Privet Flashcards
There are two types of symptoms of Schizophrenia, positive and negative symptoms. What is meant by positive and negative symptoms and name them.
Positive symptoms: change in behaviour (behaviours that are not experienced under normal conditions)
- delusional
- hallucination
- disordered thoughts
Negative symptoms: deficit or lack of behaviours which are well-propagated under normal conditions (withdrawal or isolation)
- apathy
- lack of speech
- loss of drive and emotions
- social isolation
Between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, which responds well to pharmacological treatment and which does not?
Positive symptoms usually respond well to pharmacological treatment
Negative symptoms usually showed a limited response to drug treatment
Name the causes of schizophrenia and which factor contributes the most to the development of schizophrenia?
- Heritability
- Environmental factors
Genetic factor contributes the most to the cause of schizophrenia (83%)
Environmental factor contributes about 17% of the cause
There are at least 43 genes associated with Schizophrenia, name four of these genes and state what are their roles.
DISC1 (Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1)- participating in the regulation of cell migration, proliferation and differentiation.
NRG1 (Neuroregulin-ERBB4 signalling pathway) - neural migration, signalling axon guidance. The receptors for NRG1 are known to be the ERBB family.
NRX1- synaptic protein
KCNH2 - potassium channel
Name examples of environmental factors that could promote development of Schizophrenia.
The important point is that schizophrenia is a multifactorial process involving both genetic and environmental factors.
Brain injury, stress, infection (particularly in the pre- and postnatal period - critical period of development)
Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is also associated to development of schizophrenia.
name three events that happened in the course of development of normal brain and explain how alteration in this changes may contribute to the development of schizophrenia
- pruning and excitation of excitatory synapses
- proliferation of inhibitory synapses, dendritic aborisation
- increase in myelination
the overall effect of this is to provide balance between excitatory and inhibitory synapses.
in schizophrenia brain, the balance is disrupted, more inhibitory than excitatory. excessive pruning of excitatory pathways in the PREFRONTAL CORTEX
why is late adolescences / early adulthood (18-25) is a peak period of schizophrenia onset? what does this tell you about schizophrenia development?
late adolescences, precise inhibition/excitation balance is required for regulatory pathway
the development of schizophrenia is progressive
name the characteristic features in schizophrenia brain
- cortical atrophy in the amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus (HPA axis)
- reduce volume fo basal ganglia
- reduce blood flow in prefrontal cortex
name three hypothesis for schizophrenia
- dopamine
- glutamate
- GABA hypothesis
which dopamine receptors dysregulation were thought to underlie schizophrenia? which symptoms were associated with this dysregulation?
D1 and 2
dysregulation of these two receptors were thought to correlate with cognitive deficit and psychotic symptoms
dopamine signalling pathway:
- which pathway is associated with positive symptoms when elevated?
- which symptom does the mesocortiyal pathway is associated with?
- mesolimbic pathway, increase DA release in mesolimbic generates +ve symptoms (HYPERACTIVITY)
- associates with the negative, cognitive and affective symptoms caused by DA HYPOACTIVITY - prefrontal dopaminergic pathway
what is the pharmacological evidence supporting the dopamine theory?
drugs that elevated dopamine in dopaminergic neurones promotes positive symptoms and drugs that antagonise the action of dopamine control the development of positive neurones
- D2 antagonists
- Amphetamine (dopamine releaser)
- L-dopa therapy -> hallucinations
- D2 agonists
which dopaminergic pathway does the 1st gen anti-schizophrenia target? name their mechanism of action and its side effects
targets the hyperactivity of the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway
mechanism: dopamine antagonist
side effects:
-extrapyrimidal symptoms (EPS) which is a movement disorders
describe the mechanism of action of second generation anti-schizophrenia drugs. name its side effects and one example
antagonism at 5-HT2/D1/2 receptors
limited effect on negative symptoms
side effects: less severe than 1st gen includes obesity and low BP
e.g. clozapine
what are the criticism for dopamine hypothesis?
- no increase in [DOPA] in post-mortem tissue of schizophrenia patient
- d1 and d2 antagonist do not alleviate negative symptoms
- effects of d1 and d2 are often delayed
what is ketamine and what does it induces?
NMDAR antagonist induces both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia
describe the glutamate hypothesis and how it causes both negative and positive symptoms
- reduced NMDAR tone -> disinhibition of GABAergic interneurons -> increase dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway -> positive symptoms
- reduced NMDAR tone -> decrease release of DA from mesocortical pathway -> negative symptoms