General introduction to Schizophrenia Flashcards
Schizophrenia.
What is Schizophrenia?
-This is a mental disorder characterized by psychosis, disorganized thoughts and behavior.
What is another name for Schizophrenia?
-Schizophrenia is also referred to as Split mind meaning functions of the mind split off from each other.
What are Hallucinations? And give examples.
-These are false sensations that aren’t grounded to reality.
Examples include;
1. Auditory hallucinations.
2. Visual hallucinations.
3. Tactile hallucinations.
What are Delusions? And give examples.
-These are false beliefs that an individual holds to be true.
Examples include;
1. Grandiose; false belief that you have special abilities or skills that make you of higher status than others.
2. Erotomaniac; false belief that someone in status is in love with you.
3. Persecutory; false belief that someone is plotting against you or wishing you harm.
What are the 5 Psychotic spectrum disorders? And briefly describe them?
-Schizotypal affective disorder, Delusion of disorder, BPD, Schizophrenia and Schizo- affective disorder.
- Schizotypal personality disorder- victims struggle forming emotionally meaningful relationships because they are either emotionally blunt or cold.
[Blunt; feel emotions however express some of it.
Flat; feel emotions however cannot express them.] - Delusion of disorder- when a victim experiences delusions in the absence of hallucinations, disorganized thoughts and behavior. [Hold onto beliefs about impossible events; Bizarre delusions]
- BPD [Brief Psychotic Disorder]- shares symptoms with schizophrenia however lasts for less than 6 months.
- Schizophrenia- it’s characterized by full blown psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thoughts and catatonia such as waxy flexibility, mutism and rigidity.
- Schizo- affective disorder- this is a substance induced psychosis. If certain substances or medication are abused they can induce psychosis. Examples include; Marijuana, Steroids and Antibiotics.
What are some symptoms a patient has to meet in order to be labelled as Schizophrenic? [2]
- The victim must have full blown psychosis for not longer than a period of 6 months.
- The individual must show a reduction in normal functioning in the core areas of functioning; Academic, Social and Occupational.
What are the 2 types of Schizophrenia? And briefly describe them.
- Type I (Positive symptoms).
- This refers to excesses in normal functioning and is characterized by; hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thoughts and behaviors. - Type II (Negative symptoms).
- This refers to a drop or reduction in normal functioning and is characterized by; Avolition [lack of motivation] and Alogia [poverty of speech].
Describe the Genetic explanation for Schizophrenia?
{Gottesman and Shields falls under this}.
-The genetic explanation regards the influence of genes or the combination of genetic markers in the development of Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
What are Genetic Markers?
-They are a set of different Alleles that determine a trait and are located together in a particular chromosome. [ Linkage group].
-They are usually passed down from parent to offspring causing the disorder to develop.
State the 2 types of Impairments and their Genetic markers?
- Working Memory;
1. TCF- 4.
2. MIR- 137 gene.
3. GRM3 defective. - Sensory dysfunction;
1. CCK- A receptor gene.
According to the study by Gottesman and Shields, what was the likelihood of inheriting Schizo in the General population?
-They found out the likelihood of inheriting Schizo increased from just 1% in the general population to 48% in MZ twins.
Explain the difference between MZ and DZ twins? How have Twins studies helped researchers?
- MZ twins develop from one egg and share 100% of their DNA.
- DZ twins develop from 2 fertilized eggs and share 50% of their DNA.
- Twin studies have enabled researchers to track inheritable traits and if a trait is inherited;
‘It will high in concordance in MZ twins [meaning 100% genetic resemblance] than in DZ twins [50% genetic resemblance] not withstanding environmental differences.
Describe the following:
1. Concordance.
2. Family studies.
3. Adoption studies.
4. Twin studies.
Concordance; this is the presence of a particular observable trait eg; intelligence or psychosis between family members or a set of twins.
Family studies; it’s a type of investigation where biological relatives with a particular disorder are more likely to have the disorder than non- relatives.
Adoption studies; it’s a type of study that looks at the similarities in a particular trait between adopted individuals and their biological parents not withstanding environmental differences.
Twin studies; using a set of twins who are investigated for any shared traits.
Finish the following statement.
If a trait is Inheritable…?
The concordance of that trait increases with the degree of relativity.
Briefly describe the Dopamine Hypothesis?
[Dopamine hypothesis].
-The dopamine hypothesis is based on the idea that the brains of ppl with schizophrenia fire too often and this is because they have a lot of dopamine receptors [Upregulation] compared to ppl without schizophrenia.
- Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is found in the class of catecholamines and it enables communication between neurons or nerve cells.
- The dopamine hypothesis therefore identifies a link between excessive amount of dopamine or dopamine receptors and positive symptoms of schizophrenia and other related disorders.
Describe how a signal is produced? [3]
[Dopamine Hypothesis].
A signal is produced in 3 ways;
1. The vesicles in the pre- synaptic nerve cell burst open releasing dopamine.
2. Then, the dopamine travels across the synapse and binds on the receptors at the post- synaptic membrane.
3. Lastly, the binding causes a signal or a message.
State 2 evidences for enhanced Dopamine receptors in Schizophrenia?
How does Frith describe Schizophrenia?
- Patients with Parkinson’s disease are often treated using Levodopa. It’s a form of synthetic dopamine. If patients here receive a high dosage psychotic symptoms may be created in the victims.
- If schizophrenic patients ingest amphetamines and cocaine, their positive symptoms worsen.
How does Frith describe Schizophrenia?
- He describes Schizophrenia as an abnormality of self- monitoring.
What is self- monitoring according to Frith?
- This is when schizophrenic patients struggle monitoring their own intentions and those of others leading to paranoia that is common in the delusion of persecution and reference.
What does Frith acknowledge or recognize?
-He acknowledges the role played by biological factors such as;
1. dopamine receptors.
2. upregulation.
3. inheritance of defective genes.
- However since no one genetic, structural or biochemical cause has been identified, he sought to adopt a cognitive approach to explain the feeling of being schizophrenic.
What do schizophrenics here struggle with other than self monitoring?
What to schizophrenics here lack? And what do they as well suffer from?
-They struggle with source monitoring where they fail to recognize that their perceived hallucinations are in fact just inner speech.
- They lack of TOM where they are unable to monitor their own intentions and those of others [The difference between them and ASD people is that before the psychotic episode, they may have had an intact TOM compared to ASD where it is a neurodevelopment].
- They also suffer from the flattening effect where they lack speech and socially withdraw themselves due to the difficulties in monitoring their own mental states and those of others.
What can’t they differentiate between according to Frith?
-They cannot differentiate between their own thoughts and alien voices.
