Clinical psychology

• Hilker (Twin studies): He conducted a study in Denmark using 30,000 twins. He got these twins using two registers; the Danish Twin Register and the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register.
• Gottsman (Twin studies): the chances of having schizophrenia went from 1% among the general population to around 48% if you have an identical twin with schizophrenia.
• For electro-convulsive therapy, the two psychologists who invented it are Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini.
• For electro-convulsive therapy, the electricity being passed is not the treatment, the seizures are the treatment.
• Modern ECT involves passing electricity to the brain with the intent of causing a seizure.
• ECT patients will have ECT between 6-12 sessions. It is usually given twice a week or less commonly at longer intervals to prevent a relapse of symptoms.
• Modern ECT is now applied to the non-dominant hemisphere only, to reduce memory loss.
• The depressive disorder involves having one emotion every day for at least two weeks.
• Symptoms of depressive disorder include:

  • Loss of joy in hobbies.
  • Thoughts of death.
  • Intense feelings of worthlessness.
  • Lack of sleep.
  • Change in eating habits.
• Unipolar disorder can only be diagnosed if there hasn’t been a manic episode.
• There are two types of bipolar disorders.
• Type 1 has three strains.
• The three strains of type 1 bipolar disorder include:

  • A manic episode that lasts for a week.
  • A mixed episode is an alternation between a manic episode and a depressive episode.
  • A depressive episode that lasts two weeks and consists of feelings of worthlessness.
• Type 2 involves one or more hypomanic episodes and a depressive episode.
• Hypomania is similar to mania but less severe, with symptoms lasting at least four days.
• The BDI is a psychometric test measuring symptom severity using 21 items, scored from 0 to 3. It is designed to be used by qualified health professionals and not for self-diagnosis.
• BDI stands for Becks Depression Index.
• Strength of BDI: It provides quick and precise data and it is also good for assessing treatment efficacy in research and clinical practice.
• Weakness of BDI: It provides quantitative data that ignores contextual information.
• Another weakness of BDI is that it’s a self-report, it can have a social desirability bias, so this may reduce validity and the symptoms may be underreported or exaggerated.
• The total score is used to understand the severity of the depression. a minimum of 10 is classified as mild depression.
• 19-29 is classified as moderate depression, and 30 and over is classified as severe depression.
• Two important neurotransmitters when discussing depression are dopamine and serotonin.
• Dopamine helps carry messages to certain areas of the brain that allow us to be happy, feel motivated, and feel pleasure.
• Without dopamine, we would lack motivation and stop deriving pleasure and satisfaction from things we enjoy.
• Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate sleep and mood. When we have normal levels of it, our mood is stable and we can easily sleep.
• When we lack serotonin, we experience a decline in our mood and difficulty sleeping, which are typical symptoms of depression.
• First degree relatives like parents and siblings share 50% of their DNA.
• Some mental illnesses have been said to be transmitted from generation to generation.
• The McGill Pain Questionnaire is a tool that helps people describe their pain.
• It asks questions about the following:

  • Where the pain is.
  • What it feels like (using simple words like "stabbing" or "burning").
  • How intense it is (on a scale from 0 to 10).
  • If it changes with activities.
  • How it affects daily life.
• Beck's cognitive triad shows us how our thoughts can lead to depression and influence our reality.
• Becks cognitive triad looks at how negative thoughts lead to cognitive distortion.
• Cognitive distortion is when a person tends to look at situations through a negative lens (in a negative way).
• Learned helplessness was developed by Seligman.
• Seligmans theory suggests that if we are exposed to uncontrollable events, we will eventually stop trying to control them because we believe they cannot be controlled.
• Seligman stated that learned helplessness is a learned state of mind that occurs when a person experiences a traumatic event where they feel that the suffering was unavoidable.
• Seligman believes that learned helplessness leads to depression because depression is based on the thought process that an individual has no control over their life.
• Attributional style is the cognitive process by which individuals explain the causes of behaviour and events.
• Biological treatment for mood disorders involves medication MAOIs that will prevent serotonin and dopamine transmitters from being broken down thus increasing levels in the brain.