Carlsson et al (Sz)

Question 1

What was the first AIM of his study?

Answer 1

It was to look into the relationship between neurotransmitter levels and the symptoms of schizophrenia

Question 2

What was the second AIM of his study?

Answer 2

To explore a theory of glutamatergic deficiency could be seen with some schizophrenic patients

Question 3

What method did he used to collect data?

Answer 3

He used a literature review based on 32 previous schizophrenic studies looking at a range of different causes and hypothesis’.

Question 4

What type of data did Carlsson collect?

Answer 4

Secondary data

Question 5

What did Lindstrom et al study?

Answer 5

He radioactively labelled a chemical L-dopa and administered it do 10 patients with SZ and 10 patients without SZ.

Question 6

What did Lindstrom et al find?

Answer 6

L-dopa was taken up quicker in the SZ patients than it was in the control group.

Question 7

What research methods did Lindstrom use?

Answer 7

PET scans

Question 8

Scientific

A strength of using PET scans

Answer 8

PET scans are highly scientific and are objective measures of measuring brain activity. This allows researchers to look and compare between Sz and non SZ brains to look for abnormalities and possible conclusions of this. They are also highly standardised which increases test re-test reliability

Question 9

Induces Stress

A weakness of PET scans

Answer 9

Stress contributes to brain acitivity therefore if you scan a Schizophrenic brain this may cause the individual to become stressed and have anxiety therefore the increased activity may not be due to the SZ but may be caused by the stress from the anxiety provoking situation they are put into.

Question 10

What did Miller and Ambercrombe study?

Answer 10

They tested the relationship between NMDA antagonsists and increased dopamine in rats.

Question 11

A weakness of animal research

Answer 11

Rats have a smaller cerebral cortex which means that they might have reduced activity as their brain is different to humans. You also cant monitor symptoms of schizophrenia in rats and therefore doesnt generalise to humans.

Question 12

What did Miller and Ambercrombe find?

Answer 12

They found that dopamine is increased if glutamate activity if lowered.

Question 13

What did Laruelle find?

Answer 13

Schizophrenia patients in remission only had normal development.

Question 14

Dopamine as an explanation for SZ

Results

Answer 14

Evidence from the PET and SPECT supports the dopamine hypothesis (dopamatergic dysfunction). SZ participants show more dopamine activity than a healthy control group, especially in the basal ganglia

Question 15

Glutamate as an explanation for SZ

Results

Answer 15

Glutamate failure in the cerebral cortex leads to negative symptoms whereas Glutamate failure in the basal ganglia leads to positive symptoms.

Question 16

Drug treatments

Results

Answer 16

Hyperdopaminergia (too much dopamine)
Hypoglutamatergia (too little glutamate).
Some patients respond better to drugs that others and this was especially seen between dopamine and gluatamate. Glutamatergic patients were treatment resistant as they didnt respond to typical antipsychotics.

Question 17

TGA

Conclusions

Answer 17

Third generation antipsychotics (TGA) are currently in the works to treat glutamatergic patients (as they are treatment resistant to typical antipsychotics).

Question 18

Data collected

Strength

Answer 18

Secondary data is collected which is highly ethical as it means you dont have to gather consent etc. It also gives a large sample and is quick and easy to collect which gives practical advantages.

Question 19

Sample

Strength

Answer 19

A large sample was used - Carlsson looked at 32 different stuides looking at SZ patients ranging from acute to severe. This means that a large range of symptoms and SZ was looked at increasing generalisibility.

Question 20

Triangulation

Strength

Answer 20

Carlsson looked at all different studies which used an array of different data collection techniques. For example he looked at studies which used PEt scans, SPECT scans etc. This means that theres high internal validity.

Question 21

Data used

Weakness

Answer 21

Secondary data means that Carlsson did not have control over extraneous variables therefore this could have skewed his results as the data he used wasnt representitive of SZ patients.