Schizophrenia Flashcards
Accumbens
part of the reward circuit in the brain, affected by schizophrenia
Aetiologically Heterogeneous
means there are a combination of different factors that can cause something
Agonist
a substance which initiates a physiological response when combined with a receptor
Agranulocytosis
a side effect of Clozapine where production of white blood cells is lowered, leaving the patient potentially lethally vulnerable to infections
Allen et al (2007)
scanned patients with auditory hallucinations, compared with a control and found lower activation levels in the superior temporary gyrus in the hallucination group, showing that the superior temporal gyrus is a neural correlate for auditory hallucinations
Amphetamines
dopamine agonists
Andreason (1982)
first to describe avolition in schizophrenia
Antagonist
a substance which interferes wit or inhibits physiological actions of another
Anterior Cingulate Cortex
tracks progression of goal-directed action sequences, affects schizophrenia
Anti-Psychiatrists
a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment can be often more damaging than helpful to patients
Atypical Antipsychotics
bind more tightly to the D2 dopamine receptors, causing less psychotic activity but also extrapyramidal side effects
Avatar Therapy
where psychologists create faces of what a patient believes their voices look like and give the patient the opportunity to challenge them
Bateman (1956)
suggested the Double Bind Theory
Beck et al (1961)
found that agreement on diagnosis for 153 patients where each was assessed by two psychiatrists, was only 54% due to vague diagnostic criteria and inconsistencies in techniques to gather data
Berger (1965)
found that schizophrenics reported a higher recall of double bind statements from their mothers than non-schizophrenics, however, evidence may not be reliable as patient’s recall may be affected by their schizophrenia
Betall (1993)
suggests abandoning the schizophrenia diagnosis and instead treating each symptom as a disorder in its own right with separate treatment and diagnosis
Bilder et al (2002)
found that atypical drugs such as clozapine are as effective as typical drugs on positive symptoms but better for negative symptoms
Bipolar Disorder
a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that each last from days to weeks
Boydell et al (2001)
demonstrated that as the proportion of non-white ethnic minorities in a given neighbourhood decreases, the rate of incidence of schizophrenia increases for non-whites
Buckley et al (2009)
found that around half of all patients diagnosed with schizophrenia also had a diagnosis of depression, questioning the ability to differentiate between the two and diagnosed accurately. It could be that very severe depression can present as schizophrenia because it looks a lot like it.
Candidate Genes
individual genes associated with risk of inheritance
Catatonic Behaviour
characterised by abnormal motor activity where a person may experience loss or motor skills or extreme hyperactive motor activity
Caudate/Associative Striatum
central to associative learning and encodes action-specific value signals. In schizophrenia, this causes deficits in outcome-specific devaluation
CBT
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
aims to change patients thought processes, such as challenging negative thoughts, and uses behavioural techniques to help patients have a better quality of life
Central Control
the cognitive ability to suppress automatic response whilst we perform deliberate actions instead. Disorganised speech and thought disorder could result from inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts
Chadwick and Birchwood (1996)
studied DD, an economics graduate who frequently heard the voice of the devil, claiming to use her telepathic powers to control the prime minister, making him do things that would destroy the British economy, making her feel guilty whenever the economy took a turn for the worse
Cheniaux et al (2009)
investigated the reliability of schizophrenia diagnosis by comparing patients diagnosed with the DSM and patients diagnosed with the ICD, found poor reliability and that patients were more likely to be diagnosed under ICD criteria
Chlorpromazine
a typical antipsychotic used since the 1950s, acts as a dopamine antagonist to reduce positive symptoms, as well as having a sedative effect
Classification of Mental Disorders
the process of organising symptoms based on which symptoms cluster together in sufferers
Clozapine
a typical antipsychotic used since the 1970s, affects dopamine, serotonin and glutamate receptors, so can improve mood as well as positive symptoms, but can cause agranulocytosis
Cochrane and Sashidharan
examined diagnosis rates of schizophrenia in the UK and found that those of African-Caribbean origin were seven times more likely to be diagnosed despite rates of schizophrenia in the Caribbean, they are no higher than the UK
Cognitive Explanations
cognitive explanation focuses on mental processes. Schizophrenia is associated with an array of abnormal information processing; these abnormalities can be used to explain why a person experiences schizophrenia
Comorbidity
the occurrence of two or more illnesses together, for example when a person has both schizophrenia and a personality disorder. When two conditions are frequently diagnosed together, it calls into question the validity of classifying the two separately
Cooper et al (1972)
found that in US, patients diagnosed with schizophrenia rose from 20% in 1930s to 80% in 1950s whereas in London, diagnosis rate remained constant throughout same period
Copeland (1971)
gave 124 US and 194 British psychiatrists a description of a patient. 69% of the US psychiatrists diagnosed schizophrenia but only 2% of British psychiatrists diagnosed schizophrenia.
Coping Strategy Enhancement
a form of CBT for schizophrenia developed by Tarrier (1990) where the therapist develops a rapport with the patient, identifies triggers for their symptoms and helps them find ways of dealing with these using behavioural and cognitive techniques
Cotton et al (2009)
suggested there is gender bias in schizophrenia and that women typically function better than men and are more likely to work and have good family relationships despite having schizophrenia
Crow (1985)
suggested that schizophrenia is too broad a term and there are two distinct versions, which respond to different treatments but some people do not fit neatly into one category
Type 1 Schizophrenia
acute disorder characterised by positive symptoms, described only by Crow
Type 2 Schizophrenia
chronic disorder characterised by negative symptoms, described only by Crow
Curran et al (2004)
found that overdoses of amphetamines produced schizophrenia-like symptoms and that schizophrenia symptoms have abnormally large responses to low amphetamine responses
Davis
added cortical hypodopaminergia to the dopamine hypothesis
Davison and Neale (1994)
in Asian cultures, a person experiencing some emotional turmoil is praised & rewarded if they show no expression of their emotions whereas in certain Arabic cultures, the outpouring of public emotion is understood and often encouraged. This can cause behaviours to be seen as abnormal when they aren’t
DeNayer et al (2003)
found there is less risk of EPS with atypical antipsychotics, but other side effects may occur like blood disorders
Derailment
where schizophrenic people go off on a tangent, caused by deficits in central control
Diathesis-Stress Model
suggests that both vulnerability and a trigger are necessary for the onset of schizophrenia
Dissociation
a mental process where a person disconnects from their thoughts, feelings, memories or sense of identity
Dopamine
a neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect and is associated with the sensation of pleasure. Unusually high levels are associated with schizophrenia and abnormally low levels with Parkinson’s disease
DBH
Dopamine-Beta-Hydroxylase
breaks down dopamine, abnormally low levels found in schizophrenia patients
Dopamine Hypothesis
theory that abnormal levels of dopamine cause symptoms of schizophrenia
Outdated Dopamine Hypothesis
states that schizophrenia is caused by high levels of dopamine activity in the cortex, subcortex and Broca’s area, caused by an excess of dopamine or an excess of dopamine receptors, causing neurones that use dopamine fire too often and transmit too many messages, explaining positive symptoms
Updated Dopamine Hypothesis
states that schizophrenia is simultaneously caused by low levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex which is associated with thinking and decision making, explaining negative symptoms
Dorsolateral PFC
mediates action-value comparisons and action control, affected by schizophrenia
Double Bind Theory
where a person is given mutually contradictory signals by another person, placing them in an impossible situation, causing internal conflict. Schizophrenic symptoms represent an attempt to escape from the double bind, developed by Bateman (1956)
Double Bind Theory
where a person is given mutually contradictory signals by another person, placing them in an impossible situation, causing internal conflict. Schizophrenic symptoms represent an attempt to escape from the double bind
Drury et al (1996)
found that those who received CBT and drug therapy experienced fewer hallucinations and delusions and had a 25-50% reduction in recovery time
Ellason and Ross
found that people with dissociative identity disorder generally have more schizophrenia symptoms than schizophrenic people
Elizabeth Cochrane
a journalist who pretended to be mad in order to infiltrate an asylum in the 1800s. She found that after being admitted, the saner she acted. the more insane they thought she was. She later wrote a book on her experiences, criticising the psychiatry system, claiming doctors couldn’t tell the difference between ill or well people.
ERBB4
gene associated with schizophrenia
Ethnographic Study
explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study
Experience Sampling
form of electronic diary keeping that asks people to fill in questionnaires to snapshot what they’re like in a particular moment to see what circumstances trigger hallucinations/paranoia
Expressed Emotions
negative attitudes, in the form of criticism, hostility and emotional overinvolvement, demonstrated by family members toward a person with a mental disorder
Family Dysfunction
abnormal processes within the family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion
Family Systems Theory
a psychoanalytical tradition that looks at the influence of family on abnormal behaviour and systems thinking, for example, a family can be seen as a set of entities where everyone interacts with each other, and if one person starts to behave abnormally, the behaviour may be a manifestation of a problem occurring within the wider family system
Family Therapy
a psychological therapy carried out with some or all members of a family with the aim of improving communication and reduce the stress of living as a family, primarily helps reduce relapse rates
Communication Skills Training
teaches family members to listen, express emotions and discuss things; additional communication skills are taught, such as ‘compromise and negotiation’ and ‘requesting a time out’
Information Transfer
teaching the patient and the family about the illness, its causes and the effect of stress and guilt
Faris and Dunham (1939)
found admission rates for schizophrenia in Chicargo were higher in the inner city than towards the edges
Fernando (1988)
found that overall, Afro-Caribbean people are between 2 to 7 times more likely than the general population to develop schizophrenia
First-Rank Symptoms
a group of symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia but rarely found in other mental disorders
Frida Fromm-Reichmann (1948)
listened to accounts of her clients’ childhoods and suggesting an ineffectual father and cold, domineering mother, creating a family climate characterised by tensions and secrecy, leading to distrust, then paranoid delusions and eventually schizophrenia
Frith et al (1992)
identified two forms of dysfunctional thought processes in schizophrenia
Central Control
cognitive ability to supress automatic responses whilst we perform deliberate actions instead; disorganised speech and thought disorder result from inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by thoughts
Metarepresentation
the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviours allowing insight into intentions, goals and interpreting actions of others. Dysfunction in metarepresentation disrupt ability to recognise thoughts and actions as your own, explaining hallucinations, delusions and thought insertion
Funnel Plot
scattergram used to compare results of studies
Genetics
genes consist of DNA strands are inherited. DNA produces instructions of physical features of an organism which may impact on psychological features, eg neurotransmitter levels and size of brain structure
Glutamate
a neurotransmitter that schizophrenic people have been found to have a deficiency of
Globus Pallidus
part of the basal ganglia associated with schizophrenia, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s
Goldman-Rakic et al (2004)
identified low levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex which is associated with thinking and decision-making, explaining negative symptoms
Gottesman (1991)
carried out a comprehensive review of family studies to investigate causes of schizophrenia
Gould et al (2001)
found that all seven studies in their meta-analysis reported a statistically significant decrease in the positive symptoms of schizophrenia post-treatment
Schizophrenia Rates in the General Population
1%
First cousin concordance rates
3rd degree relatives, 12.5% DNA
2%
Uncles/aunts concordance rates
2nd degree relatives, 25% DNA
2%
Nephews/nieces concordance rates
2nd degree relatives, 25% DNA
4%
Grandchildren concordance rates
2nd degree relatives, 25% DNA
5%
Half-sibling concordance rates
2nd degree relatives, 25% DNA
6%
Parents concordance rates
1st degree relatives, 50% DNA
6%
Sibling concordance rates
1st degree relatives, 50% DNA
9%
Children concordance rates
1st degree relatives, 50% DNA
13%
Fraternal twins concordance rates
1st degree relatives, 50% DNA
17%
Identical twins concordance rates
100% DNA
48%
Gottesman and Shields (1995)
carried out a comprehensive review of twin and adoption studies to investigate the cause of schizophrenia
Haloperidol
an example of a typical antipsychotic
Healy (2012)
found some studies for effectiveness have had data published multiple times, inflating the effectiveness
Hogarty (1991)
produced a type of therapy session, which reduced social conflicts between parents and their children which reduced EE and thus relapse rates
Houston et al (2008)
stated that modern day stress definitions need to include anything that triggers schizophrenia, such as cannabis, which increases schizophrenia by up to seven times depending on dose, not just psychological stressors
Hyperdopaminergia
high levels of dopamine activity, particularly in the cortex, subcortex and Broca’s area, caused by an excess of dopamine, causing neurones that use dopamine to fire too much and transmit too many messages, or an excess of dopamine receptors, causing positive symptoms
Hypodopaminergia
low levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, explaining negative symptoms
Gottesman and Shields (1995)
carried out a comprehensive review of twin and adoption studies to investigate the cause of schizophrenia
Interactionist Approach
an approach to explaining causes of schizophrenia that acknowledges a broad range of factors including biological, psychological and sociocultural influences
Javier Escobar (2012)
found that white psychiatrists tended to over-interpret symptoms and distrust the honesty of Afro-Caribbean during diagnosis
Juckel et al (2006)
measured activity levels here and found lower levels of activity in schizophrenics compared to controls
Kim and Berrios (2001)
found that social stigmas affect validity of diagnosis. For example, in Japan schizophrenia is so stigmatised that psychiatrists are reluctant to diagnose it so only 20% of those with schizophrenia are actually diagnosed
Kingdon and Kirschen (2006)
studied 142 schizophrenic patietns and found that many were deemed unsuitable for CBT because psychiatrists believed they would not fully engage with the therapy
Kuipers et al (1996)
studied Mr X, believed other people could read his thoughts through telepathy and would attack him because of what he was thinking, leading him to avoid social situations
Kuipers et al (1997)
found CBT was associated with lower drop-out rates and better patient satisfaction
Lindstroem et al (1999)
found that chemicals needed to produce dopamine are taken up faster in the brains of schizophrenic patients than controls, suggesting they produce more dopamine
Liu and de Haan (2009)
found that typical prescribed dosages of chlorpromazine how declined over the last 50 years
Longenecker et al (2010)
reviewed studies of the prevalence of schizophrenia and concluded that since the 1980s, more men have been diagnosed than women, suggested this was due to genetic differences
Manic Depression
a historic term for bipolar disorder
McKenna (1996)
suggests schizophrenia may be due to selective attention so symptoms depend in part on the poor ability of a person with schizophrenia to concentrate, or due to lack of self-monitoring, causing thoughts to seem external
Meehl’s Diathesis Model (1962)
proposed there was a ‘schizogene’ without which an individual would not develop schizophrenia, no matter how much stress they were exposed to and vulnerability was solely genetic
Meltzer (2012)
found that clozapine can be effective in up to 30-50% of treatment resistant cases where typical antipsychotics have failed
Metacommunication
communication that challenges the primary communication, causing mutually contradictory signals
Metrarepresentation
the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviours, allowing us insight into our own intentions and goals. It also allows us to interpret the actions of others. Dysfunction into metarepresentation would disrupt our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else, explaining hallucinations of voices and delusions like thought insertion
Mischler and Waxler (1968)
found significant differences in the way mothers spoke to their schizophrenic daughters compared to their normal daughters, which suggests that dysfunctional communication may be a result of living with the schizophrenic rather than the cause of the disorder
Moghaddam and Javitt (2012)
found that schizophrenia patients often have a glutamate deficiency
Mortensen et al (1999)
investigated the effect of place and season of birth on risk of developing schizophrenia in a Danish cohort of 1.75 million, found a clear dose-response relationship between urbanicity and risk of admission for schizophrenia
Multi-Axial Approach
approach that the DSM takes, considering biological, psychological and social factors, focusing on the individual rather than symptoms by assessing social functioning and physiological state of health
Negative Symptoms
atypical experiences that represent the loss of a usual experience such as clear thinking or normal levels of motivation
Affective Flatenning
a lack or flattening of emotions, where a person’s voice becomes dull and monotonous and their faces takes on a constant blank appearance
Alogia
involves reduced frequency and quality of speech, where a person loses their ability to speak fluently due to slowing or blocked thoughts
Anhedonia
an inability to enjoy thinks they use to enjoy
Avolition
involves loss of motivation to carry out tasks and results in lowered activity levels
Social Withdrawal
where people find it hard or become reluctant to speak to people
Speech Poverty
involves reduced frequency and quality of speech, where a person loses their ability to speak fluently due to slowing or blocked thoughts
Neural Correlates
patterns of structure or activity in the brain that occur in conjunction with an experience and may be implicated in the origins of that experience
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome
a potentially fatal side effect of typical antipsychotics caused by dopamine action being blocked in the hypothalamus, causing high temperature, delirium and coma, sometimes leading to death
Nordic-Cochrane Group
collect all randomised clinical trials and to perform systematic reviews of the effect of the treatments
NRG1 and NRG3
genes associated with schizophrenia
PCM1
gene associated with schizophrenia
Pedersen and Morten (2001)
found that individuals who spent their first 15 years of life in an urban area were nearly three times more likely to develop schizophrenia than those who grew up in rural areas
Placebo
a substance that has no therapeutic effect, sued as a control in testing new drugs, eg giving a sugar pill to ensure that any psychological effects of the expectations of taking a drug do not confound results
Polygenic
requires several genes to work in combination to cause a characteristic
Positive Symptoms
atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences
Abnormal Motor Behaviour
where an individual behaves in ways that seem inappropriate or strange to the norms of society
Catalepsy
holding poses against gravity
Catatonia
involves having decreased reactivity to your environment
Echolalia
repeating what is said to you, in the case of schizophrenia, in a meaningless way
Waxy Flexibility
where you can move a person around like a wax model and they will stay in that position
Delusions
beliefs that hold no basis in reality
Delusions of Grandeur
where an individual believes that something or someone is deliberately trying to mislead, manipulate, hurt or kill you
Paranoid Delusions
where an individual believes that something or someone is deliberately trying to mislead, manipulate, hurt or kill you
Hallucinations
sensory experiences that are not based in reality or that are distortions of perceptions of things that aren’t there
Auditory Hallucinations
hearing things that aren’t there
Gustatory Hallucinations
tasting things that aren’t there
Olfactory Hallucinations
smelling things that aren’t there
Tactile Hallucinations
feeling things that aren’t there
Visual Hallucinations
seeing things that aren’t there
Word Salad
where a person experiences disorganised speech, speaking in ways that are completely incomprehensible, eg sentences might not make sense or a topic of conversation changes with little or no connection between sentences
Peri-Traumatic Dissociation
where dissociation occurs as a trauma response
Posterior Cingulate Cortex
involved in action selection, affected by schizophrenia
PPP3CC
gene associated with schizophrenia
Primary Communication
what somebody actually says
Primary Narcissism
where id takes over and there is no distinction between reality, fantasy, self and others, causing an inability to function and delayed gratification
Private Speech
talking to yourself, thinking out loud. This helps children think through what they’re doing, and as we age, this becomes internal, but in schizophrenia, it appears as an external voice no longer recognised as your own
Protective Factors
factors that protect you from develop schizophrenia despite having genetic predisposition, such as having a supportive environment or good coping skills
Psychodynamic Explanation of Schizophrenia
suggests anormal upbringing creates a fragile ego which can be ‘broken’ by the id, leading to regression to an earlier stage of life, dominated by innate instinct, causing regression to primary narcissism, where id takes over and there is no distinction between reality, fantasy, self and others, causing an inability to function and delayed gratification
Psychotic Breakdown
occurs when a person loses touch with reality due to a decline in their mental well-being
Psychosis
when people lose some contact with reality
Putamen
part of the basal ganglia associated with learning, memory, language and emotion, and also schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease
Quetiapine
an example of an atypical antipsychotic
Read et al (2005)
found that 69% women and 59% men with schizophrenia had a history of abuse in early childhood because their hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, which is involved in the fight-or-flight response, had been physically altered
Ripke et al (2014)
carried out a large scale study combining data from genome-wide studies which are studies looking at the whole human genome as opposed to particular genes and found 108 separate genetic variations were associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia
Risperidone
newer atypical psychotic, developed in the 1990s. Given in lower does than clozapine, potentially leads to fewer side effects, it binds to dopamine and serotonin receptors, but binds to dopamine receptors more strongly than Clozapine, hence the ability to give smaller doeses
Rosenham (1973)
a study on psychiatric hospitals in the US revealed dehumanising treatment on vulnerable patients, leading to an overhaul of care protocols and standards, where sane people infiltrated asylums and found that the doctors couldn’t tell the difference between sane and insane people
Schizoaffective Disorder
where schizophrenia and a personality disorder are comorbid
Schizophrenia
a mental illness characterised by persistent and consistent psychotic breakdowns
Catatonic Schizophrenia
the rarest schizophrenia diagnosis, characterised by unusual, limited and sudden movements; a person may often switch between being very active or very still, may not talk much and may mimic other’s speech and movement
Cenesthopathic Schizophrenia
where patients experience unusual bodily symptoms
Hebephrenic Schizophrenia
also known as ‘disorganised schizophrenia’, typically develops at age 15-25; symptoms include disorganised behaviours and thoughts, short-lasting delusions and hallucinations and possibly disorganised speech patterns that others struggle to understand, people may also show little emotion in facial expressions, voice tone or mannerisms
Paranoid Schizophrenia
the most common type of schizophrenia, may develop later in life than other forms; symptoms include hallucinations and/or delusions, but speech and emotions may not be affected
Schizophrenia in Remission
where someone previously diagnosed with schizophrenia is no longer exhibiting symptoms
Simon et al (2015)
found a negative correlation between activity in the ventral striatum whilst thinking about a reward and avolition
Simple Schizophrenia
where negative symptoms are most prominent early and worsen, while positive symptoms are rarely experienced
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
may patients don’t obviously fit into one of these types
Schizophrenogenic Mother
a mother who creates schizophrenic children, generally domineering, cold, rejecting and guilt-producing
Schneider (1959)
tried to make the diagnosis of schizophrenia more reliable by identifying a group of symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia but rarely found in other mental disorders, known as first-rank symptoms, formed the basis of ICD classification
Selective Attention
where the performer focuses their concentration on what they are doing or about to do and ignores all other distracts. Deficits in this can lead to problems concentrating
Social Defeat
repeated experiences of marginalisation, exclusion and discrimination, thought to contribute to schizophrenia
Stirling et al (2006)
found that people with schizophrenia generally do twice as badly as non-schizophrenic people in the Stroop test, suggesting a difficulty in supressing automatic processing
Stress-Vulnerability Model
a spectrum model showing how likely someone is to develop psychosis, where people with high vulnerability require little stress to tip into psychosis
Stroop Test
tests how well someone can supress automatic processing by asking people to say the colour of various words
Subcortex
central areas of the brain
Substantia Nigra
source of caudate dopamine projections. In schizophrenia, the substantia nigra has increased dopamine function and rate-limiting synthesis enzymes
Superior Temporal Gyrus
involved in recognising sounds, contains the primary auditory cortex, involved in auditory hallucinations
Symptom Overlap
occurs when two or more conditions share symptoms, calling into question classifying them separately
Systems Thinking
the idea that things are best undertood by looking at the relationship between a set of entities
Talking Therapies
encourages people to listen to voices and question them, speak to them with kindness and respect so the voices respond with more kindness and respect
Tardive Dyskinesia
a type of extrapyramidal side effect that is an involuntary movement disorder characterised by uncontrollable, abnormal and repetitive movements of the face, torso and/or other body parts, associated with prolonged use of typical antipsychotics
Tauscher et al (2014)
found that schizophrenia symptoms can be treated with dopamine antagonists, such as chlorpromazine, which are effective in 60% cases at treating positive symptoms
Thornley et al (2003)
conducted a metanalysis looking at the effectiveness of chlorpromazine vs a placebo. Data from over 1000 participants showed that chlorpromazine is associated with better overall functioning and reduced symptom severity. There was also a reduced relapse rate associated with chlorpromazine as well
Thought Disorder
where thoughts feel jumbled and the person has difficulty concentrating and communicating
Thought Insertion
the experience of having thoughts projected into the mind by others
Tienari (2000)
looked at 164 adopted children whose biological mothers had schizophrenia; they had a concordance of 6.7% compared to 2% in adopted children with schizophrenic parents
Token Economies
a form of behavioural therapy that uses operant conditioning where desirable behaviours are reinforced through selective reinforcement
Torrey (2002)
found abnormally high rates in Southern Ireland and Croatia, and significantly lower in Italy and Spain
Turkington and Kingdon (1996)
studied a patient who believed communist were flying over his house in planes and shooting him with invisible rays that caused physical symptoms
Typical Anti-Psychotics
bind less tightly to the D2 dopamine receptors, causing less psychotic activity but no extrapyramidal side effects
Vassos (2012)
found through meta-analysis that risk of schizophrenia was 2.37 times greater in cities than it was in the countryside, possibly due to stress levels, more adverse living conditions and more densely populated environment
Vaughan and Leff (1976)
found that the relapse rate of schizophrenics discharged to high EE families was 55%, whereas those who were discharged elsewhere was 13%, suggesting the stress of EE might be triggering schizophrenia
Ventral Striatum
involved in motivation and reward, malfunctions cause avolition in schizophrenia
Ventral Tegmental Area
increased dopamine activity here is linked with schizophrenia
Ventromedial PFC
mediates action selection and tracks post-choice values
Wise and Stein (1973)
report abnormally low levels of DBH in postmortem studies of schizophrenia patients, suggesting that those people would have abnormally high dopamine activity
Yellowless et al (2002)
developed a machine that produced virtual hallucination, such as hearing the television telling you to kill yourself, with the aim of showing schizophrenics their hallucinations weren’t real. This was successful
Zubin and Spring (1977)
found a correlation between stress and mental illness
