Schizophrenia Flashcards
(34 cards)
Core symptoms of schizophrenia:
Persistent delusions
Persistent hallucinations
Thought disorder
Experiences of influence, passivity or control
Other symptoms of schizophrenia include:
Avolition
Catatonia
Flattened effect
Impaired cognitive function
State 3 types of delusion:
Grandiose
Persecutory
Delusion of reference
Example of typical antipsychotic:
Chlorpromazine
Example of atypical antipsychotic:
Clozapine
What is persecutory delusion?
A strongly held belief that you are in danger, being conspired against or others are pursuing you to try to do you harm.
What is grandiose delusion?
A strongly held belief that you have special abilities or special powers.
What is delusion of reference?
A strongly held belief that events in the environment are related to you.
What is the context of Freeman et al.?
In the 1990s and early 2000s, VR was a new technology in psychology. It was primarily used to investigate spatial awareness and other cognitive skills. It has been shown to be effective in treating phobias and anxiety disorders by Rothbaum et al.
Main theories of Freeman et al.?
Persecutory Ideation: the belief that other people are being hostile towards you or have negative feelings towards you. A very common symptom of schizophrenia.
State the two aims of Freeman et al. (2003)
- To investigate whether participants without a history of mental illness have thoughts of a persecutory nature in virtual reality.
- To find out whether there are cognitive or emotional factors that predict the likelihood of experiencing persecutory ideation in virtual reality.
Hypothesis Freeman et al.
That a small number of the participants would experience thoughts of a persecutory nature in VR, these would be those with higher levels of paranoia and emotional distress.
What is the sample of Freeman et al. (2003)?
- 12 male and 12 female
- Students/staff from University College London
- An average age of 26 years
- Had no history of mental illness
- Recruited using volunteer sampling through advertisement
Procedure of Freeman et al.?
The pts were trained on how to use VR equiptment then instructed to enter the VR for 5 minutes.
The setting was of a library and there were 5 avatars, 3 sitting at one desk 2 sitting at another, occasionally showing ambiguous behaviour such as smiling or talking to each other.
The pts were told to try and form an impression of the people and what they might think of them.
What measures were used in Freeman et al.?
After leaving the VR, pts were given a BSI of 53 items assessing 9 symptom dimensions over the last 7 days, for example, IPS, depression, hostility, anxiety & psychoticism. Other questionnaires assessed paranoia, anxiety and ‘sense of presence’ and specific ideations of persecution. All Qs were on a numerical scale, each gave a total score. Half were given before and after the VR. Semi structured interviews on thoughts and feelings.
Results of Freeman et al.
Most opinions of the avatars were positive, but some were persecutory in nature. ‘They were talking about me behind my back’ 11- no, 8 - a little, 3 - moderately, 2 - totally. No sign. difference between males and females.
Paranoia scores on questionnaire and interview were significantly correlated.
Higher levels of IPS and anxiety significantly correlated with higher levels of persecutory thoughts in VR.
What are the conclusions of Freeman et al. (2003)?
Freeman et al. concluded that people do attribute mental states to VR characters and, although these are usually positive, they can be persecutory in nature.
People are more likely to show persecutory ideation if they show high levels of interpersonal sensitivity or anxiety.
State the risk of developing schizophrenia if you have a monozygotic twin with schizophrenia (Gottesman)
48%
Define schizophrenia (ICD-11)
Schizophrenia is characterised by disturbances across a person’s thought, feelings, experience and behaviour. The symptoms are either positive - in addition to normal experience - or negative - the level of fucnctioning falls below normal. For a diagnosis, the symptoms must have persisted for at least one month and must not be due to another health condition or medication/substance use.
State the risk of developing schizophrenia if you have a dizygotic twin with schizophrenia (Gottesman)
17%
Explain dopamine hypothesis
Schizophrenic patients’ brain produce more dopamine than normal.
The dopamine hypothesis identifies a link between positive symptoms of schizophrenia and excessive amounts of dopamine in the brain.
This is theorised to be because the neurones to fire too often or send too much information.
Parkinson’s disease medications increase dopamine levels. When the patient’s dose is too high, the side effects include symptoms identical to schizophrenia, ie. hallucinations.
Post-mortem studies show larger amounts of dopamine receptors in the brains of those with schizophrenia compared to those without it. Wise found decreased levels of the enzyme which breaks down dopamine.
PET scans show increased dopamine activity in the brains of schizophrenic people.
Describe one of the studies from Aneja et al. (2018).
Describes a boy who showed a decline in his academic studies and general behaviour from the age of 10, when his parents divorced, he & his mother moved in with his grandparents and he changed school.
From age 12, he started hearing voices and believed his mother and other people is communicating with the voices. His behaviour became erratic, he muttered to himself, shouted at people who were not there. His self care declined dramatically and he barely slept.
In the following years, he was admitted to hospital several times and given a range of medications before being released with a diagnosis of early onset schizophrenia and on a medication which controlled his aggressive behaviours. He still experienced negative symptoms, however.
Explain the cognitive cause of schizophrenia
Frith acknowledges the role of biology in the development of schizophrenia, but since there is no single cause identified, he explains a cognitive cause for the disorder to be an abnormality of self-monitoring. Patients fail to recognise that their perceived hallucinations are just inner speech. It leads them to attribute what they are hearing to an external source. He tested this by asking pts whether the computer or the experimenter had said out loud the prompt, those w/ incoherent speech were the worst at correctly identifying which. Delusions are similarly misinterpreted as they are trying to apply logical reasoning to their hallucinations. Negative symptoms may be due to the individual finding it difficult to generate spontaneous actions.
Explain electroconvulsive therapy
It involves passing electricity through the brain with the intention of inducing a seizure.
Side effects include temporary memory loss, electricity is passed through unilaterally to prevent this. More extreme but rare side effects include neurological damage and death.
