Clinical Psych condensed notes Flashcards
symptoms of SZ
- though insertion
- hallucination
- delusions
- disordered thinking
- avolition
- catatonia
- grandoise delusion
- persecutory delusion
features of schizophrenia
- lifetime prevalence = 0.3-0.7%
- onset is earlier in males (early to mid 20s) than females (late 20s)
- males have poorer prognosis than females
- a minority recover completely
- most experience chronic, episodic impairment and some show progressive deterioration with increasingly brief periods of remission and severe cognitive deficits
definition of symptoms
subjective experiences reported by the individual that cannot be observed
what are positive symptoms
add to the experience of the patient e.g. delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech
what are negative symptoms
subtract from normal behaviour e.g. lack of energy, poverty of speech, poor motivation and social withdrawal
what is grandiose delusion
individual believes that they have remarkable qualities e.g. powers/famous
what is persecutory delusions
believing that others are out to get you and harm you
what is avolition
lack of motivation, difficult to do anything
what is catatonia
abnormal movement and distressed state of mind
what are delusions
a belief that is clearly fake and indicates abnormality in affected persons content of thoughts
what are hallucinations
where you see, hear, or smell things that appear to be real but only exist in your mind
a strength of evaluating symptoms and features of SZ
it can be made with a high degree of consistency, and this is true with DSM-5 and ICD-10
give a weakness of the evaluation of symptoms and features of SZ
- however, diagnosing SZ is not as easy as it shares symptoms with various other disorders.
- one problem with identifying disordered thinking is that this can be difficult if the client is from a different cultural background from the psychiatrist.
explain the individual differences of diagnosing SZ
cultural differences - Luhrmann 2015 interviewed 60 US, Indian, and Ghanaian people with SZ = 50% Ghanaian voices were positive - Indian heard voices from family members giving them advice
LIST 4 points for neurotransmitters as an explanation for schizophrenia
- excess dopamine
- dopamine deficiency
- serotonin and negative symptoms
- dopamine dysregulation
describe excess dopamine
antipsychotic drugs e.g. chlorpromazine were found to be helpful in alleviating the symptoms of schizophrenia but they also induced tremors and muscle rigidity. These side effects are symptomatic of Parkinson’s disease. This suggests that schizophrenic symptoms may be linked to high levels of dopamine or hyperdopaminergia.
describe the dopamine deficiency
Davis et al (1991) suggested the negative symptoms e.g. mutism of SZ may be as a result from lack of dopaminergic activity in the mesocortical pathway
and positive symptoms e.g. delusions are a result of excess dopaminergic activity in mesolimbic pathyway
describe serotonin and negative symptoms explanation for schizophrenia
clozapine only binds to D1 and D2 receptors but only weakly to D2 receptors. The effectiveness of the drug in treating SZ questioned the focus on D2 receptors
its also serotonin receptors and greatly reduced the positive and negative symptoms. Hypothesising that the negative symptoms were caused by irregular serotonergic activity
describe dopamine dysregulation as an explanation for schizophrenia
high presynaptic dopamine levels as opposed to irregularities of D2 receptors. They focus on interactions between genetic, environmental and social cultural factors
what did Tenn (2003) do?
gave rats amphetamine injections - these rats showed SZ symptoms including social withdrawal
what is a weakness of the dopamine hypothesis?
drug apomorphine used which is a dopamine agonist (mimic). psychotic symptoms weren’t seen suggesting that high levels of dopamine aren’t the cause of SZ symptoms
what did veiling et al (2008) find in terms of why neuro chemical explanations cannot explain why certain groups in society such as second generation immigrants are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia… what does it suggest?
he found Moroccan immigrants were more likely to be diagnosed with SZ than Turkish and correlated the amount of actual/ perceived discrimination faced by each group.
It suggests environmental factors such as societal stress may interact with internal neurochemistry making some ppl more prone to SZ
There is evidence to support the role of D2 receptors by Snyder (1985).. what did he find that chlorpromazine does?
Acts as an antagonist, many dopamine receptors have an antipsychotic effect. Excess activity on specific but not ALL dopamine receptors.
clozapine binds to which receptors?
D1, D2, and D4 (D2 is weaker)
describe the other biological explanation for schizophrenia other than the dopamine hypothesis (3 points)
- gene mutations
- candidate genes
- diathesis-stress model
explain what gene mutations are in relation to biological explanation of SZ
DNA code in genes may change randomly due to an environmental factor/error during cell division.
explain what candidate genes are in relation to biological explanation of SZ
specific genes have been identified that are linked to the presence of SZ
COMT gene - link between SZ and digeorge syndrome due to deletion of this gene. it provides enzymes which breakdown dopamine and so without it dopamine is cant be regulated increasing SZ.
DISC1 gene - this gene some ppl have make it more likely for them to develop SZ than ppl without. this gene codes for the creation of GABA which regulated dopamine…
what is the diathesis stress model (first break down the words then explain…)
diathesis - a tendency to suffer from a particular medical condition
stress - anything that risks triggering SZ
genes create a vulnerability for SZ rather than causing it but the condition is only triggered by other biological or environmental effects e.g. using weed increases chance of triggering SZ episodes
