SCHIZOPHRENIA Flashcards
(41 cards)
What additional treatments may be given to treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients?
Mood stabilizing drugs and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
What is psychoeducation in schizophrenia treatment?
Informing the person and their family about the disorder, stress links, and coping strategies.
What did Sensky et al. (2000) find about CBT for schizophrenia?
CBT was more effective than befriending in the long term for reducing symptoms.
Describe the main components of CBT for schizophrenia.
Forming therapeutic alliances, identifying links between events/thoughts/feelings, managing stress, challenging delusions, and psychoeducation.
What is Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) used for in schizophrenia?
It is an addition to medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenia; During this procedure, small electric currents pass through the brain, intentionally causing a brief seizure. ECT is believed to trigger gene expressions and improve neural connectivity.
What do atypical antipsychotics do?
Block both dopamine and serotonin receptors; treat positive and negative symptoms; lower risk of some side effects
Do typical antipsychotics treat negative symptoms well?
No, they primarily treat positive symptoms; negative symptoms often remain.
How do typical antipsychotics help reduce schizophrenia ?
They block dopamine receptors, reducing positive symptoms.
What is counter-evidence bias in the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia?
Drawing conclusions without sufficient evidence and failing to revise delusional beliefs when contradicted.
What is a ‘difficulty with mentalising’ in schizophrenia?
Inability to understand others’ mental states or intentions, leading to paranoia and social withdrawal.
Explain the self-monitoring error in the cognitive explanation of schizophrenia.
People misattribute their own thoughts as coming from external sources, leading to auditory hallucinations.
What evidence challenges the dopamine hypothesis?
Apomorphine does not trigger schizophrenic symptoms in healthy people or increase symptoms in those with schizophrenia.
What evidence supports the dopamine hypothesis?
Rats given amphetamines (increase dopamine) show schizophrenic-like symptoms.
What is the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia?
- The dopamine hypothesis posits that excessive firing of dopamine neurons contributes to schizophrenia symptoms.
- Individuals with schizophrenia are believed to have an elevated number of D2 receptors on receiving neurons, leading to increased dopamine binding and firing.
- Since dopamine is crucial for guiding attention, disruptions in this process can result in issues with attention, perception, and thought in people with schizophrenia.
What is the genetic explanation of schizophrenia?
Certain genes might make someone more vulnerable
Predisposition suggested by family and twin studies.
Risk increases the closer one is to a person with schizophrenia in their family (48% for twins 1 for general population)
But it is more a vulnerability that other factors might trigger.
List a weakness of Freeman et al. (2003).
Small, non-representative sample; low ecological validity.
List a strength of Freeman et al. (2003).
Standardized VR program improved reliability; equal split of males and females reduced gender bias.
What did Freeman et al. (2003) conclude?
People attribute mental states to VR avatars, and those with higher interpersonal sensitivity or anxiety show more persecutory ideation.
Describe the method used in Freeman et al. (2003).
Participants’ baseline paranoia and emotional distress were measured; they experienced a VR library; post-VR paranoia was assessed; interviews and questionnaires were conducted.
Describe the sample in Freeman et al. (2003).
21 university students and 3 administrative staff (mean age 26) from London, UK.
What was the aim of Freeman et al. (2003) VR study?
To investigate if people without mental illness have persecutory thoughts in virtual reality, and if there are predictors for such ideation.
What are persecutory delusions?
A belief that one is in danger or being conspired against.
Name three types of delusions found in schizophrenia.
Persecutory delusions, grandiose delusions, delusion of reference.
What did Aneja et al. (2018) conclude?
Schizophrenia is rare in children and treatment can be hard to optimize.
