Schizophrenia Flashcards
What are positives symptoms of SZ?
Things that are added to normal behaviour
Hallucinations, delusions
What are negative symptoms of SZ?
Things missing from expected behaviour
Speech poverty
What did Rosenhan conduct, find and what does this go against?
Being sane in insane places.
All but one pseudo-patient wrongly diagnosed with SZ
Suggests, in 1970’s, SZ had low validity
What did Cheniaux find and what does this go against?
ICD : 68% diagnosed with SZ
DSM : 39% diagnosed with SZ
Suggests low validity
What did Osorio find and what does this support?
Used OPCRIT (operationalised checklist). Inter-rater reliability was .97
SZ diagnosis more reliable
Candidate genes - what is SZ now thought to be?
Polygenic
What did Ripke find and what does this suggest?
108 separate candidate genes
No definite genetic cause for SZ
What did Tienari find and what does this support?
Finnish adoption study
Biological mothers has SZ
7% of adoptees developed SZ
Genetic cause of SZ
Why is genetic mutations relevant to inheriting SZ?
New mutation of genes can be the cause
Positive correlation between parental age and SZ
What did Gottesman find and what does this suggest?
Positive correlation between SZ and genes. 48% MZ and 17% DZ
Suggests there is a genetic cause but not 100%
What are the positives to the dopamine hypothesis?
Antipsychotics work at treating symptoms for SZ so dopamine hypothesis correct
What receptors cause SZ
Abnormally high D2 receptors
What are the environmental factors that cause SZ?
Birth complications
Childhood trauma
Smoking high canabis
What is the dopamine hypothesis? New and old
Old : SZ patients produced more dopamine than non
New : hyperdopaminergia (more dopamine in broccas area) + symptoms
Hypodomaminergia (less dopamine in prefrontal cortex) - symptoms
Who founded the family dysfunction explanation and what does this suggest?
Reichman - schizophrenogenic mother was cold, harsh and criticising
What does EE stand for and what does this mean?
Expressed emotion
Family express negative emotion loudly, aggressive behaviour
Who founded the double-bind theory and what is it?
Batesman- communication is contradicting, conflicting messages
What did Brown find and what does this suggest?
SZ returning to high EE families have higher relapse
Suggests that high EE families act as trigger
What did Stirling find and what does this suggest?
SZ patients took over twice as long on stroop test
Suggests dysfunctional central control is a factor for SZ
What did Berger find and what does this suggest?
SZ patients reported high double-bind statements
Suggests double bind may be a cause
What are the negatives to the psychological explanations?
Parent blaming is socially sensitive
Ignores biological causes
Double bind may be delusions
What are agonists?
Drugs that increases the action of neurotransmitters
What are antagonists?
A drug that blocks and reduces the action of neurotransmitters
What type of drugs are antipsychotics?
Antagonist
What are typical and Atypical drugs?
Typical - old, reduce + symptoms
Atypical - reduce negative symptoms
What did Thornely find and what does this support?
Typical antipsychotic drugs gives better symptom reduction than controls
Supports typical drugs
What are the negatives for typical drugs?
Serious side effects (tardive dyskinesia
Little to no improvements of negative symptoms
What did Meltzer find and what does this support?
Atypical drugs are effective on 30-50% of typical non-responders
What are the negatives of Atypical drugs?
Only treat symptoms not cause
Dependency
What are the two different types of treatments for SZ?
Family therapy and CBT
What reinforcers should be used in token economy?
Secondary - earn token which can be swapped for rewards
What did Glowacki find and what does this support?
Token economies show a decline in negative symptoms (speech poverty)
Supports a token economies
What is a negative for token economy?
Only temporary. Stops working when tokens are stopped
What is the interactionist approach for explaining SZ
Both biological and psychological factors need to be present in order to develop SZ
What are some biological causes of SZ?
Genetic vulnerability (gene variations)
Neurochemicals (dopamine)
What are some psychological causes of SZ?
Stress, life events
High EE families
Schizophrenogenic mother
Who found the diathesis-stress model and how has it changed?
Meehl - original was only genetic. Only stressor was schizophrenogenic mother. Now, many stressors (high EE, sex abuse)
Excess dopamine & gene variations
What did Tienari find and what does this support?
Psychological
When adopting, 7% of adoptees who had biological SZ parents and in high EE family had SZ
Only 1.5% in non SZ parents but high EE families
Treatments for SZ with interactionist approach
Antipsychotic meds & psychological therapies
What did Tarrier find and what does this support?
CBT and antipsychotics showed improvements compared to only antipsychotics. Supports combined approach to treating SZ
Negatives to the dopamine hypothesis?
Serotonin has been found to have a cause
What did McFarlane find and what does this support?
Family therapy reduced relapse rates by 50-60%
Supports family therapy as treatment
