Lecture 1 - Course Intro
What is Neuroscience
- Multidisciplinary science devoted to the understanding of the nervous sys
- Brain is one of most complex systems in the universe, and understanding how it
functions is among the most challenging questions in science
Lecture 2 - Intro to Neuroscience and Mental Health
Historical View of Mental Illness
- Witches, demons, evil spirits (abnormal behaviour always existed)
- Treated by shamans, priests, exorcists
- Mystica explanations still common today
20th Century Treatment
- Neuroscience and psychiatry in modern age, not big improvement in treatment
- Example: inducing seizures for mental illness because epileptics rarely had
schizophrenia
- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- Modern version of ECT still used for patients with severe depression that don't
respond to drugs
- ECT = effective but no one knows why
Today: Medical Model
- Medical model: abnormal behaviour is a disease
- Mental illness, psychopathology, neurobehavioral disorders
- E.g. parkinson’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, major depressive
disorder
- Diagnosis: which illness is it?
- Etiology: what caused it?
- Prognosis: what are the short/long-term consequences
Prevalence of Neurobehavioral Disorders
- How common are they?
- Epidemiology: study of the distribution of disorders in a population
- Prevalence: % of the population that exhibits a disorder during a specific time
period
, How do we Diagnose Mental Illness
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
- 1st releases in 1952
- Descriptive, loose interpretation
- 1969 - David L. Rosenhan (psychology professor at Swarthmore college)
- Voices in head, “empty, thud, hollow”
- “On being sane in insane places” (Science, 1973)
- Conclusion: psychiatrists did not have a valid way to diagnose mental illness
Changes to the DSM
- Classification scheme revised in 1980 (DSM-III)
- Category approach
- Multiaxial - 5 axes/dimensions
- Following DSM III, underwent further revisions (DSM - IV, IVR, IVTR…)
2013: Release of the DSM 5
- Multi-axial system eliminated
- Removes artificial distinction between medical and mental disorders
- Organization reflects relationship between disorders
- E.g. developmental disorders listed first; dementia-related disorders listed last
- Some disorders removed, others adde
- Big changes in specific disorders will be addressed with associated lectures
- E.g. no difference between autism and asperger’s; now “autism spectrum
disorder”
What is Neuroscience
- Multidisciplinary science devoted to the understanding of the nervous sys
- Brain is one of most complex systems in the universe, and understanding how it
functions is among the most challenging questions in science
Lecture 2 - Intro to Neuroscience and Mental Health
Historical View of Mental Illness
- Witches, demons, evil spirits (abnormal behaviour always existed)
- Treated by shamans, priests, exorcists
- Mystica explanations still common today
20th Century Treatment
- Neuroscience and psychiatry in modern age, not big improvement in treatment
- Example: inducing seizures for mental illness because epileptics rarely had
schizophrenia
- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- Modern version of ECT still used for patients with severe depression that don't
respond to drugs
- ECT = effective but no one knows why
Today: Medical Model
- Medical model: abnormal behaviour is a disease
- Mental illness, psychopathology, neurobehavioral disorders
- E.g. parkinson’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, major depressive
disorder
- Diagnosis: which illness is it?
- Etiology: what caused it?
- Prognosis: what are the short/long-term consequences
Prevalence of Neurobehavioral Disorders
- How common are they?
- Epidemiology: study of the distribution of disorders in a population
- Prevalence: % of the population that exhibits a disorder during a specific time
period
, How do we Diagnose Mental Illness
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
- 1st releases in 1952
- Descriptive, loose interpretation
- 1969 - David L. Rosenhan (psychology professor at Swarthmore college)
- Voices in head, “empty, thud, hollow”
- “On being sane in insane places” (Science, 1973)
- Conclusion: psychiatrists did not have a valid way to diagnose mental illness
Changes to the DSM
- Classification scheme revised in 1980 (DSM-III)
- Category approach
- Multiaxial - 5 axes/dimensions
- Following DSM III, underwent further revisions (DSM - IV, IVR, IVTR…)
2013: Release of the DSM 5
- Multi-axial system eliminated
- Removes artificial distinction between medical and mental disorders
- Organization reflects relationship between disorders
- E.g. developmental disorders listed first; dementia-related disorders listed last
- Some disorders removed, others adde
- Big changes in specific disorders will be addressed with associated lectures
- E.g. no difference between autism and asperger’s; now “autism spectrum
disorder”
