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A2 Psychology > Schizophrenia > Flashcards

Schizophrenia Flashcards

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1
Q

Schizophrenia definition

A

A severe mental illness where contact with reality and insight are impaired. Suffered by about 1% of the population

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2
Q

What are hallucinations? (Positive symptom)

A
  • Unusual sensory experiences
  • Can be experienced in relation to any sense
  • E.g hearing voices, seeing distorted facial expressions or people that aren’t there
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3
Q

What are delusions? (Positive symptom)

A
  • Irrational beliefs
  • Paranoid delusions= the sufferer may believe they are being persecuted
  • Delusions of grandeur= believes they are famous or very important
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4
Q

What is avolition? (negative symptom)

A

-Loss of motivation to carry out tasks and results in lowered activity levels

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5
Q

What is speech poverty? (negative symptom)

A

-Reduced frequency and quality of speech

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6
Q

Define classification

A

The process by which the mental illness are separated into types

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7
Q

Define diagnosis

A

The process by which a clinician assesses an individual and decides which type of illness they are suffering from

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8
Q

Name the 2 major systems for the classification of mental disorders

A

The DSM-5

The ICD-10

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9
Q

The DSM-5

A
  • Mostly used in the US
  • Version 5 is the most recent
  • For a person to be diagnosed as having schizophrenia, the DSM sets that they must have at least 2 of: delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech, catatonic behaviour, negative symptoms
  • Symptoms have to be present for at least 6 months
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10
Q

The ICD-10

A
  • The World Health Organisation’s International system

- Recognises a range of subtypes. E,g paranoid schizophrenia

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11
Q

What is reliability?

A
  • Consistency of diagnosis
  • The classification system should provide the same outcomes each time
  • Clinicians should reach the same conclusions at 2 different points in time )test re test reliability)
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12
Q

Copeland (1971)

A
  • Gave 134 US and 194 British psychiatrists a description of a patient
  • 69% of US psychiatrists diagnosed SZ
  • Only 2% of British gave the same diagnosis
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13
Q

What is validity?

A
  • The accuracy of diagnosis
  • Trustworthy
  • Whether a diagnosis can be validated by someone improved after being given treatment to help with that diagnosis
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14
Q

Rosenhan (1973)

A
  • Aim to investigate te reliability of diagnosis by testing whether a sane person reporting 1 symptom of schizophrenia would be given a diagnosis
  • 8 healthy people went to psychiatric hospitals claiming to hear voices (thud)
  • When admitted to hospital, the symptoms went
  • 7 were diagnosed with SZ
  • On average it took 19 days for release
  • Whilst on the ward, normal behaviour was often interpreted as abnormal
  • Concluded that diagnosis is unreliable
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15
Q

What is co morbidity?

A
  • Where one or more disorders or diseases occur simultaneously with SZ and can create problems with reliability of diagnosis as there may be confusion over which actual disorder is being diagnoised
  • E.g people with SZ often also suffer from depression
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16
Q

What is symptom overlap?

A
  • There is considerable overlap of symptoms of SZ and other conditions
  • E.g both SZ and bipolar involve negative symptoms like avolition
17
Q

What is gender bias?

A
  • The tendency for diagnosis criteria to applied different to males and females
  • It has been suggested the male sufferers are more likely to suffer from more negative symptoms
18
Q

What is cultural bias?

A

The tendency to over diagnose members of other cultures as suffering from SZ

19
Q

What are the key features of the biological explanation of SZ?

A
  • Genetics
  • Dopamine Hypothesis
  • Neural correlates
20
Q

Biological explanation- genetics

A
  • SZ tends to run in families
  • Polygenic- different combinations of genes makes individuals more vulnerable
  • Having these genes doesn’t necessarily mean all individuals will develop SZ
21
Q

Biological explanation- The Dopamine hypothesis

A
  • Suggests that an excess of the neurotransmitter dopamine in certain regions of the brain is associated with positive and negative symptoms of SZ
  • Messages from herons that transmit dopamine fire too easily/often
  • Hyperdopaminergia= high levels of dopamine activity in the sub cortex is believed to cause speech poverty
22
Q

Neural correlates of negative symptoms

A
  • Activity in the ventral strialum has been linked to the development of evolution
  • The ventral striatum are believes to be particularly involved in the anticipation of reward for certain actions
  • Therefore, if there is abnormality in areas such as the ventral striatum, there would be a lack of motivation (avolition)
23
Q

Neural correlates of positive symptoms

A

-Reduced activity in the superior temporal gyrus and anterior cingulate gyrus have been linked to the development of auditory hallucinations
(correlation not causation!)

24
Q

What are neural correlates?

A

Patterns of structure or activity in the brain that occur in conjunction with an experience

25
Q

Explain the use of twin studies

A
  • Twin studies provide a natural experimental design
  • MZ twins have the same genes where as DZ twins are 50% genetically similar
  • It is presumed that twins share a similar environment. Therefore the influence of genetic factors can be assessed with the IV as the degree of genetic similarity
26
Q

What is concordance rate?

A

A measure of similarity between 2 individuals

27
Q

Twin studies and concordance rate

A
  • MZ twins have 100% concordance rate= behaviour must be purely genetic
  • MZ twins have a concordance rate less than 100%= behaviour must be partly down to the environment
  • MZ and DZ twins have similar concordance rates= Behaviour must be down to the environment
28
Q

Joseph (2004)

A

-Calculated that the pooled data for all SZ twin studies carried out prior to 2001 showed a concordance rate for MZ twins of 40% and 7% for DZ twins. This shows that SZ must be partly genetic

29
Q

Explain the use of family studies

A

-Family studies find individuals who have SZ and determine whether their biological relatives are similarly affected more often than non biological relatives

30
Q

Gottesman (1991)

A
  • Carried out a large family study
  • Found that if both parents suffer from SZ, then there is a 46% chance of also developing the disorder
  • One SZ parent= concordance rate of 13%
  • Concluded that the greater the degree of genetic relatedness, the greater the risk of developing SZ
31
Q

Explain the use of adoption studies

A
  • These are studies of genetically related individuals who have been reared apart due to being adopted
  • Allows researchers to overcome the problem of disentangling genetic and environmental influences
32
Q

Strengths of the biological explanation

A
  • Dopamine hypothesis has lead to the development of effective treatment
  • Considerable evidence
33
Q

Weaknesses of the biological explanation

A
  • Neural correlates should a correlation not causation. For example, negative symptoms may mean less info passes through the ventral striatum resulting in reduced activity
  • Biological explanations are reductionist- ignores psychological factors. An individual may have a genetic predisposition for SZ but it may be due to environmental factors that leads to the onset of the condition
34
Q

What are antipsychotics?

A
  • Help the person function as well as possible
  • Clinicians will tend to use a combination of medication and psychological therapies
  • They work by reducing dopamine transmission in areas of the brain associated the SZ symptoms
35
Q

Typical antipsychotics

A
  • Developed in the 1950s
  • E.g Clorpromazine
  • Eliminates positive symptoms such as hallucinations
36
Q

Atypical antipsychotics

A
  • 1970S
  • E.g Clozapine
  • Fewer side effects
  • Proven effective on positive nd negative symptoms
  • Act on the dopamine system by blocked D2 receptors

A2 Psychology (11 decks)

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