ABPSYCH_1

• Health Psychology


  A subspecialty within behavioral medicine concerned with the effects of stress and other psychological factors in the development and maintenance of physical problems
• Types of stress


  • Academic
  • Familial
  • Work
  • Relationship
• Behavioral Medicine Approach


  Concerned with psychological factors that may predispose an individual to medical problems
• Stress has a large influence on many health problems nowadays
• Diathesis-stress model


  Stress can trigger the onset of mental disorders in vulnerable people
• The diathesis-stress model is a widely used model in explaining mental health problems
• Until now, many people have not yet recovered from the effects of the pandemic (socioeconomic/psychological stress; grief)
• The power of any experience is greatest during development


  The impact of any event or experience is greatest on the most actively changing and dynamic system
• Freud


  The first 5-7 years of development is the most crucial
• Our brain continues to develop until early adulthood stage
• Brain can still develop even in the old age as long as there is continuous stimulation
• Already organized and functioning neural system is less vulnerable to developmental insults than rapidly-changing developing systems
• Toxic Stress & Trauma Impact Neuro-development


  • Prevents optimal integration of sensory experiences (increases sensitivity to or need for sensory stimuli)
  • Creates chronic internal stress
  • Alters stress-mediating system of the brain (changes in HPA axis and limbic system results to sensitized response to threat)
• Core Regulatory Networks


  • Five Senses
  • Neuro-endocrine (HPA Axis- Adrenaline and Cortisol)
  • Neuro-immune (Protection of neurons from pathogens)
  • Interoception (Internal Organs, Vestibular, Proprioception)
  • Autonomic Nervous System (Sympathetic and Para-Sympathetic)
• Neuroendocrine system is relevant across disorders
• Parts of the nervous system

  • Central (brain and spinal cord)
  • Peripheral (autonomic [sympathetic and parasympathetic] and another part of the peripheral)
• Interoception


  There are internal systems than maintain equilibrium
• Disruptors of Core Regulatory Networks


  • Intrauterine Insults
  • Alcohol
  • Maternal Stress
  • Toxins
  • Drugs
• Disruptors of Bonding and Attachment (Compromised External Regulator)


  • Domestic Violence
  • Maternal/Parental Isolation
  • Maternal/Parental history of attachment
  • Maternal/parental mental health
• Sensitized Patterns of Stress

  • ACES
  • Chaos, Neglect, Unpredictability
  • Exposure to Violence
  • Discrimination, Shaming, Humiliation
  • Poverty
• Bonding and attachment


  Has a profound effect on the child's regulatory system
• Perry's Neurosequential Model


  • Cortical (Empathy, Controlling yourself, Literacy)
  • Limbic (Emotional response)
  • Midbrain (Coordination, Movement)
  • Brainstem (Heart rate, Fight flight freeze)
• Brainstem


  The oldest/ the most ancient part of the human brain
• Midbrain


  Involves basic processes (heart rate, fight/flight, freeze etc)
• Interventions for Midbrain


  • Mindfulness exercise
  • Somatic-based interventions (art therapy, dance movements, music therapy)
  • Pharmacological interventions
  • Emotion-based interventions
• Limbic


  Emotion-based interventions
• Cortical


  Cognitive behavioral approaches; rational-emotive behavior
• We cannot say that cognitive-behavioral interventions are the most superior because the reasons why a person developed a mental health problem can vary
• Epigenetics


  The study of how your behavior and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work
• Epigenetics does NOT involve change in DNA sequence but changes how the body reads the DNA sequence
• Epigenetic changes


  Turn genes "on" and "off"
• DNA


  The library. Epigenetic regulation is the librarian.
• Methylation


  A universal biochemical process which covalently adds methyl groups to a variety of molecular targets. It plays a critical role in epigenetic modifications and imprinting, via methyl tagging on histones and DNA.
• Methylation is sometimes referred to as "marking" DNA
• Methylation plays a critical role in gene expression and cell differentiation and errors in methylation could give rise to disease and dysfunction
• Experience shapes methylation processes
• Stress brought by stressful experiences can affect even the smallest parts of our body
• Humans' neuro-epigenome, with all of its moving parts, is much more malleable than once thought
• The malleability of the neuro-epigenome re-emphasizes the importance of interventions in the environment and early-life events that can reshape overall health and behavioral outcomes
• Some epigenetic modifications that have an impact on behavior and physiology in one individual can be transferred to future unborn generations