Schizophrenia

Question 1

What two people came up with negative and positive categorizations in schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Eugen Bleuler came up with initial criteria for diagnosis of schizophrenia know as the 4 As
- specifically, he described negative symptoms

Kurt Schneider emphasized rank symptoms
- first rank symptoms are core to schizophrenia
- second rank symptoms are less important
- he brought attention to positive symptoms

Question 2

What are positive symptoms?

Answer 2

Positive as in the addition of something
something that is present that normally isn’t
Delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech are examples

Question 3

What are delusions?

Answer 3

hard to change, false beliefs

Question 4

What are hallucinations?

Answer 4

sensory experiences that are not present in reality
can be visual (people/objects that are not there)
or auditory (hearing sounds that are not there)

Question 5

What is disorganized speech/thought

Answer 5

degraded speech due to being unable to collect thoughts and finish ideas

Question 6

What are negative symptoms?

Answer 6

Negative as in the subtraction of something
Something is absent that normally isn’t

affective flattening, avolition, and cognitive deficits are examples

Question 7

What is affective flattening?

Answer 7

Reduced emotional expression
Saying you thought something was funny but having a straight face

Question 8

What is Avolition?

Answer 8

A lack of motivation to complete goals/daily necessities

Question 9

What are cognitive deficits?

Answer 9

reduced ability to maintain attention
working memory dysfunction
impaired executive function
Reduced context integration

Question 10

What is the dopamine hypothesis?

Answer 10

Excessive DA theory
- found that chlorpromazine has antipsychotic effects
- probably due to its ability to block DA receptors

• found that haloperidol has a selective antagonistic effect on DA receptors
• specifically on DA D2 receptors
• high doses of amphetamine can induce psychotic symptoms that is reversed by antipsychotics
• drugs specialized for Da D2 receptors were having potent antipsychotic effects

flaws: DA D2 specific antipsychotics only reduce positive symptoms (negative symptoms still present)

Question 11

What does the ventral striatum activate in schizophrenia?

Answer 11

unimportant cues

Question 12

What evidence is there to support genetic risk factors and environmental risk factors in the development of schizophrenia?

Answer 12

A monozygotic twin can be unaffected despite the high heritability of schizophrenia
high heritability, but no one gene is causal
environmental experience can dictate whether schizophrenia manifests or not
increased stress can lead to permanent change in DA activity
- increased Da release synonymous with schizophrenia
- increased DA can lead to psychotic symptoms

Question 13

How do first and second generation antipsychotics differ?

Answer 13

1st generation:
- reduce positive symptoms
- block DA D2 receptors
- negligible effects on negative symptoms

2nd generation:
- Block DA D2 and serotonin receptors
- more of an effect on negative symptoms, potentially some effect on cognitive symptoms
- in some cases, minimal advantages over 1st gen

Question 14

How is NMDA function relevant to schizophrenia?

Answer 14

• meta-analysis revealed ketamine increases symptom scores of schizophrenia in healthy controls
• these data and others suggests NMDA hypofunction may be important in schizophrenia

Question 15

How does schizophrenia affect BX stimuli on a DPX task?

Answer 15

people with schizophrenia do worse on BX stimuli on a DPX task due to context integration impairment (cognitive deficit).