Physiological Aspects of Mental Disorders

In recent decades, medical research has begun to delineate some of the physiological phenomena associated with the various mental disorders. Genetic, biochemical, and anatomic investigations increasingly indicate that psychiatric disease is a medical problem resulting through physiologic mechanisms. Of the different processes that could be involved, neurotransmitter imbalances have received considerable scrutiny. Altered levels of norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin may be responsible for such diseases as schizophrenia and depression. This obviously emphasizes medical treatments as the most appropriate therapy for these disorders. Regardless though, psychiatric health care providers continue to widely utilize psychological interventions. One such treatment, dynamic psychotherapy, dates back to the time of Freud. In contrast, other psychological techniques (i.e., the cognitive-behavior therapies) have been developed more recently. Although these interventions may be popular with both patients and therapists, their relative effectiveness remains uncertain. The human brain is both complex and inaccessible. These characteristics have made it extremely difficult to study. While the known mental disorders have generally been described in terms of course and symptoms, their etiologies have, for the most part, remained obscure (Kety, 1982, p. 94). Only during the last 20 years have the involved underlying physiologic processes begun to be elucidated (Brown & Mann, 19

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nity for different drugs. The norepinephrine tracts have been associated with such things as control of movement, alertness, emotion, pleasure, and the sleep cycle. In addition, they may also be involved in such basic functions as hunger, thirst, temperature regulation, and reproduction. Finally, the pathways have also been found to influence such things as blood pressure and spinal reflexes (Brown & Mann, 1985, p. 143). A second neurotransmitter commonly associated with mental disorders is dopamine. This substance primarily occurs within the central nervous system. The three main dopamine systems in the brain consist of the extrapyramidal pathway, the mesolimbic system, and the tuberoinfundibular system (Brown & Mann, 1985, p. 144). The extrapyramidal pathway extends from the substantia nigra of the midbrain to the caudate nucleus and putamen of the basal ganglia. It has been found to be associated with fine coordination of movement, attention, and various other mental processes. In contrast, the mesolimbic system runs from the midbrain to the forebrain. These neurons are involved in emotion and memory. Finally, the tuberoinfundibular system connects the hypothalamus to the pituitary and controls the hypothalamic-pi

Category: Psychology - P