Intro to Schizophrenia

Question 1

In 1898, Kraeplin used the term dementia praecox when describing psychosis. What did this mean?

Answer 1

dementia- disruption of cognitive and perceptual processes

praecox-early adulthood onset

Question 2

Who was the first to describe illness as progressive with no return to premorbid functioning?

Answer 2

Kraeplin

Question 3

Who reformulated the term dementia praecox and coined it schizophrenia?

Answer 3

Bleuler (1911)

Question 4

Give examples of type 1 positive symptoms of schizophrenia.

Answer 4

delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder

Question 5

Give examples of type 2 negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Answer 5

anhedonia, flattened affect, avolition and alogia.

Question 6

Liddle identified 5 syndrome categories. What were they?

Answer 6

1. psychomotor poverty
2. reality distortion
3. disorganisation
4. psychomotor excitation
5. anxiety/depression

Question 7

What are some cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 7

working memory, executive dysfunction and attentional deficits

Question 8

Frontal cortex brain activation is ____ during executive tasks in schizophrenia.

Answer 8

lower

Question 9

The dopamine theory of schizophrenia states that schizophrenia results from…?

Answer 9

hyperactivity in mesolimbic dopamine which gives rise to positive symptoms. Hypoactivity of dopamine in the frontal cortex gives rise to negative symptoms.

Question 10

Brain dopamine turnover can be reflected by what concentration?

Answer 10

HVA plasma concentrations. Chronic antipsychotic drugs lower this.

Question 11

Latent inhibition is disrupted by which drug that causes psychosis?

Answer 11

amphetamine

Question 12

Which drugs can reverse the effects of amphetamines?

Answer 12

haloperidol and clozapine

Question 13

Other than dopamine, which other neurochemicals have been related to schizophrenia?

Answer 13

glutamate, serotonin and GABA

Question 14

Which neurotransmitters are amino acids?

Answer 14

glutamate and GABA

Question 15

Which neurotransmitters are biogenic amines?

Answer 15

acetylcholine, serotonin, dopamine and adrenaline

Question 16

Which neurotransmitter is the major excitatory neurotransmitter?

Answer 16

glutamate

Question 17

Glutamate is synthesised from ______ in astrocytes.

Answer 17

glutamine

Question 18

Glutamate is removed from the synapse by___?

Answer 18

glutamate transporters

Question 19

Where is glutamate?

Answer 19

Glutamate is found in many areas of the brain, some of which include: VTA, striatum and PFC.

Question 20

What are some of the glutamate receptors?

Answer 20

NMDA, AMPA & Kainate and Metabotropic

Question 21

Is glutamate ionotropic or metabotropic? Explain why.

Answer 21

Glutamate receptors are ionotropic which means they are ligand-gated ion channels that are fast acting once a ligand binds.

Question 22

Dopamine receptors are metabotropic which means….

Answer 22

They don’t have channels that open or close. Instead they have G-proteins attached which act as secondary messengers. This makes metabotropic receptors slow acting.

Question 23

The Glutamate hypothesis predicts that schizophrenia may be caused by ____

Answer 23

reduced function of NMDA receptor which results in reduced glutamate transmission

Question 24

What would you predict the drugs phencyclidine and ketamine ( NMDA antagonists) do?

Answer 24

they produce positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Question 25

How did the Glutamate hypothesis come about?

Answer 25

In 1980, Kim discovered reduced glutamate in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with schizophrenia.

Question 26

What is the relationship between dopamine and glutamate?

Answer 26

Glutamate regulates dopamine function. The release of dopamine is dependent on activation of NMDA receptors on these neurons.

Question 27

The dopaminergic pathway starts at ___ and ends at _____.

Answer 27

From the VTA to the Nucleus accumbens.

Question 28

The glutaminergic pathways starts at ____ and ends at ____.

Answer 28

From the VTA to the PFC

Question 29

According to the dopamine hypothesis, how are cognitive and negative symptoms caused?

Answer 29

hypoactivity of dopamine in the mesocortical pathway ( VTA to the PFC).

Question 30

According to the dopamine hypothesis, how are positive symptoms caused?

Answer 30

an overactivity of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway( VTA to the nucleus accumbens)

Question 31

The D1 and D5 receptors _____ adenylate cyclase.

Whilst D2, D3 and D4 receptors ______ adenylate cyclase.

Answer 31

activate

inhibit

Question 32

Where are D1 receptors mostly located in the brain?

Answer 32

cerebral cortex

Question 33

Where are D2 receptors mostly located in the brain?

Answer 33

striatum

Question 34

What are agonists?

Answer 34

Drugs that occupy receptors and activate them.

Question 35

What are antagonists?

Answer 35

Drugs that occupy receptors but do not activate them due to the shape being different from the original neurotransmitter.

Question 36

Most drugs used to treat schizophrenia are D2 _____

Answer 36

antagonists

Question 37

Parkinsonian side effects of antipsychotics are caused by D2 antagonists in the _____ activating cholinergic cells.

Answer 37

striatum

Question 38

A correlation between antipsychotic drug binding to dopamine receptors and ______

Answer 38

clinical effectiveness.

Question 39

Pre-pulse inhibition and latent inhibition are disrupted by amphetamine and enhanced by _______

Answer 39

antipsychotic drugs