AO3 schizophrenia Flashcards
strengths of psychological explanations of schizophrenia
butzlaff and hooley - showed using meta analysis of 27 studies that relapse into schizophrenia is significantly more likely in families that have issues with expressed emotion
tenari - found that only 5.8% of biological children of schizophrenic mothers adopted into healthy families developed schizophrenia, compared to 36.8% of children in dysfunctional families
stirling - found that petients with schizophrenia took twice as long to name the colour in the troop test as the controls, suggest people with schizophrenia have dysfunctional thought processing in this case with central control (ability to suppress and override automatic actions and speech and make deliberate actions to reach a goal)
weaknesses of psychological explanations of schizophrenia
socially sensitive to suggest that schizophrenia is caused by the family, may be adding additional stress and anxiety
research evidence that schizophrenia has a biological cause such as genetics (gottesman) and neurotransmitters (Leucht)
lack of cause and effect - it could be that schizophrenia child and associated behaviour is caused the family dysfunction
strengths of drug therapy for treating schizophrenia
Leucht et al - 212 studies in meta analysis, found drug treatment was more effective than placebo in treating symptoms, this suggests that drug treatments that target the dopamine system are effective in reducing symptoms
Bagnall - 232 studies to compare the effectiveness of a range of atypical drugs and typical anti - psychotics, found that atypical drugs were more effective in treating overall symptoms , resulting in fewer movement disorder side effects and fewer people left the drug treatments early, overall clozapine was the most effective
drug therapies are cheaper to prescribe than poising hospital treatment or psychological therapy (CBT)
CBT strengths
sensky et al - patients who had resisted drug treatment, had reduction in both positive and negative symptoms when treated by 19 session of CBT, they continued to improve for 9 months after the treatment had ended
CBT does not produce side effects like drug therapies making it the preferred treatment plan for many patients
CBT weaknesses
The cost of of working with a trained therapist means that drug therapies are cheaper
ending CBT early is common due to the length of treatment, symptoms may become severe over this time, CBT requires engagement, negative symptoms can lead to patients not wanting to take part, or positive leading to distrust in the process
family therapy strengths
Lefft - who looked at aftercare of patients with schizophrenia, those provided with standard aftercare 50% released within 9 months, compared to only 8% who received family therapy, however, after two years this had risen to 50% with family therapy and 75% with outpatient aftercare
family therapy weaknesses
it is not a cure for the disorder, while more manageable symptoms still remain
there are some practical issues such as length of therapy, family therapy can often take up to a year. during this time patient may drop out, especially if they have particularly severe symptoms or a family incident
token economy strengths
Dickerson - found when reviewing findings of of 13 studies, token economies can be effective in improving the adaptive behaviour of people with schizophrenia
token economies weaknesses
token economies do not directly treat the symptoms of schizophrenia, the only attempt to manage negative symptoms such as poor motivation, poor attention and social withdrawal
using skinnerian principles could be seen as degrading to patients, manipulating them like lab rats
strengths for the interactionist approach for explaining schizophrenia
Gottesman - concordance rate of 48% for identical twins and 17% for non identical twins suggest biological genetic factors as the concordance rate is much higher for MZ who share 100% of their DNA, but still not 100%
Tienari - studied the biological children of schizophrenic mothers who had been adopted, it was found that 5.8% of the children adopted into into healthy families developed schizophrenia compared to 36.8% of children raised in dysfunctional families
weaknesses for interactionist approach to explaining schizophrenia
the mechanism by which a negative psychological event actually triggers a complex biological response resulting in symptoms is still uncertain reducing confidence in the interactionist approach as a full explanation of schizophrenia
the diathesis is no longer thought to be just a single gene, now researchers understand it is polygenic and include the vulnerabilities such as early emotional trauma like child abuse, acting as a diathesis by altering neurological development (Read), also the understanding of risk triggers has developed to include factors such as drug abuse
interactionist approach for treating schizophrenia strengths
Tarrier - patients were randomly placed in routine care (antipsychotics) or routine care CBT. patients in the combined treatment had a significant improvement in the severity and number of positive symptoms as well as fewer days in the hospital receiving care. this suggests the interactionist approach to treating schizophrenia is more effective than the usual treatment plan of giving anti - psychotics alone
