Schizophrenia essay plans

Question 1

Clinical charachteristics

Answer 1

DSM 2 symptoms for a month, social dysfunction, duration, exclusion of mood or organic causes, delusions, experiences of control, disordered thinking, alogia

Question 2

Issues with classification

Answer 2

reliability 2 different symptoms, different criteria, no physical causes, inter rater reliability low, 0.11 correlation between raters, US 69% UK 2%, pseudo patients, relaiibility validity link, not useful category, comobitiy, low predictive vaidity, unclear of causes, other factors more important

Question 3

Dopamine hypothesis

Answer 3

neurotransmitter, too much dopamine could create symptoms, high levels of D2 receptors, dopamine guides attention, L-Dopa, Davis new theory, post mortems, glycine, pharmaceutical companies, not everyone has higher levels, only recover slowly from drugs, family circumstances could increase dopamine, drugs could increase levels, could be effect not cause

Question 4

Genetics

Answer 4

adoption and twins, hard to separate environmental factors, gene mapping suggests several factors, one twin gets it 28% other will, 75% concordance rate for twins, higher for gentic rather than adoptive relatives, longitudinal studies, no 100%, small samples, evidence for stress diathesis model, ethics for gene mapping, twin studies don’t consider social factors between chances

Question 5

Psycological explanations

Answer 5

sociocultural, labelling creates role, expressed emotion, double bind, social causation, 51% relapse for high EE, social status could be effect not cause, application to reduce EE, hard to test double bind, life events, twice as many before schizophrenic episode, support from longitudinal studies, could be effect not cause, biological explanation have stronger support, diathesis stress models combines both

Question 6

Behaviourist explanation

Answer 6

learned condition, OC for attention, most from working class where stressors are higher, SLT, aware of label, hospital staff enforce roles, behaviourist treatments successful, self harm, biological approach. reductionist, deterministic

Question 7

Biological therapies

Answer 7

drugs 3% hospital, most block dopamine, dampens symptoms, how to administer, typical atypical, some don’t respond, 70% improve drug 25% placebo, only difference for those in hostile environment, side effects, relapse rate, ECT, bilaterally, not as effective as drugs, high relapse rate, dangerous

Question 8

Psychological therapies

Answer 8

CBT modify hallucinations, challenge distorted beliefs, research found reduced symptoms, no reduction in intensity but less threat, not suitable for all, psychodynamic, causes in childhood, poor sense of self, advanced verbal skills, could be the effect of drugs, higher suicide rate, evidence for theory is weak