VIGNETTE: SALLY

Vignette: SALLY



Vignette: SALLY

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to make a case analysis of “Vignette: SALLY”, based on the biological and humanistic perspectives. The case study is about a 28 years old divorced Lady Sally, who is suffering from the depression. Sally's mother believes that she is responsible for her divorce, whereas her father never liked her and talked to her. Sally also felt that she had always been teased as she is fat.

Biological Perspective

After reading the case study of Sally, I feel that she is a victim of depression. Based on the biological perspective some people have been thinking that some changes in the body may lead to a depressive disorder. For example, the association of a number of physical illnesses and depression, or the relationship of the effect of antidepressant drugs with changes in brain neurotransmitters, the existence of other drugs that can cause depression, depression induced by the drug, genetic transmission and mechanisms that encourage the occurrence of depression in several generations of one family.

With regard to genetic we have seen that major affective disorders (those mood disorders with greater intensity and duration) occur more frequently in some family members of diabetic patients. It is accepted that heredity plays a role in the genesis of depression. However, the fact that there are different types of depression with age at presentation, treatment response, course, makes the study of the type and mechanism of transmission of each one of them. Studies of family history of depressive disorders show that there is a higher rate of affective disorders in relatives of healthy subjects. When studying patients with mood disorder it is found that the frequency of mood disorders is higher in their biological parents rather than their adoptive parents. Few studies on twins raised apart also confirmed a genetic inheritance. Genetic studies were done in people with major depressive disorders.

Biochemical hypothesis is evolved from clinical observations that linked the administration of a drug, reserpine, with the emergence of depressive symptoms. Reserpine produced depletion (decrease) in brain chemicals such as noradrenalin neurotransmitter. The role of neurotransmitters is to establish a code of electrical and biochemical signals to be secreted by a neuron and interact with adjacent neurons, whose membranes are receptors for these neurotransmitters. This code is determined genetically but can vary depending on external variables .In man it has described diseases that result from an alteration in this code, known as neurotransmission. Schizophrenia and depression are considered in the present days neurotransmission diseases. There are studies investigating the genetics of depressive disorders and investigated the variants of genes coding for these neurotransmitters. The exact role of neurotransmitters is subject to constant debate.

Researchers and doctors initially focused on the hypothesis that low levels of neurotransmitters and a deficit in neurotransmission produces depression. The most studied neurotransmitters are nor epinephrine, serotonin and dopamine, on the grounds that the effect of many antidepressant drugs goes through a change in these neurotransmitters or their ...