Affective Disorders

Question 1

What does affect refer to

Answer 1

Emotions, moods and feelings

Question 2

What is bipolar disorder?

Answer 2

Alternating cycles of mania [euphoria, delusions] and depression [profound sadness, guilt, suicide risk]

Question 3

What is unipolar depression?

Answer 3

Continuous or episodic

Question 4

What is heritability of affective disorders?

Answer 4

• likelihood increases with close relatives with affective disorders
• concordance rates for monozygotic twins higher than dizygotic twins
• genes on a number of chromosomes
• clock genes
• bipolar disorder may be related to single gene

Question 5

What are drugs used?

Answer 5

MAO inhibitors

Reuptake inhibitors

Lithium

Ketamine