Schizophrenia Flashcards
(97 cards)
1
Q
What is schizophrenia?
A
This is a severe mental disorder characterised by the disruption of cognitive and emotional functioning. It affects language, thoughts, perception, emotions and sense of self. A person hears voices and sees visions. Schizophrenia means split brain and has a 1% prevalence rate. The age of onset is 15-45. There is an equal chance of males and females getting the illness.
2
Q
What can cause schizophrenia?
A
- trauma (neuroanatomy changes in the brain/head injury/stress)
- low levels of serotonin and high levels of dopamine
- birth complication (born feet first/with umbilical cord around the neck/if the mother gets a flu during the pregnancy after the first trimester)
- cognitive behaviour (thinking irrationally)
- upbringing (schizophrenogenic mother= cold, unloving and dominant)
- genetics
- behavioural model (learn strange things from parents)
- drug abuse (ecstasy, amphetamines and marijuana)
3
Q
What is type I acute schizophrenia?
A
This is when obvious positive symptoms appear usually after stressful events, over days, weeks or months.
4
Q
What is type II chronic schizophrenia?
A
This is when the illness takes many years to form and there is gradual changes of increased disturbance and withdrawal occurring. This is characterised by negative symptoms.
5
Q
What is the international classification of diseases 10th edition (ICD10)?
A
This was produced by the world health organisation. It is updated every few years and is mainly used in Europe. It includes a cluster of symptoms needed to classify psychiatric illnesses. For schizophrenia it focuses on sub types.
6
Q
What is the Diagnostic Statistical Manual 5th Edition (DSM-V)?
A
This is produced in the USA. This includes the classification and description of 200 mental disorders. It is updated every few years. The sub types of schizophrenia were removed when the DSM-IV became the DSM-V.
7
Q
What is the criteria of the DSM-V for schizophrenia?
A
Criterion A is that 2 or more of the following need to be present or one of delusions are bizarre or consistent hallucination, delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech, and grossly disorganised or catatonic behaviour. Criterion B is social or occupational dysfunction. One or more areas of functioning need to be negatively affected e.g work, interpersonal and self care. Criterion C is the duration. There needs to be continuous signs of disturbance present for 6 or more months or symptoms from A present for one month, or during non active period disturbances are limited to negative symptoms/ two or more symptoms from A.
8
Q
What are positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
A
These are symptoms that have been added to a patients personality. They were not present when the person was healthy. This includes hallucinations (auditory, visual, olfactory and tactile), delusions (of grandeur, persecution and reference), disorganised speech (derailment, neologisms, word salad), catatonia and grossly disorganised behaviour.
9
Q
What are auditory hallucinations?
A
This is when the person hears sounds that do not exist but feel very real. They are usually quite loud and could be heard in one or both ears. They may sound like the patients inner voice or of someone they don’t know or there could be more than one or they could be male or female voices. They usually give a running commentary or negative comments. The person may respond to these voices.
10
Q
What are visual hallucinations?
A
This is when the person sees things that don’t exist. These may be disturbing or vivid images.
11
Q
What are olfactory hallucinations?
A
This is when the person smells odours that don’t exists e.g gas, burning or perfume.
12
Q
What are tactile hallucinations?
A
This is when the person feels things that are not present like someone touching them or intense heat or burning.
13
Q
What are delusions of grandeur?
A
This is when the person believes they are someone important or powerful. They believe that they have special powers and could harm themselves
14
Q
What are delusions of persecution?
A
This is when the person believes everyone is conspiring against them. They believe everyone dislikes them, which makes them have negative attitudes towards most people.
15
Q
What are delusions of reference?
A
They believe objects, events or songs have personal significance and they are referring to them. They become emotionally attached to objects and might name or talk to them.
16
Q
What is derailment?
A
This is problems with organising their thoughts. They change from one topic to another and make little sense.
17
Q
What are neologisms?
A
This is when the person makes up words and puts them into sentences.
18
Q
What are word salads?
A
This is when they string random words together in order so the speech is disorganised.
19
Q
What is catatonia?
A
This is a reduced reaction to environmental stimuli. They adopt rigid postures or aimless psychomotor activity, which is rocking back and forth.
20
Q
What is grossly disorganised behaviour?
A
This is the inability or lack of motivation to initiate a task or complete it. They may dress or act in bizarre ways, which is strange or disorganised.
21
Q
What are negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
A
These are symptoms that take away aspects of a patients personality. These include deficit syndrome, speech poverty/alogia, avolition, affective flattening and anehdonia (physical and social).
22
Q
What is deficit syndrome?
A
This is when two negative symptoms are present for the last 12 or more months. Cognitive deficits are not likely to be alleviated by drug therapy.
23
Q
What is speech poverty/alogia?
A
This is when speech is lessened in terms of fluency and productivity. Thinking is slow and thoughts are blocked. They reply to questions with brief replies and minimal elaboration. They can produce fewer words in a given amount of time and cannot spontaneously produce a list of words.
24
Q
What is avolition?
A
This is when there is a reduced interest, desire or inability to initiate or persist in goal directed behaviour. The patient may have poor hygiene or grooming, a lack of persistence in work or education and a lack of energy.
25
What is affective flattening?
This is the restricted ability to respond to emotional stimuli. It is the reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expressions. They behave inappropriately in social situations.
26
What is annehdonia?
This is the lack of interest in almost all activities or pleasurable activities.
27
What is physical anhedonia?
This is the inability to experience any physical pleasure.
28
What is social anhedonia?
This is the inability to experience pleasure from interacting with others. They may withdraw and refuse to interact.
29
How is reliability measure for schizophrenia?
Inter rater reliability is used and two psychologists would diagnose schizophrenia. The diagnosis would be correlated and there needs to be a Kappa score of +0.7 or above. The DSM-V is more reliable than the ICD-10 as the symptoms in the DSM-V are outlined for each category and are specific. Reliability for diagnosing schizophrenia is more superior that other disorders. The DSM-V and ICD-10 are updated every few years so they improve in reliability and validity.
30
What is the validity of schizophrenia?
The diagnosis symptoms assess what they seem to be assessing. If they are valid then people can be confident that schizophrenia is actually diagnosed.
31
What is content validity?
This is the extent to which an assessment covers the range of symptoms of schizophrenia. Examples include interviews or a checklist of all symptoms that cover them all.
32
What is co-morbidity?
This is the extent to which two or more illnesses occur simultaneously like schizophrenia and depression. 1% of the population will suffer schizophrenia and 25% from OCD but 12% of schizophrenia patients meet the diagnostic criteria of OCD too. The boundaries between schizophrenia and mood disorders are also blurred. A full consultation of the DSM-V and ICD-10 is needed.
33
Disadvantages of co-morbidity. (2)
- validity
- alcohol
- the ICD-10 and DSM-V lack validity. There is too much overlap of symptoms for all illnesses. There is a problem making judgements. A second opinion may be needed.
- schizophrenic patients have used alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine and suffer from substance abuse before being diagnosed. It is difficult to give a reliable and valid diagnosis because some symptoms are the same for those who use drug and alcohol like lower levels of functioning and lower compliance for taking medication.
34
What is gender bias in schizophrenia?
It is dependent on gender. Males show more negative symptoms and suffer more from substance abuse, they have an earlier onset (18-25 years) and different peak ages (21 and 39). Women have an onset of 25-35 years and have peak ages of 22, 37 and 62. The accuracy of diagnosis can vary due to stereotypical beliefs about gender. The DSM argues that healthy adult behaviour is linked more to healthy male behaviour so there is gender bias.
35
Advantage of gender bias. (1)
| - hormone
- a psychologist found that females are less vulnerable. They have a sex hormone called estradiol which helps treat schizophrenia in females, especially with drug therapy. This may be a protective factor which reduces chances.
36
Disadvantage of gender bias on schizophrenia. (1)
| - validity
- females develop schizophrenia 4-10 years later and there are different types of schizophrenia that males and females are prone to.
37
What is symptom overlap in schizophrenia?
Some symptoms can also be found in other disorders which affects validity. Psychologists found that patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder had many symptoms which overlapped with schizophrenia. Other illnesses include bipolar disorder, depression, cocaine intoxication and schizotypal personality disorder.
38
Advantage of symptom overlap in schizophrenia. (1)
| - intelligence
- clinicians should conduct a brain scan or EEG to diagnose. Grey matter is where intelligence is held. Schizophrenic patients suffer from a reduction in grey matter but bipolar disorder doesn’t.
39
Disadvantage of symptom overlap. (1)
| - misdiagnosis
- This causes misdiagnosis. A psychologist found that schizophrenia had been misdiagnosed as other illnesses. This caused years of delay because they don’t relieve the necessary treatment and the illness gets worse. This increases rates of suicide and deterioration.
40
What did Ripke suggest about schizophrenia?
He suggested that schizophrenia might be polygenic, so a number of candidate genes are responsible. He did a meta analysis of studies looking at schizophrenia sufferers and candidate genes. He compared 37,000 schizophrenia sufferers to a control of 11,000. He found 108 separate gene variations were associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia. They seemed to code for the functioning of dopamine.
41
Advantage of Ripke. (1)
| - dopamine
- this is supported by the dopamine hypothesis, which suggests that high levels of dopamine in D1 and D2 hypothesis.
42
Disadvantages of Ripke. (2)
- behavioural
- diathesis
- it ignores the behavioural approach, which suggests that abnormal behaviour is learnt.
- the diathesis stress model is ignored which suggests that a genetic vulnerability and an environmental stress of causes schizophrenia.
43
What is the Gottesman and Shields twin study?
This was conducted from 1948-1993 on twins from the Maudsley twin register. 224 sets of twins (106 were MZ and 118 were DZ, and 120 were male and 104 were female) with an average age of 48 were studied. They were from a range of different ethnic minorities. This was a longitudinal study done in a London hospital over 25 years. One twin already had schizophrenia and the concordance rates were studies. They used in-depth interviews, doctors case notes and the DSM-V.
44
What were the results of the Gottesman and Shields twin study?
48% of MZ were both concordant and 17% of DZ were both concordant. This suggests that schizophrenia does have a genetic basis especially for MZ twins but it is less prominent for DZ twins.
45
Advantages of the twin study by Gottesman and Shields. (2)
- longitudinal
- pluralism
- this is a longitudinal study so pattern and trends are identified over a period of time.
- there is methodological pluralism, which makes it reliable and valid. This increases the chances of inter rater reliability.
46
Disadvantages of the twin study by Gottesman and Shields. (3)
- behavioural
- 100%
- interviews
- the behavioural approach is ignored. Identical twins usually copy and model each other’s behaviour.
- concordance rates are never 100%
- interviews are not a good way to measure for schizophrenia. Patients may have a difficulty with speech and communication. This delays diagnosis and leads to misdiagnosis. They should have a range of interviews and correlate.
47
What is dopamine?
This is a neurotransmitter that in high amounts increases motivation, excitation and pleasure.
48
What is the dopamine hypothesis?
Schizophrenia patients have more D1 and D2 receptors which increases dopamine. Antipsychotic drugs such as phenothiazine block dopamine activity and treat positive symptoms but negative symptoms remain. L- Dopa is increases dopamine levels like for Parkinson’s Disease, so it induces symptoms of schizophrenia. Drugs like amphetamines and LSD increases dopamine levels too. The hypothesis is based on post mortem studies which found an increase in dopamine receptors and dopamine levels in the left amygdala. PET scans found dopamine metabolism which is abnormal.
49
Advantage of the dopamine hypothesis. (1)
| - L-Dopa
- it was found that for patients given L-Dopa, their symptoms worsened and intensified so dopamine plays a key role.
50
Disadvantage of the dopamine hypothesis.(3)
- cause
- mania
- reductionist
- cause and effect is not clear
- dopamine is also associated with mania, like bipolar disorder. It is not alleviated by antipsychotics. Dopamine has a complex role and is associated with many illnesses. Other neurotransmitters are also involved like serotonin.
- it is biologically reductionist.
51
What are neural correlates?
Schizophrenia might develop due to structural and functional abnormalities. fMRI is shows images of the brain in action using magnetic and radio waves. Patients are given cognitive and memory tasks and this is compared with normal healthy patients.
52
What are neural correlates with negative symptoms?
Enlarged ventricles associated with the damage to the central brain and pre frontal cortex. This causes negative symptoms and schizophrenia. Avolition is controlled by the ventral striatum. The abnormality and low functioning of this area causes avolition.
53
What are neural correlates with positive symptoms?
Schizophrenia patients experiencing auditory hallucinations were compared to a control using brain scans. They had to identify pre recorded speech as their own or belonging to other people. They found lower activation in the anterior cingulate gyrus and more errors among the patients.
54
Disadvantages of neural correlates. (3)
- extent
- cause
- mania
- the extent to which the ventricles are enlarged in the brain is not significant. There is little difference.
- cause and effect is not clear.
- enlarged brain ventricles are found in sufferers of mania too. This suggests that enlarged ventricles are a vulnerability factor and don’t cause it.
55
What is the double bind theory?
This is when children are given conflicting messages from parents; they may be acting one time and then critical another time or they may say positive comments in a cruel way. This causes confusion, withdrawal and self doubt and they cannot conduct an internally coherent sense of reality. The child become trapped and fears they are doing the wrong thing. If they do something wrong their parents punish them by withdrawing their live. The child sees the world as confusing and dangerous. This induces schizophrenic symptoms.
56
What is a marital schism?
This is when parents argue in front of their children or get them involved in the argument. This causes distress and confusion, which induces strange behaviour. They may start developing schizophrenic symptoms.
57
Disadvantages of the double blind theory. (3)
- memories
- cause
- ethical
- this studies the family retrospectively. They have to think back over time and identify traits. It relies on memories so this is inaccurate.
- cause and effect cannot be established.
- there are some ethical issues. There is psychological harm is parents are told their negative communication patterns have caused a family member to get schizophrenia. This is extremely stressful to live with and it invades family privacy. The results should remain confidential and anonymous.
58
What is the expressed emotions theory?
Negative emotional interactions or climates in families play a key role in the development of schizophrenia. Expressed emotions are a set of traits whereby families talk about or to schizophrenic patients in a critical or hostile manner. These traits include criticism, hostility and emotional over involvement. It was found that families with high EE talked more than they listened which lead to patients having a low tolerance for emotional stimuli. They then became stressed and could not cope which lead to a schizophrenic episode. Schizophrenic patient living with families with high EE are 4X likely to relapse. High EE families can help predict the relapse of other mental disorders too. It is more developed in developed countries. High EE was found in 23% of families in India and 47% in London.
59
Advantage of expressed emotions. (1)
| - cultures
- it takes other cultures into account.
60
Disadvantages of expressed emotions. (3)
- contact
- cause
- biological
- schizophrenia patients have minimal contact with families. They are usually institutionalised and the amount of family contact they have is controlled. Families may also have withdrawn themselves because they are unsure how to act. So it has a minimal chance if being a factor.
- cause and effect is not clear.
- it ignores biological factors. The main causes of illnesses tend to be biological. They must examine whether family has a genetic predisposition first. It is highly unlikely that EE alone causes schizophrenia.
61
What is the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia?
This focuses on the internal mental processes and thoughts. Patients tend to have cognitive impairment, like poor attention, dysfunctional thought processes and language deficits. Faulty maladaptive thinking is linked to positive symptoms of schizophrenia like hallucinations and delusions.
62
What is metarepresentation?
This is the ability to reflect on thoughts and experiences. Schizophrenia patients have issues with self monitoring and inadequate or dysfunctional information processing, which causes symptoms like delusions of control and auditory hallucinations. They cannot track their own thoughts and claim they are alien/not their own. They are unable to recognise these cognitive distortions. They cannot distinguish between actions brought about internally and externally. They aren’t sure where these thoughts and actions stem from.
63
What are the three factors of metarepresentation?
- the inability to generate voluntary actions
- the inability to monitor voluntary actions
- the inability to monitor the beliefs and intentions.
64
What was the study done on metarepresentation?
Schizophrenia patients and healthy participants were given a two choice task. They had to guess whether the next card from a deck was going to be red or black. The schizophrenia patients gave stereotypical choices like RRRR/BBBB/RBRB. The healthy participants produced more random answers like RRBRB. The schizophrenia patients had problems generating immediate actions. They had a lack of self control caused by their impairment.
65
Advantage of metarepresentation. (1)
| - why
- it highlights why symptoms occurs, because of the impaired awareness of internally generated thoughts and actions.
66
Disadvantages of metarepresentation.(3)
- reductionist
- negative
- cause
- it is reductionist because it explains it using three basic ideas
- it ignores negative symptoms
- cause and effect is not clear.
67
What are schemes?
Schizophrenia patients have a poor combination of perception and memory. They have a breakdown between LTM (schemas) and new incoming information. Schemas help interpret and deal with current situations and we need to access them from LTM so we can respond to stimuli in the environment. Patients suffer from breakdown in cognitive processing so they are unable to predict what will happen next and often ignore some aspects of the environment and concentrate on insignificant events. They cannot access their schemas and other aspects of LTM. They may experience sensory overload, which results in disorganised and delusional thinking.
68
What is sensory overload?
This is when the patient cannot decide on which aspects of the environment to concentrate on and which to ignore.
69
Disadvantage of schemas. (3)
- nature
- ethical
- all
- it is not clear which side of the nature nurture debate it supports because it doesn’t state why or how these dysfunctional though processes occur.
- there are ethical issues because patients are unable to give informed consent as they are cognitively impaired, there is risk of psychological harm as they may feel uncomfortable, anxious or upset, and they may wish to withdraw but don’t know how.
- not all patients suffer from dysfunctional thoughts
70
What are typical antipsychotic drugs?
They were introduced in the 1950s to help patients function well and improve wellbeing. Chlorpromazine is an effective sedative that calms a patient down and is usually administered when a patient is first admitted into hospital as they are anxious. They are less popular than atypical drugs. They reduce positive symptoms caused by high dopamine levels. It acts as a dopamine antagonist, which binds to D2 receptors and reduces positive symptoms. It takes a few days to start working and must bind to 60-75% of the receptor to work.
71
What is hypodopaminergia?
This is when there are low levels of dopamine. This causes negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
72
What is hyperdopaminergia?
This is when there are high levels of dopamine. This causes positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
73
What is hyperdopaminergia?
This is when there is high levels of dopamine. This causes positive symptoms.
74
Advantages of typical antipsychotic drugs. (2)
- chlorpromazine
- cheap
- chlorpromazine was compared to a placebo in 13 trials on 1121 patients and patients had better functioning, reduced severity to symptoms, and a lower relapse rate than the placebo so it effective.
- it is cheap to produce and administer and positive effects help them lead a relatively normal life outside of an institute.
75
Disadvantages of typical antipsychotic drugs. (2)
- effect
- negative
- there are terrible side effects; dizziness, agitation, sleepiness, stiff jaw, weight gain and itchy skin. Long term effects could be tardive dyskinesia, which is involuntary strange movements of the mouth muscles and chin. This is uncomfortable.
- they don’t have an effect on negative symptoms so it is partially effective.
76
What are atypical antipsychotics drugs?
They block dopamine activity by acting on D2 receptors. They temporarily occupy the rapidly dissociate. This then allows normal transmission of dopamine as low levels of dopamine cause other illnesses like Parkinson’s Disease. They also affect serotonin activity by binding to serotonin receptors to increase levels and improve mood. An example is Clozapine, which is given to high risk suicide patients. They improve mood, reduce anxiety and depression and improve cognitive functioning.
77
Advantage of atypical antipsychotic drugs. (1)
| - rapidly
- it’s is the most effective drug and reduces symptoms more rapidly than other treatments.
78
Disadvantages of atypical antipsychotic drugs. (2)
- root
- resistant
- it doesn’t get to the root cause. They just treat the symptoms and the symptoms may return.
- there may be individual differences. Some patients are resistant to clozapine. They may work better for some people but not other so it works on a trial and error basis.
79
What is CBT?
This focuses on changing negative thought patterns patients may have, and challenges them to change negative behaviour into positive ones. It lasts 5-20 sessions. It is recommended that all patients have CBTp with drug therapy. There is usually a discussion about how likely beliefs are to be true and less threatening possibilities are discussed. They make sense of their hallucinations and delusions. It doesn’t get rid of symptoms but it’s helps patients cope more effectively with them. Homework may be set to improve functioning.
80
What are the stages of CBT for psychosis (CBTp)?
- assessment- patient expresses thoughts and experiences and goals are discussed.
- engagement- explanations for distress are discussed
- ABC model- used to dispute and rationalise beliefs
- normalisation- tell them normal people have these experiences too
- critical collaboration analysis- questions are asked to help the patient understand their illogical conclusions.
- develop alternative explanation- new ideas constructed to replace.
81
How is the ABC model used in CBTp?
The activating event causes emotional and behavioural changes. This leads to negative beliefs and consequences. Therapists dispute these beliefs and help rationalise them.
82
Advantages of CBT. (3)
- drug
- clinicians
- ethical
- It is most effective combines with drug therapy.
- CBT clinicians are highly trained and effective. They are most able, experienced and trained because they can show empathy, respect, honesty and unconditional positive regard.
- there are less ethical issues as drugs because the patients feels in control and cause side effects. There is no psychological harm and patients have more free will. It is also easier for them to give fully informed consent.
83
Disadvantages of CBT. (2)
- agitated
- expensive
- it is not suitable for some patients who may become agitated, paranoid or disoriented. Thus should be the next best option if they refuse to take drugs. They may become extremely disturbed.
- it is more expensive and time consuming than drug therapy. Patients may give up on the treatment.
84
What is family therapy?
This involves the whole family and lasts 9 months to a year, approximately 10 sessions. It is recommended alongside drug therapy. Therapists talk openly about symptoms, behaviours and treatments to all the family. It is based on the idea that family dysfunction is linked to the development of schizophrenia. The family are encouraged to support each other.
85
What are the aims of family therapy?
To lower EE, decrease criticism, decrease family guilt and responsibility for causing the illness, reduce relapse rates, reduce symptoms, improve positive communication, increase tolerance, increase formation of alliances, and increase the development of skills that can be used after the therapy ends.
86
Advantages of family therapy. (2)
- NICE
- impact
- NICE found that it can save on costs if it’s done alongside drug therapy as this reduces relapse rates.
- an analysis on 50 studies found that it has a 60% impact on coping and problem solving.
87
Disadvantages of family therapy. (3)
- live
- honest
- root
- it is useful for patients that live with their parents but not for those that are older and don’t.
- it requires everyone to be open and honest and some families may not be willing to share sensitive information. This leads to high EE because of the tension created.
- it doesn’t get to the root cause, it just helps the families deal with the symptoms better.
88
What is token economy?
This is based on the idea that schizophrenia develops via maladaptive learning. It is used to change unwanted behaviour into more desirable behaviour so they can recover. It is used alongside drug therapy and works more effectively in an institutional setting. The patient is rewarded for not displaying strange of unusual behaviour. Tokens should be given immediately after a desirable behaviour is shown. They should be given for behaving in a socially appropriate way. Normal behaviour is positively reinforced and tokens can be later exchanged for privileges. It aims to manage the symptoms not treat them.
89
Advantages of token economy. (2)
- safe
- flexible
- it facilitates a safe and stable therapeutic environment. It reduces patient and staff injuries from violent episode, decreases staff absences and decreases emergency incidents.
- it is flexible so it can be easily tailored to meet the needs of an individual patient and it can be used for a variety of sufferers.
90
Disadvantages of token economy. (2)
- real
- ethics
- it cannot be applied to the real world as a token is no longer given when desirable behaviour is shown. Patients get used to receiving rewards so the positive behaviour may stop so it is not very effective.
- there are ethical issues. Desirable behaviours are often rewarded with more food or free time. Humans have a basic right to food and freedom. Patients are manipulated to change their behaviours. They may be so disturbed that they cannot give fully informed consent and cannot withdraw either.
91
What is the Interactionist approach?
This focuses on the combination of biological and psychological causes of schizophrenia. It focuses on treatments as combinations too.
92
What is the diathesis stress model?
This suggests that a genetic vulnerability and an environmental stressor cause the development of schizophrenia. A psychologist studied children born after a flu epidemic. If the biological mother had a flu between the first 4-6 months of pregnancy then there was an 88% chance of schizophrenia. The flu caused defects in neural development in the brain, which lead to brain damage and problems in dopamine functioning. There was also an interaction of many other factors. Other psychologists suggested that a family history of schizophrenia is a genetic link and an environmental stressor like family dysfunction is also needed.
93
Advantages of the diathesis stress model. (2)
- cortisol
- 100%
- psychologists have found that stress is a factor. Psychologists found that cortisol levels were high immediately after the onset of schizophrenia but low when they were recovering.
- genes alone cannot cause schizophrenia as concordance rates are never 100%.
94
Disadvantage of the diathesis stress model. (1)
| - cope
- there are a range of stressors that can cause schizophrenia. It just depends on how well a person can cope with and tolerate the stress.
95
What is the Interactionist approach to treating schizophrenia?
This combines psychological and biological treatments. The combination should be best suited to the patient. Drugs are usually given first and then the psychological treatment starts. The most common in the UK is CBT and drug therapy. 103 schizophrenia patients with high EE families were offered a variety of treatments to check relapse rates and the combination of drug therapy and family therapy gave the best results. Another psychologist found that the combination of drugs and psychological therapy improved insight into the illness, gave a better quality of life and social functioning to patients in the early stages of the illness. They were less likely to discontinue or relapse.
96
Advantages of the Interactionist approach to treating schizophrenia. (2)
- combines
- cheaper
- it combines biological and cognitive therapies that help teach better functioning social skills that are useful and applicable.
- it is cheaper in the long term as relapse rates are reduced.
97
Disadvantage of the Interactionist approach to treating schizophrenia. (1)
- effects
- drug therapy leads to side effects which interferes with the CBT. Patients are more delusional, less trusting and more resistant.
