Schizophrenia Flashcards
Issues of reliability and validity associated with the classification and or diagnosis of schizophrenia (16)
AO1
Reliability - A diagnosis being repeatable, clinicians reaching same conclusion at two separate points in time. REIGER - Sz has kappa score of 0.46 - sub par reliability
Validity - gender bias restricts validity (diagnosis dependent on the gender of the individual)
BROVERMAN - clinicians in US equate healthy behaviour as being healthy male behaviour)
Validity - symptom overlap, ELIASON AND ROSS found ppl with dissociative identity disorder had more symptoms of Sz than those w Sz.
Validity - comorbidity, the extent that two or more conditions occur simultaneously in a patient.
BUCKLEY - comorbid depression occurs in 50% in Sz patient.
AO3
1) Unreliable. MOJABI AND NICHOLSON finding that 50 psychiatrists failed to differentiate between bizarre and non-bizarre delusions.
2) validity. HARRISON found that 30% of patents showed improvement in some cases but only 10% in others. It’s impossible to predict whether someone will recover.
3) reliability. Gender bias, POWELL - 59% case studies male or no gender given diagnosis but 20% female
4) validity. DSM criteria. ROSENHAM - sent 8 pseudo patients to 12 psychiatric hospitals w no symptoms or history of mental illness but claimed they could hear voices saying “empty, hollow, thud” - in all instances they were diagnosed w sz.
Discuss the biological explanations of schizophrenia (16 marks)
AO1
1) twin studies - JOSEPH, concordance rates 40.4% mz vs 7.4% dz
2) dopamine hypothesis - excess of NT in subcortical regions of brain causes positive symptoms
3) deficits to hippocampus - GOTTO & GRACE found hippocampus dysfunction causes reduction in dopamine release - affects processing in PFC, causing cognitive symptoms in disorder.
AO3
1) twin studies - cause & effect issues - could be due to mz twins treated more similarly, effects of environment hard to remove, hard to distinguish cause
2) dopamine hypothesis - NOLL argues antipsychotics don’t alleviate positive symptoms in a third of patients - failures bring link between dopamine and positive symptoms into question
3) Neural explanations allow early detection & treatment - ADDINGTON ET AL longitudinal study where brain scans were done, suggests brain tissue can be predicted allowing treatment before symptoms develop.
