Mental Disorder and Congruent Memory Symptoms Essay Example

markedly diminished Interest or pleasure In almost all activities nearly every day and Impaired concentration and Indecisiveness.

Symptoms are said to be mood-congruent If they are consistent with a patient's mental disorder. For example, classical thoughts In a patient suffering from MAD would be a mood-congruent symptom.

Schizophrenia: dopamine hypothesis

The symptoms are: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and lack of emotional expression.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that people with schizophrenia produce too much dopamine. Antispasmodic medications, which are used to treat schizophrenia, block dopamine receptors.

The medications are designed to bind to dopamine receptors in the brain, and their effects have helped many people cope with symptoms; while drugs that increase levels of dopamine, like amphetamines, often cause psychotic symptoms and a schizophrenic- like paranoid state.

Antisocial personality disorder: autonomic nervous system

Symptoms include superficial charm, shallow emotions and lack of guilt, failure to conform to social norms, impulsively, deceitfulness, failure to learn from experiences, absence of anxiety, and irresponsibility.

Research shows their autonomic nervous system is actually under active at rest.

Because of this low arousal, these individuals are easily bored, have an increased need for excitement and are driven by uncontrollable impulses. The increased need for excitement and poor response to punishment sets the stage for substance abuse and addiction. A study showed that if mothers smoked during pregnancy, their offspring were at risk of developing antisocial behavior. This suggests that smoking brought about lowered oxygen levels with may have resulted in subtle brain injury to the fetus.