Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is drug therapy
The treatment of mental disorders through the use of antipsychotics to reduce the symptoms of the disorder
What are the two types of antipsychotics used in treating schizophrenia
Typical and Atypical antipsychotics
What are Atypical antipsychotics
Carry a lower risk of extrapyramidal side effects, have a beneficial effect on negative symptoms and cognitive impairment and suitable for treatment resistant patient
What are typical antipsychotics
dopamine antagonists in that they bind to but not stimulate dopamine receptors and so reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia (Hallucinations and delusions)
how do antipsychotics work
they work by reducing dopaminergenic transmission in areas of the brain associated with schizophrenia
What percentage of receptors must be blocked for the drugs to be effective.
Between 60 and 75%
What do a typical antipsychotics show relating to D 2 receptors
rapid disociation from D 2 receptors as well as strong affinity for serotonin receptors
What do a typical antipsychotics act as agonist for
serotonin
What is the benefit of having them as serotonin agonist
Leads to increase dopamine release in prefrontal cortex to reduce negative symptoms and cognitive impairment
What did Leucht et al. find regarding the placebo effect. (Evaluation) (support)
Antipsychotics were more effective than placebo of reducing relapse rates
What were the extrapyramidal side effects (Evaluation) (Weakness)
Can produce movement problems as typical antipsychotics impact areas of the brain that control motor activity
What are the ethical concerns with using typical antipsychotics (Evaluation) (weakness)
Cost benefit analysis maybe negative as well as human rights abuse because of side effects
What are the advantages of a typical of atypical antipsychotics (Evaluation)
There are fewer side effects using typical antipsychotics so patients are more likely to continue with the medication
What did Crossley et al. conclude regarding which antipsychotics are better (Evaluation)
There is no difference in efficacy but there are different side effects
What are motivational deficits of using antipsychotics (Evaluation)
Antipsychotic treatment reinforces the idea that something is wrong and reduces motivation to look for other possible causes
what are the 2 main psychological explanations for schizophrenia
family dysfunction and cognitive explanations
What is family dysfunction
Family dysfunction is the presence of problems within a family that contribute to relax rates in recovering schizophrenics, including a lack of warmth between parents and child, dysfunctional communication patterns on parental overprotection
What is the double bind theory of family dysfunction
The idea that conflicting messages within the family prevent coherent construction of reality, giving rise to schizophrenic symptoms
What is expressed emotion regarding family dysfunction
Family communication style is likely to influence relapse rate call stop suggests lower tolerance for intense environmental stimuli
Who had the double bind theory
Bateson et al. (1956)
Who performed research on expressed emotion
Kuipers et al. (1983)
What did Kuipers et al. (1983) find
High EE relatives are likely to talk more and listen less leading to increased relapse rates.
Who conducted research on relapse rates relating to expressed emotion and what were the findings
Linzen et al. (1997) found a patient returning to a family with high EE were around four times more likely to relapse than a patient whose family were low in EE
What are the 2 aspects of cognitive explanations to schizophrenia
Cognitive explanations of delusions and cognitive explanations of hallucinations
what are cognitive explanations of delusions
Egocentric bias leads people to relate irrelevant events to themselves and arrive at false conclusions
What are cognitive explanations of hallucinations
Hypervigilance leads to greater expectation to stimuli; a person is therefore likely to attribute these to external source
How can family relationships trigger schizophrenia (Evaluation)
Disturbed adoptive families on more likely to trigger schizophrenia in children with genetic vulnerability
Who found supporting evidence for the double bind theory (Evaluation)
Berger (1965)
What did Berger (1965) find in his research (Evaluation)
Schizophrenics reported a higher recall of double bind statement by their mothers than non schizophrenics