Schizophrenia AO1 and AO3

Question 1

Outline the explanation that Schizophrenia runs in families (2 marks)

Answer 1

After systematic ivestigations, it has been proven that there is a strong relationship between the degree of genetic similarity and a shared risk of Schizophrenia

Question 2

Outline the idea of candidate genes as an explanation for Schizophrenia (2 marks)

Answer 2

• Schizophrenia may be ‘polygenic’ meaning it may be caused by a number of genes
• The genome of Schizophrenia patients were compared with controls - 108 genetic variations were associated with an increased risk of the disorder

Question 3

Outline the dopamine hypothesis for explaining Schizophrenia (4 marks)

Answer 3

• The Dopamine hypothesis suggests that Schizophrenics may have high levels of Dopamine in their brain
• Hyperdopaminergia in the subcortex - focused on the high levels of Dopamine in the subcortex and results in speech poverty and auditory hallucinations
• Hypodopaminergia in the cortex - focused on low levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex which may cause the negative symptoms of Schizophrenia

Question 4

Outline neural correlates as an explanation of Schizophrenia (4 marks)

Answer 4

• Positive symptoms of Schizophrenia - Allen (2007) scanned the brains of patients with hallucinations and patients without and found lower activation levels in the superior temporal gyrus and the anterior cingulate gyrus of the hallucination group and they made more errors with identifying speech
• Negative symptoms of Schizophrenia - Juckel (2006) measured activity in the ventral striatum and found lower levels of activity than in the control group and he observed a negative correlation and the severity of overall negative symptoms

Question 5

Outline the ICD-10 classification of Schizophrenia

Answer 5

There are subtypes of Schizophrenia:

• Paranoid Sz - Hallucinations and delusions
• Catatonic Sz - Changes to movement i. e. overactive or immobile
• Hebephrenic Sz - negative symptoms i.e. speech poverty or loss of motivation

Question 6

Outline the DSM-5 diagnosis of Schizophrenia

Answer 6

One positive symptom is required for diagnosis

Question 7

Outline the ICD-10 of diagnosing Schizophrenia

Answer 7

Two or more negative symptoms is required for diagnosis

Question 8

What is the definition of ICD?

Answer 8

International Classification of Disease

Question 9

What is the definition of DSM?

Answer 9

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

Question 10

State two positive symptoms of Schizophrenia

Answer 10

• Hallucinations

- Delusions

Question 11

State two negative symptoms of Schizophrenia

Answer 11

• Avolition

- Speech poverty