Affective neuroscience

“The Mess That Is Stress” Summary Depending on the situation, stress can either be good or bad, yet it is often an aspect that is overlooked in association with physical health problems. The pessimistic view of stress is very common, however avoided in today's society and despite a few cases where stress is positive, this causes many health issues. In the article "The Mess That is Stress" by Nathan Seppa, it is proven that research shows that chronic stress precipitates long-term health problems…

Beethoven’s case file Chief Complaint/ Presenting problem: Beethoven complains of not only his physical ailments that causes him great pain, but associates his feelings of depression with his deafness and physical illnesses. He complains of mental instability that can make him intense, which can be disruptive to his everyday functioning. He came in to be evaluated for his deviant behaviors, which causes him to have an angry outburst and mood swings. He’s concerned that he consistently suffers…

Aaron T. Beck’s Cognitive Theory of depression believes that cognitive symptoms of depression actually precede the affective and mood symptoms of depression, rather than vice versa. (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2007) According to Beck, central to depression are the negative thoughts and faulty or maladaptive cognitive processes, instead of hormonal changes or low rates of reinforcement as postulated by other theorists. (Allen, 2003) There are three main aspects that I believe are fundamental in…

Depression is a condition that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and dejection. Although depression can be inherited or be caused by unbalanced hormones or brain chemicals, it is caused by multiple stressful events in most cases. Those events can be a traumatic childhood, death of a loved one, suicide in the family, self-esteem problems, health problems, or alcoholism. Usually, depression shows a variety of symptoms physically, emotionally, and mentally. Some of the symptoms are sadness,…

Subdural haematoma (SDH) is a type of focal brain injury which consists of contusions and bleeding (Sawauchi & Abe, 2008). Contusions and bleeding occur from small tears in blood vessels which are commonly caused by external forces such as vehicular accidents and falls (Craft et al., 2015). Subdural haematoma can be described as an extra cerebral blood collection which is located between the dura mater and the middle layer of the meninges (Iliescu, 2015). The development of haematoma does not…

Freshman year was almost the death of me; physically and mentally. That year was not all fun and games, and from this I had severe depression from the constant stress. The AP and Honors homework had taken a toll on me. Late sleepless nights, and with my parents on my back I was too stressed for a fourteen year old. Enough was enough I went to my parents and confronted them on the issue. Throughout my ninth grade year my parents were overbearing on me to do my school work, and during one of my…

Psychotic depression is when a person goes through severe depression some types of psychosis is having disturbing false fixed beliefs (delusions) or hearing or seeing upsetting things that others cannot hear or see (hallucinations). Seasonal affective disorder is affected by the onset by depression during the winter months, when there is less sunlight. Bipolar disorder is genuinely different from depression, but is included in this list is because someone with bipolar disorder experiences…

According to Professor Helen Mayberg (n.d.), there are many types of treatments which are very effective for depression. She points out that some of these treatments may not work for all patients. Although she does not discuss the causes of depression, she does review the types of treatments that are available today. There are many different medications that work with neurochemical systems in the brain, but cognitive behavioral therapy as well. She goes on to emphasize that we can work top-down…

The CAPS-5 is considered the gold standard in PTSD assessment. It consists of 30 items that are assessed during a structured interview. The CAPS-5 is a valid and reliable measure that can assess for current diagnosis of PTSD, lifetime diagnosis of PTSD, and PTSD symptoms over the past week (Weathers et al., 2013). This measure was designed for administration by clinicians and clinical researchers who have knowledge of PTSD, and it takes approximately 45 minutes to complete. This measure assesses…

People who seem to be experiencing loneliness usually suffer of mental issues. When our need for social relationships is not met, there are effects on the brain. “Some effects work subtly, through the exposure of multiple body systems to excess amounts of stress hormones (Marano). When going through loneliness our brain goes into a self-preservation state that brings with it a lot of unwanted effects. The emotions caused by loneliness can strongly trigger depression. Depression is a common…