The Limbic system, Mental Disorders and Major Depressive Disorder Questions

Bio-Psychology In Social Work Practice
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Question 3 (30 marks)
(a) Discuss the functions of TWO (2) subcortical structures belonging to the limbic system. (10 marks)
The limbic system deals with emotions and memory and consists of the hippocampus, amygdala, fornix, the septum and the cingulate cortex (Pinel & Barnes, 2014). The hippocampus links emotions and memories. It is involved in memory, the production and regulation of emotional states and in spatial navigation. The hippocampus main function is mediation of the generation and recovery of memories, but this function is also carried out by other brain areas throughout the cortex and in the limbic system. Through integrating information there is also long-term memory, and memories are linked with emotions as memories can be associated with pleasant or painful experiences at the physiological or psychological level.
The amygdala’s main function is to integrate emotions with the response patterns corresponding to them, causing a response at the physiological level or prepare one for behavioural response (Pinel & Barnes, 2014).. Similarly, it is in charge of coordinating areas where there is the somatic expression of emotion and those responsible for conscious feelings with which it has a highly relevant role in assessing the emotional meaning of experiences. Thus, the amygdale controls brain emotions and feelings in the brain, and controlling the responses of satisfaction or fear. While the amygdala, is involved in emotion, it is mostly fear compared to other emotions.
(b) Explain how pharmacotherapy is used to manage TWO (2) mental disorders inspected in your course (Bio-Psychology). Your answer must identify the class of drugs used for the treatments and their mode of action at the neurochemical level. (10 marks)
Bipolar disorders have b...