Module 68: Schizophrenia Flashcards
Schizophrenia
A disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, inappropriate emotional expression
*during most severe periods, people with schizophrenia live in a private inner world, preoccupied with strange ideas and images that haunt them
Positive Symptoms
- hallucinations
- talk in disorganized & deluded ways
- exhibit inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage
Negative Symptoms
- absence of emotions in their voices, expressionless faces, or unmoving - mute and rigid - bodies
Hallucination
False sensory experiences, or perceptions, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus
*could see, feel, taste, or smell things that exist only in their minds
What do auditory hallucinations tend to be?
Voices making insulting remarks or giving orders
Delusion
A false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders
*if they have paranoid tendencies, they may believe they are being threatened or pursued
How might selective attention be a factor in schizophrenia?
People with schizophrenia are easily distracted by tiny unrelated stimuli, such as the grooves on a brick or tones in a voice
*one cause of disorganized thinking may be a breakdown in selective attention (no sensory stimuli is filtered
Disorganized Speech
A positive symptom
- jumbled ideas may make no sense even within sentences, forming what is known as world salad
How are emotions inappropriately expressed in schizophrenia?
They expressed emotions of schizophrenia are often utterly inappropriate, split off from reality
ex. Maxine laughed after recalling her grandmother’s death
How are emotions diminished in schizophrenia?
Some people w/ schizophrenia lapse into an emotionless flat affect state of no apparent feeling
- most people w/ schizophrenia have an impaired theory of mind - have difficulty perceiving facial expressions and reading others’ states of mind
- struggle to feel sympathy and compassion
How might motor behavior be inappropriate and disruptive?
Those with schizophrenia may experience catatonia, characterized by motor behaviors ranging from a physical stupor - remaining motionless for hours - to senseless , compulsive actions, such as continually rocking or rubbing an arm, to sever and dangerous agitation
Prevalence & Development of Schizophrenia
- 1 in 100 people will join an estimated 21 million other worldwide who have schizophrenia
- no national boundaries
- strikes young people maturing into adulthood
- men tend to be struck earlier, more severely, and more often
Chronic Schizophrenia
Form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood
- as people age, psychotic episodes last longer, recovery periods shorten
- social withdrawal is often found
Acute Schizophrenia
Form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age; frequently occurs in response to a traumatic event
- when previously well-adjusted people develop schizophrenia rapidly following particular life stresses - recovery likely
- more often have positive symptoms that respond to drug therapy
How might dopamine be associated with schizophrenia?
An excess number of dopamine receptors, including a six-fold excess for the dopamine receptor D4
- a hyper-responsive dopamine system may intensify brain signals in schizophrenia creating positive symptoms - hallucinations & paranoia
What helps lessen the symptoms of schizophrenia?
Drugs that block dopamine receptors (Antagonists) often lessen these symptoms.
*Drugs that increase dopamine levels (Agonists) such as amphetamines sometimes intensify them
How are the frontal lobes associated with Schizophrenia?
Some people diagnosed with schizophrenia have abnormally low brain activity in the frontal lobes, area that are involved in reasoning, planning, and solving problems
What changes occur to the ventricles and cerebral tissue in patients with schizophrenia?
Many studies have also found enlarged, fluid-filled ventricles and a corresponding shrinkage and thinning of cerebral tissue
What prenatal events are associated with schizophrenia?
some scientist believe mishaps during prenatal development or delivery causes brain abnormalities in people with schizophrenia
- low birth weight, maternal diabetes, older paternal age, oxygen deprivation during delivery
How are prenatal viral infections associated with schizophrenia?
Fetal-virus infections may increase the odds that a child will develop schizophrenia.
*though many women get the flu during second trimeter and only 2% develop schizophrenia
Is there a genetic component to schizophrenia?
1 in 100 odds of any person’s being diagnosed with schizophrenia become about 1 in 10 among those who have a sibling or parent with the disorder
What is the risk of developing schizophrenia?
The lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia varies with one’s genetic relatedness to someone having this disorder
- 1 in 10 fraternal twins but 5 in 10 identical twins share a schizophrenia diagnosis
What is prenatal environment’s effect?
If the co-twin of an identical twin with schizophrenia shared the placenta, the chances of developing the disorder are 6 in 10
- identical twin separate placentas 1 in 10
What brain changes are evident in the identical twin with schizophrenia?
When twins differ, only the one afflicted with schizophrenia typically has enlarged, fluid-filled cranial cavities.
The different between the twins implies some nongentic factor, such as a virus, is also at work
How do adoption studies inform the discussion?
Children adopted by someone who develops schizophrenia do not “catch” the disorder. Rather, adopted children have an elevated risk if a biological parent is diagnosed with schizophrenia
*genes matter
What is the relationship between smoking and schizophrenia?
Most people with schizophrenia smoke.
Smoking increases vulnerability to schizophrenia and contributes to people with schizophrenia having a 14.5 year shorter than average life expectancy
How do epigenetic factors impact the development of schizophrenia?
- epigenetic factors influence whether genes will be expressed
- environmental factors such as viral infections, nutritional deprivation, and maternal stress can “turn on” the genes that put some at higher risk for schizophrenia.
- heredity (nature) and life experiences (nurture) work together
Early warning signs of schizophrenia?
- social withdrawal
- parents with schizophrenia
- birth complications
- separation from parents
- short attention span & poor muscle coordination
- disruptive or withdrawn behavior
- emotional unpredictability
- poor peer relations and solo play
- childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
