Lecture 13: Schizophrenia Flashcards
Are thought disorder, hallucinations and delusions positive or negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Positive symptoms.
Give an example of negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Flattened emotional responses, apathy, impaired attention, decreased speech and social withdrawal.
If an fMRI is taken of a schizophrenic patient whilst they are having an auditory hallucination, what is seen?
Auditory cortex lights up!! They are actually hearing the voices.
What is the negative symptom of alogia?
Poverty of speech. Lessening of speech fluency and productivity.
What does a cognitive symptom of schizophrenia affect?
Mental processes involved in learning and memory.
Can you recover from schizophrenia?
Yes. 10-20% of cases have a full recovery. But they are usually milder disorders.
What is the original hypothesis on the cause of schizophrenia?
The dopamine hypothesis. Too much dopamine.
What is the main problem of the dopamine hypothesis?
Does not explain negative symptoms, just positive ones.
What is the more accepted hypothesis for the cause of schizophrenia?
The glutamate hypothesis. Deficiency of glutamate transmission (which may in turn affect dopamine).
Which receptor antagonists induce schizophrenia?
NMDA receptor antagonists.
Abuse of which recreational drug is linked to causing schizophrenia?
Cannabis.
Other than drug abuse what is another environmental risk factor for schizophrenia?
Problems at the prenatal or perinatal stage. Eg maternal infection, extreme stress during pregnancy or perinatal trauma.
Why is schizophrenia partly considered a neurodevelopmental disease?
Prenatal or perinatal disruptions influence foetal development in some way, then symptoms appear 18-30 years later.
