that their schemas involve positive or negative content (cognitive availability)
- Depressed people pay greater attention to negative stimuli and can more readily access
negative info then positive info
- Stroop Task
o This task will assess differences in cognitive processing
o It provides a series of colours and words and asked to identify the colour of each
word and ignore the word itself
o It assess latency of responses
o Non depressed have a different latency than depressed
(talks about some research here)
Beck’s Expanded Cognitive Model
- Repeated activation causes negative schemas to become more organized into a
depressive “mode” (a network of cognitive, affective, motivational, behavioural and
physiological schemas that accounts for depression)
- Negative events have an impact on the mode,
making it hypersalient and the mode takes
control of info processing, reflected by
increased negative appraisals and rumination
Some info on helplessness/hopeless model
- Individuals passivity and sense of being unable
to act and control his/her own life is aquired
through unpleasant experiences and traumas
that the individual tried to unsuccessfully
control
- Depressive paradox
o Many depressed people hold
themselves responsible for their
failures and then feel helpless about
this
(skipped most this section bc not in lec)
Interpersonal Theory
- Depressed people tend to have a sparse social network which provides them little
support
- Reduced social interaction may cause them to handle negative events even worse
increasing vulnerability to depression
- Depressed people also elicit negative rxn from others, including rejection
- Usually have marital problems
- Consntlay seeking social reassurance
Psychological Theories of Bipolar Disorder
- Life stress is important in precipitating episodes
- Manic state seems to serve a protective function
o Could be due to self esteem issues
- Behavioural Activation System Deregulation Theory
o The root of mania and bipolar disorder is hyperresponsiveness to reward cues
that can be traced to high behavioural activation system activation
8.3  Biological Theories of Mood Disorders
Skipped this bc not in lecture
8.4 – Therapies for Mood Disorders