PSYC20006 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Suicidal Ideation, Citalopram, Cortisol

• School: University of Melbourne
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC20006
• Professor: Stefan Bode

Document Summary

Serotonin & mood disorders (the pharmacology of emotion) Serotonin (overview: serotonin = 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-ht, acts as neuromodulator. Influences activity of variety of neurons throughout brain. Important in many functions, e. g. sleep; arousal; appetite; temperature; working memory; hallucinations: mood, manic happy sad depressed, more less serotonin, pathways, all 5-ht in brain synthesised and released from neurons in raphe. Depression & serotonin vulnerability: proposed depression model, variation in serotonin function across population. Serotonin antidepressants (ssris: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: drugs include (trade names), citalopram (celepram, clexa, fluoxetine (prozac, lovan, paroxetine (paxil, paxtine, sertraline (zoloft) Biological psychology: therapeutic effects, very slow acting, takes weeks for therapeutic effects to be achieved, reaches brain ~1h after consumption if taken orally, should block serotonin reuptake immediately once in brain. In clinical populations: reduce symptoms of depression: ssris alter mood & personality, healthy people: increase empathy & prosocial behaviour, prozac case study/novel.