Schizophrenia advanced information Flashcards
What is the family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia
Abnormal processes within a family such as poor communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion can all cause development and then maintenance of schizophrenia
What is the schizophrenogenic mother as part of the family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia
Reichmann proposed a psychodynamic explanation for schizophrenia based on her patients descriptions of their mothers. The mother is cold, controlling and rejecting which creates a family climate characterised with secrecy which could cause distrust to turn into paranoid delusions.
What is the double bind theory as a part of the family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia
If the developing child regularly finds themselves trapped in situations where they fear the wrong thing but fear receive mixed messages on what the right thing is. When they get it wrong they are punished with withdrawal of love. Leaves them feeling the world is confusing and dangerous which is reflected in symptoms like paranoid delusions and disorganised thinking.
What is expressed emotion as a part of the family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia
Level of negative emotion expressed towards a patient by their carers:
Verbal criticism of the patient.
Hostility towards the patient.
Emotional over-involvement with the patient.
These can be a source of stress for patient that can cause relapse or trigger schizophrenia in someone vulnerable.
What are limitations of the family dysfunction explanation
Socially sensitive. Implies parents are responsible for schizophrenia.
Validity issues. Schizophrenogenic mother reported by people with schizophrenia prone to delusions.
Schizo mother and expressed emotions based on clinical observations.
What are strengths of the family dysfunction explanation
Supporting research. Read found 69% of women of women with diagnosis of schizophrenia had experienced physical or sexual abuse. Suggests difficult family relationships could cause schizophrenia
What is the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
Associated with abnormal information processing.
Firth identified two types of dysfunctional thought processing that could underly some symptoms called Metarepresentation and Central control.
What is metarepresentation in the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
It is the cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviours.
Dysfunction would mean we would be unable to recognise our own thoughts and actions as being carried out by ourselves.
This would explain hallucinations of voices and delusions like thought insertion.
What is central control in the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
The ability to suppress automatic responses while we perform deliberate actions instead.
Disorganised speech and thought disorder could arise inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts.
Could explain derailment of thought and broken sentences.
What are the strengths of the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
supporting research by Stirling. schizos took twice as long to complete test. supports central control idea.
what are limitations of the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia
Direction of causality.
Shows link between faulty cognition but does not show origin of these conditions.
Ignores biological explanations.
AO1 for CBT
Used in treatment of schiz.
Around 5-20 sessions in groups or individually.
May involve argument or discussion as to whether beliefs are true. Consider other less threatening possibilities.
Can help reduce anxiety.
AO3 for CBT
Supporting research. Metaanalysis of studies into CBT found that CBT has a small but significant effect on reducing negative and positive symptoms.
Ethical issues. Interferes with an individuals freedom of thought.
Not a cure.
AO1 for family therapy
Takes place with family rather than individual.
Aims to improve quality of communication and interaction between family members.
Reduce amount of EE.
Form therapeutic alliance with family members, reduce stress and stop anger and guilt.
Focuses primarily on reducing risk of relapse.
A03 for family therapy
Pharoah reviewed studies evidence for family effectiveness and foundmoderate evidence to show family therapy significantly reduces hospital readmissions However evidence was inconsistent between studies and problems with quality of some evidence.
Treatment not cure.
