Schizophrenia

Question 1

Define a Positive symptom

Answer 1

Positive symptoms are an excess or distortion of normal functions

Question 2

Give examples of Positive symptoms

Answer 2

hallucinations, delusions and thought disturbances (such as thought insertion)

Question 3

Define Hallucination

Answer 3

Hallucinations are usually auditory or visual perceptions of things that are not present. Imagined stimuli could involve any of the senses.

Question 4

What is a delusion?

Answer 4

Delusions are false beliefs of things that aren’t true. e.g. aliens are stealing their thoughts

Question 5

What are the types of delusion?

Answer 5

Grandure - The person has convinced themselves that they are someone powerful or important, such as Jesus Christ.
Paranoid - worrying that people are out to get them.

Question 6

Define a Psychomotor Disturbance

Answer 6

Unintentional and purposeless motions and restlessness, which could be Rocking backwards and forwards, twitches, & repetitive behaviors.

Question 7

Define a negative symptom

Answer 7

a diminution or loss of normal functions such as psychomotor disturbances, lack of volition, disturbances of mood and thought disorders.

Question 8

What is lose association?

Answer 8

Thought disorder in which there are breaks in the train of thought and the person appears to make illogical jumps from one topic to another

Question 9

What is broadcasting?

Answer 9

a thought disorder whereby a person believes their thoughts are being broadcast to others, for example over the radio or through TV

Question 10

Define Agolia

Answer 10

speech poverty – a thought disorder were correct words are used but with little meaning.

Question 11

Define Avolition

Answer 11

a person becomes totally apathetic and sits around waiting for things to happen. They engage in no self motivated behavior.

Question 12

What makes a classification system reliable?

Answer 12

different clinicians using the same system (e.g. DSM) should arrive at the same diagnosis for the same individual.

Question 13

Why is the diagnosis of Schizophrenia difficult?

Answer 13

Practitioners have no physical signs but only symptoms (what the patient reports) to make a decision on.

Question 14

What is comorbidity?

Answer 14

It describes people who suffer from two or more mental disorders which occurs because the symptoms of different disorders overlap.

Question 15

What makes classification system valid?

Answer 15

it should be meaningful and classify a real pattern of symptoms, which result from a real underlying cause.

Question 16

What did Gottesman (1991) do/find?

Answer 16

He found there was a higher concordance rate for those sharing more genetic material. Monozygotic twins (48%), dizygotic twins (17%), siblings (9%) and parents (6%).

Question 17

What does the original dopamine hypothesis suggest?

Answer 17

that hyperdopaminergia - abnormally high dopamine

levels - in the subcortex is responsible for Schizophrenia

Question 18

What does the revised dopamine hypothesis suggest?

Answer 18

that hypodopaminergeria - abnormally low dopamine levels - in the cortex is more likely to be
responsible for Schizophrenia

Question 19

What are the possible effects of hyperdopaminergia in the frontal lobe?

Answer 19

It may be responsible for the positive Schizophrenia symptoms of auditory hallucinations, due to the over-activity of neurotransmission in the auditory areas of the brain, such as Brocca’s area.

Question 20

What are the possible effects of hypodopaminergia in the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 20

Negative symptoms of Schizophrenia such as speech poverty and avolition, because the prefrontal cortex is associated with logical thinking, so low dopamine levels here may impair their ability to construct sentences that are focused on one topic (speech poverty) or make decisions about how to function in day to day living (avolition).

Question 21

Define Neural correlates

Answer 21

Specific patterns of cortical activity or neural structures which coincide with specific psychological symptoms, and so are assumed to contribute towards those symptoms.

Question 22

Evaluate the biological explanations for schizophrenia.

Answer 22

— An issue with the use of neural correlates as an explanation for schizophrenia is that the evidence is correlational
— The evidence for the dopamine hypothesis can be best described as ‘mixed’ as there is research for and against this explanation.
+ There is evidence supporting the biological and genetic basis of schizophrenia.

Question 23

Define expressed emotion

Answer 23

a family communication style that involves criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement.

Question 24

What is the double bind theory?

Answer 24

It suggests that children who receive contradictory messages from their parents are more likely to develop schizophrenia. For example parents who say they care whilst appearing critical.

Question 25

Evaluate the double bind explanation

Answer 25

Berger (1965) found schizophrenics reported a higher recall of double bind statements by their mothers than non-schizophrenics. However, evidence may be unreliable as patient recall may be affected by schizophrenia.

Question 26

Give a weakness of the family relationships approach.

Answer 26

There is a problem of cause and effect. Dysfunctional communication may be a result of living with the schizophrenic rather than the cause of the disorder.

Question 27

What is a Typical Antipsychotic?

Answer 27

A First generation Antipsychotic that limits dopamine production by blocking receptors in synapses, reducing positive symptoms, such as auditory hallucinations. Sometimes caused harmful side effects.

Question 28

What is an Atypical Antipsychotic?

Answer 28

Newer drugs, that attempt to target D2 dopamine activity in the limbic system but not D3 receptors in other parts of the brain. They also have some effect on other neurotransmitters such as serotonin. They generally have fewer side effects.

Question 29

What are the aims of family therapy?

Answer 29

To educate relatives about schizophrenia, stabilize the social authority of the doctor and the family, improve how the family communicated and handled the situation and to teach patients and carers more effective stress management techniques.

Question 30

What did Anderson et al. (1991) find?

Answer 30

found a relapse rate of almost 40% when patients had drugs only, compared to only 20 % when Family Therapy or Social Skills training were used and the relapse rate was less than 5% when both were used together with the medication.

Question 31

What is token economy?

Answer 31

behavioral change can be achieved by awarding tokens for desired actions. These reinforcers are exchanged for benefits such as a film or a coffee.