Schizophrenia Flashcards

Question

Serotonin and the dopamine hypothesis

Answer 1

Newer medications like Clozapine block D2 receptors AND serotonin receptor 5-HT2A. Reduces positive AND negative symptoms Suggests role of serotonin in schizophrenia

Answer 2

Increased dopamine levels could be a symptom of schizophrenia, not the cause Crook (2000) PET scans can't detect differences in dopamine activity for schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic brains

Answer 3

1) Conventional Antipsychotics (chlorpromazine) 2) Atypical Antipsycotics (clozapine)

Answer 4

- older medication, developed in the 1950s - Blocks primarily the D2 receptors at the post synaptic membrane - decreases neural activity in the mesolimbic pathway reducing positive symptoms - lasts just over 24 hours

Answer 5

- Newer medication, developed in the 1990s - blocks fewer D2 receptors - Also blocks serotonin receptor 5-HT2A - lasts less than 24 hours and has fewer side effects

Answer 6

- we could treat mental disorders in the same way as medicine treats physical disorders. - he found that 75% who were given a conventional antipsychotic were considered to improved compared to 25% given a placebo - none of the patients given antipsychotic became worse

Answer 7

- Atypical are considered more effective - Ravanic (2009) compared the effectiveness of clozapine (atypical), chlorpromazine (conventional) and haloperidol (conventional) in 325 schizophrenics. - He found that clozapine was the most effective as it had the fewest side effects as its considered to have a "fast off" bond with the D2 receptor sites meaning it spends less time blocking dopamine.

Answer 8

- this is because around 50% of individuals diagnosed lack the necessary insight into their own condition, meaning they are refusing to believe that they have a problem. - with paranoid delusions common in schizophrenia this can result in them believing the diagnosis and treatment is part of a wider conspiracy. As such they refuse to take their medication. - Rattenbacher found only full compliance in 54% of individuals with schizophrenia. The means, that in the real world antipsychotics are going to be less effective than in carefully controlled clinical studies. - usually once released from psychiatric hospitals, schizophrenics are usually assigned a key worker who will check up on them to make sure they are taking there medication, however the budget for these key workers are so small there isn't enough of them causing patients to fall of the meds and relapse. this is the famous 'revolving door' of treatment were they are treated, stabilised, released, stop taking their medication, return to the hospital.

Answer 9

- affects both conventional and atypical - common side effects include; Parkinsonism (tremors, shuffling and instability) as well as tardive dyskinesia (involuntary movements of the head, lips and tongue) - less frequent in atypical however atypical can lead to potentially fatal low white blood cells which causes people who are on atypical antipsychotics to have to have regular blood tests.

Answer 10

- ventricles are cavities in the brain that produce and transport cerebrospinal fluid - this fluid provides buoyancy (protection) and chemical stability (transports nutrients and removes waste products) - the ventricles produce around 500ml of CSF each day. - Andreason (1988) studied MRI scans and found that people with schizophrenia have ventricles 20% to 50% larger than the controls. - there are 4 Ventricals

Answer 11

- Left and right lateral ventricles, situated in the frontal, occipital and temporal lobes. - Third ventricle situated between the left and right thalamus. - Fourth ventricle situated between the pons and Medulla oblongata.

Answer 12

- its primarily the loss of neurone from the cerebral cortex (outer layer of the brain) - atrophy therefore can often make the brain appear to shrink; widening the grooves in the cerebral cortex. this type of damage appears In the brains of 20% to 35% of chronic schizophrenics. - Antonio Vita (1988) used CAT scans to assess 124 individuals with schizophrenia and 45 controls without symptoms. They showed that 33% of individuals with schizophrenia showed moderate to severe atrophy. The atrophy was also found to be related to enlarged ventricles.

Answer 13

- in most individuals without schizophrenia, the left hemisphere is slightly larger than the right. this is related to the fact that much of the processing of language is located in the left hemisphere. As well as around 90% of the population are right handed. - However, in some individuals with schizophrenia, this is reversed, with the right hemisphere being larger than the left hemisphere. - these differences may explain why deficients in speech, such as alogia, are common in individuals with schizophrenia.