Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is schizophrenia?
A psychotic disorder.
Describe a psychotic disorder
- Loss of contact with reality
- Lacks insight of their condition
What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
1- Delusions
2- Hallucinations
3- Thought Disorders
4- Experiences of influence
What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
1- Lack of emotional expressions (flat affect)
2- Lack of motivation (Avolition)
3- Lack of spoken language (Alogia)
4- Social withdrawal (Asociality)
5- Inability to experience pleasure (Anhedonia)
Types of delusions
1- Grandeur
2- Persecution
3- Reference
Define grander delusion
A person who sees themselves as exceptional in some way.
Define persecution delusion
This person may believe that other people want to harm them and may believe they are being spied on / tricked or followed.
Define reference delusion
This person believes that any situation or event has personal significance.
What is Aneja et al’s case study?
About a 14 year old boy diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Describe the case study history.
-The boy came from a troubled home with an aggressive father.
-His parents got divorced when he was 10 and he lived with his grandparents.
-His schoolwork suffered and he stopped attending school by the age of 12.
-He was irritable, sad and often got into trouble for fighting.
Describe the symptoms.
-He heard voices that teased him.
-He was suspicious of his mother.
-Muttered, laughed and shouted at unseen people..
-Spoke very little.
-Poor sleep and self care.
-Preferred to be alone away from others.
-Lacked insight of his condition.
Describe his treatments.
-He was hospitalised and diagnosed with very early onset schizophrenia.
-Released from hospital with medications that helped his aggression.
-Received 8 sessions of bilateral ECT.
-His positive symptoms decreased but his negative symptoms stayed the same.
What are the three genetic explanations of schizophrenia?
1- Family studies
2- Twin studies
3- Adoption studies
Describe family studies.
This study shows that if you have a close family member with schizophrenia then you are more likely to develop it too.
Describe twin studies.
Mono-zygote twins have higher concordance of schizophrenia suggesting that there is genetic contribution.
Describe adoption studies.
Studies found that 6.7% of adoptees who have a schizophrenic biological mother also develop schizophrenia.
Describe the dopamine hypothesis.
Excess dopamine can be a cause of schizophrenia.
Explain dopamine
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that enables communication between two neurons.
Evidence of the dopamine hypothesis
1- Drugs
2- L-Dopa
3- Post Mortem Studies
4- Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Describe the evidence of drugs
- Drug trials were tested on people with and without schizophrenia
- Drugs that increase the dopamine levels include amphetamine and cocaine.
- Large increase of dopamine correlates to the increase of hallucinations and delusions.
Describe the evidence of L-Dopa
- People with parkipsons disease are treated with a synthetic form of dopamine and if the dosage is too high it creates similar symptoms to those with schizophrenia such as hallucinations.
Describe the Post Mortem Studies evidence
- Post mortem studies have found that the brains of deceased individuals with schizophrenia have a larger number of dopamine than those without the disorder.
- Deceased patients were found to have abnormally low levels of the enzyme that breaks down dopamine, suggesting the presence of excess dopamine.
Describe the Positron Emission Tomography evidence
Is a scan analysis to measure the amount of dopamine activity in the brain. Those with schizophrenia indicate greater number if receptors.
Describe the cognitive explanation
Assumes that both positive and negative symptoms result from faulty information processing.
What are the errors in self monitoring?
- Have difficulty to distinguish between auditory stimuli occurring outside their own mind and their self-generated inner thoughts.
What are the difficulties with mentalizing?
- Difficulties mentalizing may result in persecutory delusions and paranoia.
- Have difficulties understanding mental states and intentions.
- People with schizophrenia believe that others have the same opinion they have of themselves therefore if they believe they are a bad person, they think others believe that too which suggests negative symptoms such as social withdrawal.
What are thinking errors and bias?
- Schizophrenics tend to for abnormal beliefs and maintain them if people fail to update their understanding based on the new evidence.
- Tend to draw conclusions based on insufficient evidence and show a bias against counter-evidence (usually that disconfirms their delusions.)
-These errors are an explanation to why schizophrenics hold such bizarre beliefs. - Misinterpretation of perception may also create delusional thinking and may be applying logical reasoning to it. Usually due to mistaking inner thoughts to be coming from an external source.
Explain the biochemical treatments of schizophrenia.
-Includes the use of antipsychotic medication.
-Reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms in those suffering schizophrenia and related disorders.
-Can be administered orally or given trans-dermally
-People who receive these medications need regular check ups to monitor their symptoms and any side effects.
-Dosages may need to be altered and may be necessary to provide additional medications.
State the two types of antipsychotics.
1- Antipsychotics (1st generation 1950s)
2- Atypical antipsychotics (second generation 1990s)
What is the function of antipsychotics?
Reduce severity of psychotic symptoms in those suffering from schizophrenia.
Explain typical antipsychotics.
- Work by blocking dopamine receptors.
- Effective in reducing positive symptoms.
- Side effect of tradive dyskinesia and extrapyramidal. symptoms.
Explain atypical antipsychotics.
- Block both dopamine and serotonin receptors.
- Side effect of weight gain.
What is ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy)
- Involves delivering electrical pulses to one or both sides of the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp.
- Pulses last up to one second and cause thousands of neurones, inducing a brief controlled seizure up to one minute.
How does ECT work?
- The shocks trigger the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.
What is CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy)
- A form of talk therapy to help people change by recognising thoughts which link to their behaviours.
- Aims to reduce distress, disability and hospitalisation.
State the three sections of cbt.
- Exploring event, beliefs and feelings; develop self awareness and empowerment.
- Preventing relapse through stress management; develop coping skills and recognises early warning signs before symptoms worsen.
- Psychoeducation; educates the individual and their family about .
Explain Sensky et al example study.
- Investigated the effectiveness between CBT and befriending with 90 schizophrenic patients.
- Assessed using blind rater, pre post and follow up (after 9 months) to see symptom progression.
- Results portrayed that CBT had a significant effect on individuals after 9 months.
- Suggests that talk therapy, psychoeducation and challenging of thoughts is an effective method and is a good example for CBT as a treatment for schizophrenia.
