Significance in the Application of Cognitive States Towards Psychiatric Treatments

Cognitive states like moral cognition and regret are less widely recognized as heavy elements to consider in terms of psychiatric treatment. When we think of psychiatric diagnoses, it is more common to identify the surface-level, physical symptoms of the presenting illness. Discussions presented by Sweis and colleagues and Harwood-Gross acknowledge cognitive states and how they may also play a significant role in understanding clinical diagnoses. Specifically, root processing of the mind in decision making and individual moral cognition can be skewed in different contexts that are important fundamental aspects when considering psychiatric treatment and understanding for drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These articles expand on the field of neuroscience in clinical applications to better understand lifestyle aspects and behaviors for the improvement of psychiatric treatments.

In “Mice learn to avoid regret”, Sweis and colleagues found evidence of decision-making strategies to avoid regret in mice. Regret is characterized as “the subjective experience of recognizing that one has made a mistake and that a better alternative could have been selected (Sweis, Thomas, Redish, 2018). They observed this behavior through a Restaurant Row experiment where mice are trained in a resource-scarce environment. They must learn to maximize their food reward under wait time conditions that may take away from the total amount of time they have in one session to get food for the day. Results revealed that regret in these mice was characterized by the change in behavior shown the following day, with improved and stabilized food reward outcome.

Sweis and colleagues uncovered a very interesting perspective that has never been uncovered before in mice. Furthermore, Sweis discussed these applications towards the understanding of decision-making processes in drug addiction studies with mice.

From Sweis’s talk at the Neuroscience Seminar, he explained how he trained mice similar to the Restaurant Row experiment but observed the behavior in mice with a history of drug addiction. From that study, he saw that mice with a history of drug use showed a harder time rationalizing their decision making compared to the control mice. Their addiction was characterized into impulsive decision making, which may have led to less beneficial outcomes and rewards compared to the controls. In understanding the affects of drug addiction on decision-making strategies that may lead to regret, these findings can contribute to novel, and improved psychiatric treatments in humans.

In relation to this study, I became curious about other possible applications from understanding other unique cognitive states, like regret, that can have similar significance in clinical settings. Likewise, Harwood-Gross’s Scientific American article mimics this relationship between cognitive states and psychiatric applications in “Treating “Moral” Injuries”, where disruption to moral cognition and beliefs should be recognized more in war veterans that cannot fully access traditional PTSD treatments.

Moral injury is described by Litz and colleagues as the “psychic fallout of ‘morally injurious events, such as perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress [one’s own] deeply held moral beliefs and expectations” (Litz et. al., 2009). This is characterized with avoidance of shame triggers and rises from events like violence and killing of others and even innocent citizens that come with participation in war (Harwood-Gross, 2020).

Not only does Harwood-Gross introduce us to moral injuries and how it compares to PTSD, but the discussion emphasizes the understanding of treating moral injury in a clinical setting. This cognitive state is not understood to its entirety. Similar to mental health illnesses, the internal conflicts that moral injury presents itself in, creates real symptoms that need to be acknowledged. Because moral injury has distinguishing characteristics from individuals with PTSD, a lot of veterans cannot benefit from traditional treatments. More studies surrounding moral injury can greatly contribute to larger applications in a clinical setting.

Harwood-Gross and Sweis and colleagues take on a similar perspective between these cognitive states because something less clinically acknowledged into diagnoses, like regret, can be very significant and possibly fundamental to serious mental illnesses and their treatments, like addiction, that needs to be acknowledged and better understood for improved treatment options. What is uncovered by Harwood-Gross, is that the decisions around our morals can be a significant element to our mental health diagnosis, like PTSD. Research surrounding cognitive states like regret and morals can play a bigger role in psychiatric health than we think, and it is important to acknowledge all lifestyle aspects for the betterment of psychiatric treatments.

 

 

References

 

Harwood-Gross, A. (2020, March). Treating “Moral” Injuries. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/treating-moral-injuries/

 

Litz et. al. (2009). Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy. Clinical Psychology Review 29(8). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.07.003

 

Sweis, B. M., Thomas, M. J., Redish, A. D. (2018) Mice learn to avoid regret. PLoS Biol 16(6):

e2005853. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2005853