Ch. 14: Vocab

Question 1

Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia:

A) involve the absence or reduction of typical behaviors or experiences, including:

Flattened Affect: Diminished emotional expression and responsiveness

Alogia: Poverty of speech

Avolition: Lack of motivation and goal-directed behavior

B) involve the presence of abnormal behaviors or experiences, such as:

Hallucinations: Sensory experiences that occur without an external stimulus

Delusions: Fixed, false beliefs that are not amenable to change even in light of conflicting evidence

Disorganized Speech: Difficulty organizing thoughts and expressing them coherently, often manifesting in derailment, incoherence, or tangentiality

Answer 1

B) involve the presence of abnormal behaviors or experiences, such as:

Hallucinations: Sensory experiences that occur without an external stimulus

Delusions: Fixed, false beliefs that are not amenable to change even in light of conflicting evidence

Disorganized Speech: Difficulty organizing thoughts and expressing them coherently, often manifesting in derailment, incoherence, or tangentiality

Question 2

Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia:

A) involve the absence or reduction of typical behaviors or experiences, including:

Flattened Affect: Diminished emotional expression and responsiveness

Alogia: Poverty of speech

Avolition: Lack of motivation and goal-directed behavior

B) involve the presence of abnormal behaviors or experiences, such as:

Hallucinations: Sensory experiences that occur without an external stimulus

Delusions: Fixed, false beliefs that are not amenable to change even in light of conflicting evidence

Disorganized Speech: Difficulty organizing thoughts and expressing them coherently, often manifesting in derailment, incoherence, or tangentiality

Answer 2

A) involve the absence or reduction of typical behaviors or experiences, including:

Flattened Affect: Diminished emotional expression and responsiveness

Alogia: Poverty of speech

Avolition: Lack of motivation and goal-directed behavior

Question 3

Excesses or distortions of normal behavior
* E.g., hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thought

A) Positive symptoms
B) Negative symptoms

Answer 3

A) Positive symptoms

Question 4

The absence of normal behavior
* E.g., flattened affect (lack of emotional responsiveness)
* Associated with a poorer prognosis and are less easily treated.

A) Positive symptoms
B) Negative symptoms

Answer 4

B) Negative symptoms

Question 5

Schizophrenia Etiology

Answer 5

The cause(s), of schizophrenia

Question 6

Neurodevelopment Hypothesis

Answer 6

argues neuronal connectivity and biochemical function are altered in subtle ways from an early age, leaving the child with a vulnerable neural organization

Neural connectivity and biochemical function are subtly altered from an early age, leaving the individual with a vulnerable neural organization.
* The disorder becomes “unmasked” later in life, typically after puberty or at the onset of young adulthood

• Unmasking occurs due to a combination of:
• Adverse or stressful environmental conditions
• Increased nervous system demand required by adulthood * Maturational changes in the brain

Question 7

Antipsychotic drugs that affect the dopamine systems of the brain (especially D2 dopamine receptor) are a common treatment for….

A) Depression
B) Schizophrenia
C) Anxiety Disorder
D) Substance Abuse and Addiction

Answer 7

B) Schizophrenia
Reducing dopaminergic transmission at the D2 receptor improves symptoms

• Effective in reducing positive symptoms
• Relatively ineffective at reducing negative symptoms * Can have unwanted side effects
• Researchers also investigating drugs that affect glutamate and cannabinoid systems

Drugs with a greater efficacy at blocking dopamine D2 receptors require a lesser dose to achieve clinically significant reduction in symptoms (Seeman et al. 1976. Antipsychotic Drug Doses and Neuroleptic/Dopamine Receptors,” Nature, 261, 1976)