P3 - Schizophrenia

Question 1

Explain research relating to classification and diagnosis

Answer 1

Cheniaux et al. - Found very low inter-rater reliability between two psychiatrists. They diagnosed the same 100 people and found significant differences between their diagnoses, when using both ICD and DSM
Longenecker et al. - Reviewed studies of the prevalence of Schizophrenia and found that men had been diagnosed more often than women since the 1980s, suggesting a potential gender bias
Suggests poor validity

Question 2

Explain research supporting the role of the family explantion

Answer 2

Tienari et al. - Conducted a large scale adoption study and found that family experience of criticism and control was related to likelihood of developing schizophrenia in people with a genetic vulnerability.

Question 3

Explain research supporting the psychodynamic explanation

Answer 3

Fromm-Reichmann - Developed the theory of the schizophrenogenic mother as a psychological explanation. Mothers who were particularly cold, rejecting and controlling were more likely to have Schizophrenic children

Question 4

Explain research supporting the family dysfunction explanation

Answer 4

Read et al - Suggested that family dysfunction increased the chances of developing Schizophrenia. 69% of women and 59% of men with schizophrenia had some history of child abuse

Question 5

Explain studies relating to the the biological explanation

Answer 5

Ripke et al - Found that there may be as many as 108 genes involved in the development of Schizophrenia, arguing against studies which show a ‘gene for Schizophrenia’
Tienari et al - Conducted a large scale adoption study and found that 6.7% of adoptees whose birth mothers were Schizophrenic developed the condition, compared to just 2% of adoptee controls

Question 6

Explain research relating to biological treatments of SZ

Answer 6

Thornley - Found that Chlorpromazine was more effective than a placebo, after reviewing data from 1,121 patients
Healy - Found that positive data from antipsychotic experiments was included several times in some reviews of their effectiveness, inflating the results

Question 7

Explain the studies relating to the psychological treatments of SZ

Answer 7

Jauhar - Reviewed studies into the effectiveness of CBT for schizophrenia and found that it had a small but significant effect on both positive and negative symptoms
NICE - NICE review of therapies for schizophrenia: Drugs effective but CBT most effective treatment
McMonagle and Sultana - Reviewed studies into the effectiveness of token economies for treating schizophrenia. Only three used random allocation, and only one of these showed a positive outcome for the treatment
Pharaoh -Found family therapy to be effective