MOOD DISORDERS

 Mood disorders: psychological disorders

characterized by emotional extremes
Mood Disorders

 Depression is the “common cold”

of psychological disorders.
 Not that it is insignifcant but
pervasive
In fact:
 Depression is the number one
reason for people to seek mental
heath services
 It is the leading cause of disability
worldwide
Mood Disorders

 Depression is a response to past and current loss. (As

opposed to anxiety which a response to a future
threat)
 It acts as a signal for our body to take protective
measures!
 Two emotional extremes of mood disorder:
(1) major depressive disorder
(2) bipolar disorder
Major
A mood disorder in which a person
Depressive experiences 2 weeks or more of
Disorder: -depressed moods
-feelings of worthlessness
-decreased interest or pleasure in
activities
-weight gain/loss
-inability to sleep or too much sleep
-thoughts of death/suicide
for no apparent reason.
(Dysthymic Disorder)
Persistent Depressive
Disorder:
 A depressed mood that lasts most of the day,
nearly every day, for two years or more (adults;
one year children)
 It is less severe than major depressive disorder,
but it lasts longer
 Experience chronic low energy & self-esteem,
have difficulty concentrating or making
decisions, and sleep & eat too much or too little
Some depression facts:

 Compared with men, women are twice as

vulnerable to major depression, even more so if they
have been depressed before
 Most major depressive episodes self-terminate
 Stressfulevents related to work, marriage, and close
relationships often precede depression
 With each new generation, the rate of depression is
increasing
 Disorder is striking earlier (now often in late teens)
Most people feel slightly better during the summer than the winter
(when there are fewer hours of sunlight).

People with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) feel good in the summer
and seriously depressed in the winter.

Seasonal affective disorder is most common in northern locations

where the summer days are very long and bright and the winter days
are very short and dark. SAD is not common in tropical locations
 Bipolar Disorder
 Bipolar disorder: a mood disorder in which the person
alternates between the hopelessness & lethargy of
depression and the overexcited state of mania
 Manic episode: an episode marked by a hyperactive,
wildly optimistic state.
Bipolar Disorder
 Bipolar disorder is much less
common than major depression
 occursin about 1% of the
population
 afflicts
both men and women
equally
Bipolar Disorder
 During the manic state in the bipolar disorder, the
person becomes highly talkative, overactive and
may engage in reckless activities (unsafe sex,
spending sprees, investments) with dangerously
soaring self-esteem.

 However, milder forms of mania can help creativity:

Handel, who was believed to have suffered from
bipolar disorder, composed the four-hour-long
Messiah during the three weeks of a manic episode.
Other creative bipolar people include Edgar Allan
Poe, and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)…..
Explaining Mood Disorders
Biological Perspective

 Genetic influences:
 mood disorders run in families
 risk of major depression & bipolar
disorder increases if you have a
depressed parent or sibling
 even if identical twins are raised in
different environments, they have
greater similarities for depressive
tendencies
Explaining Mood Disorders
Biological Perspective

 Depressed brain
norepinephrine (which increases
arousal and boosts mood) is
overabundant during mania and
scarce during depression
Explaining Mood Disorders
Biological Perspective

 Depressed brain
serotonin is scarce during
depression
repetitive physical exercise
reduces depression
(it increases serotonin)
Most treatments include SSRIs
 Explaining Mood Disorders
Biological Perspective

 Neurological signs of depression

 the brains of depressed people tend to be less active
 left frontal lobe (active during positive emotions) is
likely to be inactive in depressed states
 MRI scans have shown frontal lobes to be 7% smaller in
severely depressed people
 hippocampus can be affected by stress-related
damage
Explaining Mood Disorders:
The Social-Cognitive
Perspective
 Self-defeating beliefs feed
depression’s vicious cycle.
 Self-defeating beliefs may arise
from learned helplessness through
uncontrollable painful events.
 Women are more often abused or
made to feel helpless than men,
and they may respond more
strongly to stress.
 Explaining Mood Disorders
The Social-Cognitive
Perspective
 Negative thoughts feed negative moods; negative
moods feed negative thoughts (cycle)
 Depressed people tend to explain bad events in terms
that are
 Stable (“its going to last forever”)
 Global (“Its going to affect everything I do”)
 Internal (“its all my fault”)
 Result of these pessimistic, over generalized, self
blaming attributions is a depressing sense of
hopelessness.
 Social-Cognitive
Around The World

 Correlation seen between depression in the Western

world with epidemic hopelessness stemming from the
rise of individualism and decline of religious and family
connections
 Self-focused individuals take on personal responsibility
for problems and have nothing to fall back on for hope
 Non-western cultures encourage close-knit relationships
and cooperation  depression is less common and less
tied to self-blame.
Depression’s Vicious Cycle
Put on your pink glasses?

 Losing a job, getting

divorced, suffering physical
traumas, etc. can disrupt
your sense of who you are
and why you are a worthy
human being
 Depression’s Vicious Cycle

 When bad things happen, those

who are pessimistic are more at risk
for depression.

 If you are optimistic, failure or stress is

unlikely to provoke depression. Even
if you do fall into depression, you are
more likely to recover quickly!
Depression’s Vicious Cycle
1. Stressful
Experiences (Divorce,
job loss, etc)

4. Cognitive and 2. Negative

Behavioral Explanatory Style
Changes (Hopeless (Pessimism,
Attitude, Fatigue) self-blaming)

3. Depressed Mood