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Understanding depression and anxiety

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Overview

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This free course, Understanding depression and anxiety, explores the causes of these mental health issues, with a particular focus on stress. You will consider some risk and causal factors for some depression and anxiety disorders, and learn about the biology and psychology behind them.

Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1  Understanding the role of stress
  • 1  Understanding the role of stress
  • 1.1  What do we mean by stress?
  • 1.2  Recent life events and stress
  • 1.3  Early life events and stress
  • 1.4  Cognition, appraisal and stress
  • 1.5  Temperament, personality and heritability
  • 1.6 Inheritance of temperament
  • 1.7 Familial inheritance and heritability in humans
  • 2  Stress and the brain
  • 2  Stress and the brain
  • 2.1 The operation and control of the HPA axis
  • 2.2 Relating stress and depression biologically
  • 2.3 Effects on the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
  • 2.4 Relating stress and anxiety biologically
  • 2.5 The amygdala and generalised anxiety disorder
  • 3  The life cycle model of stress
  • 3  The life cycle model of stress
  • 3.1 Adaptive value of developmental programming of stress
  • 4  Insights from antidepressants
  • 4  Insights from antidepressants
  • 4.1  The monoamine hypothesis of mood disorders
  • 4.2 Evidence for the monoamine hypothesis
  • 4.3 Tryptophan depletion experiments
  • 4.4  The neurotrophic hypothesis of mood disorders
  • 4.5 Depression and levels of BDNF
  • 4.6 Stress, depression and neurogenesis in the hippocampus
  • 4.7 Antidepressants, BDNF levels and neurogenesis in the hippocampus
  • 5  The network hypothesis of mood disorders
  • 5  The network hypothesis of mood disorders
  • 6  Genes and environment: bringing it all together
  • 6  Genes and environment: bringing it all together
  • 6.1  The serotonin transporter gene and vulnerability to stressful life events
  • 6.2  Genes, environment and development
  • 6.3 Epigenetic effects and human mental disorders
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

Reviews

4.2 rating at OpenLearn based on 57 ratings

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