The biological explanations for depression centre on the mood disorder being biologically caused. Genetic factors suggest that you are born with a biological weakness which makes you unable to resist stressors, which consequently leads to depression. This is known as the diathesis stress model. The main piece of research that supports this comes from the Maudsley Hospital twin register, where concordance rates of 46% were found in MZ twins and 20% in DZ twins. This suggest that depression must be passed on through genes if there is a high concordance rate between twins which share the same genetic makeup both having depression.
Probably one of the most interesting factors contributing to the biological aspect of depression is heredity. Depressive disorders have been found to have a genetic component, especially for bipolar disorder, meaning that a biological vulnerability for depression can be present from birth. Having depression in one’s immediate family does not guarantee diagnosis of depression and people with no family history can become depressed. There is also a biochemical factor caused by abnormalities in the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain (Bernstein et al., 2007). In particular, neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine are found to be at lower levels in people with MDD.
Neurotransmitters are known to have an impact on behaviour such as high levels of nor adrenaline and dopamine are seen when a depressed mood is evident e.g. schizophrenia has been associated with an excess of activity in the neurotransmitter dopamine. Whereas serotonin is thought to cause high anxiety levels when there is too much available. Neurotransmitters in the right balance do not cause ill effects but the biological approach suggests it is when there is an imbalance that behaviour and mental health is affected. E.g.
This is where you inherit a mental illness from your parents because it has been passed down through your genes which are similar to physical illnesses like diabetes or heart disease. However unlike the infection theory studies have been done with twins, if one has a mental illness the other twin has a 50% chance of developing one as well. However this is also unreliable because you cannot extrapolate that the illness has been passed down through genes it may just run in the family. The next aspect, neurochemicals suggests that a change in chemicals in the brain has caused a mental disorder. Abnormal functioning of the brain can be caused by abnormal levels of neurotransmitters and hormones.
Lupus: The Body Attacking Itself Systematic lupus erythematosus, better known as SLE or more popularly as lupus, is an auto-immune disease which causes the body to pretty much attack itself (Brown 4). As the case with other auto-immune diseases, when lupus occurs, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its normal, healthy tissue, slowly killing a person from the inside out (Maraux 5). Everybody can get lupus, but the disease is more common in women than men, and past studies have shown that it is also more common in African Americans and Asians ages 15 through 45 (Blau 30). Lupus is a disease that can damage the body inside and out, is hard to diagnose right away, has many harmful complications, and has multiple forms (New York Times
Essay Plan Biological Explanations of Schizophrenia 1. Describe in some detail the genetic factors- family studies- Gottesman found that schizophrenia is more common among biological relatives of a person with schizophrenia and also that the closer the degree of genetic relatedness, the greater the risk. For instance, children with 2 schizophrenic parents have a concordance rate of 46%, children of one schizophrenic parent 13% and siblings 9%. Although this could be due to common rearing patterns or other factors not relating to heredity. Twin studies- Joseph calculated concordance rates of 40.4% for MZ twins and 7.4% for DZ twins.
Paula Welch Biology 106 Jennifer McCoy, MS Research Paper 11/23/2010 LUPUS Lupus is a disorder of the immune system that most commonly affects women in their 20’sand 30’s. There is no cure for lupus, but doctors and scientist are doing what they can to find one. Though lupus is often thought as a women disease, men get lupus too. Lupus is an auto-immune disease. This means there is a problem with the body’s normal immune system response.
Although it isn't clear in the paragraph whether Harry has a twin or not, if he did this could have a massive influence on his behaviour. Let's say Harry had an mono-zygotic twin, who shared a 100% concordance rate with him. Early twin studies generally found higher concordance for criminality amongst MZ than DZ twins, which would support the suggestion of a genetic influence. However, this research has said to be flawed due to a combination of small samples and poor methods of determining whether a particular twin pair was MZ or DZ. The rationale underlying the use of twins in explaining criminal behaviour is that if 1 MZ twin shows signs of aggressive behaviour, and the other one does too, then it is down to genetic influence.
Lesley Chubick PS124 Introduction to Psychology Alzheimer’s, Disorder of the Brain Unit 7 Assignment The mental disorder I chose for this assignment is on Alzheimers. Alzheimers is a form of dementia that is a disease that attacks the brain’s intellectual functions such as memory, orientation and calculation. This degenerative brain disease attacks one in ten men and women over 60. The question many of us have is what is Alzheimers, what is its effect on the brain and is there a cure? Being a degenerative disease Alzheimers attacks the brain through exponentially greater cell death and tissue loss which results in decreased brain size and brain activity.
The son at 5 is affected and would have to inherit the gene from the mother. Two males (2 and 5) exhibited symptoms, indicating the possibility of a Y-linked disease. However, the unaffected son at 3 and grandsons at 7 and 8 and the affected granddaughter (9) of an affected male (5) rules the possibility out. Males only pass a Y-linked gene to another male. A Y-linked disorder would have been passed to every male and no