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Schizophrenia key terms Flashcards

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1
Q

What is schizophrenia?

A

A type of psychosis, a severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality.

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2
Q

What are positive symptoms?

A

Symptoms which reflect an excess or distortion of normal functioning.

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3
Q

What are negative symptoms?

A

Symptoms which reflect a loss of normal functioning.

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4
Q

What are 2 positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

A

Hallucinations and delusions.

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5
Q

What are 2 negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

A

Speech poverty and avolition.

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6
Q

What are hallucinations?

A

Sensory experiences of stimuli that have either no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there.

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7
Q

What are delusions?

A

Erroneous beliefs that hold no basis in reality.

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8
Q

What is speech poverty?

A

The lessening of speech fluency and productivity, which reflects slowing or blocked thoughts.

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9
Q

What is avolition?

A

Loss of motivation to carry out tasks, resulting in lowered activity levels.

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10
Q

What are delusions of grandeur?

A

A false impression of one’s own importance.

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11
Q

What is reliability?

A

The consistency of measurements. We would expect to produce the same data if taken on successive occasions.

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12
Q

What is validity?

A

Refers to whether an observed effect is a genuine one.

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13
Q

What are two factors which bring into question the reliability of diagnosing schizophrenia?

A
  1. Cultural differences
  2. Inter-rater reliability
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14
Q

What are 3 factors which bring into question the validity of diagnosing schizophrenia?

A
  1. Symptom overlap
  2. Co-morbidity
  3. Gender bias
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15
Q

What is co-morbidity?

A

The extent that two (or more) conditions or diseases occur simultaneously in a patient.

E.g. a patient having both schizophrenia and depression.

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16
Q

What is symptom overlap?

A

Symptoms of a disorder may not be unique to that disorder but may also be found in other disorders, making accurate diagnosis difficult.

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17
Q

How do cultural differences affect reliability of diagnosing schizophrenia?

A

Hearing voices may be more acceptable in African cultures due to cultural beliefs in communication with ancestors- schizophrenia may be inconsistently diagnosed between cultures.

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18
Q

What is inter-rater reliability in relation to the diagnosis of mental health disorders?

A

The extent to which two or more mental health professionals arrive at the same diagnosis for the same patients.

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19
Q

How does inter-rater reliability affect reliability of diagnosing schizophrenia?

A

Schizophrenia has been shown to have poor inter-rater reliability- Whaley (2001)= inter-rater reliability correlations of 0.11.

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20
Q

How does gender bias affect the validity of diagnosing schizophrenia?

A

Males are more likely to be diagnosed than females as females appear to function better- means schizophrenia could be unrecognised in females.

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21
Q

What are 2 biological explanations for schizophrenia?

A

Genetic factors and neural correlates.

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22
Q

What are genetic factors?

A

Inherited factors make certain individuals more likely to develop a behaviour or mental disorder.

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23
Q

What evidence shows support for genetic influences?

A

Gottesman (1991)- higher concordance rates between first-degree relatives.

Children with 2 schizophrenic parents= 46% concordance rates, Children with 1 schizophrenic parent= 13%, Siblings= 9%.

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24
Q

What are neural correlates?

A

Changes in neuronal events and mechanisms that result in the characteristic symptoms of a behaviour or mental disorder.

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25
What is the dopamine hypothesis?
Claims that an excess of the neurotransmitter dopamine in certain regions of the brain is associated with the positive symptoms of schizophrenia and lack of dopamine with negative symptoms.
26
What is hyperdopaminergia?
Excessive levels of dopamine in the subcortex and Broca’s area.
27
What is hypodopaminergia?
Low levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex.
28
What are two other changes in the brain linked to symptoms of schizophrenia?
1. Reduced activity in the ventral striatum (reward system)- linked to avolition 2. Enlarged ventricles- linked to negative symptoms.
29
What evidence has shown the role of neural correlates in the development of schizophrenia?
Juckel et al. (2006)- found lower levels of activity in ventral striatum in patients compared to controls.
30
What evidence has shown the role of the dopamine hypothesis in the development of schizophrenia?
Successful drug treatments which change levels of dopamine activity- antipsychotic drugs (reduce dopaminergic activity) eliminate positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
31
What are 2 psychological explanations for schizophrenia?
1. Family dysfunction 2. Cognitive explanation.
32
What is family dysfunction?
Abnormal processes within a family which act as risk factors for the development and maintenance of schizophrenia.
33
What are three risk factors within the family which could trigger schizophrenia?
1. Double bind theory- poor communication 2. The schizophrenogenic mother- cold parenting 3. Expressed emotion- high levels of expressed, negative emotion.
34
What traits does a schizophrenogenic mother have and how can this lead to schizophrenia?
Cold, rejecting and controlling= climate of tensions and secrecy which leads to distrust which could then lead to paranoid delusions.
35
What is the double bind theory?
Children are given conflicting messages from parents e.g. mother telling son she loves him and turning away in disgust= confusion in child.
36
How can the double-bind theory lead to schizophrenia?
Mixed messages prevent development of internally coherent construction of reality= manifestation of schizophrenic symptoms (psychosis).
37
What is expressed emotion?
Family communication style- high levels of negative emotions are expressed leading to hostile climate.
38
What does expressed emotion lead to?
Higher relapse rates.
39
What is the cognitive explanation for schizophrenia?
Proposes that abnormalities in a person’s thought processes (dysfunctional thought processing) are a key component of schizophrenia.
40
What is dysfunctional thought processing?
Cognitive habits or beliefs that cause the individual to evaluate information inappropriately.
41
What are two kinds of dysfunctional thought processing and which symptoms do they cause?
1. Dysfunction in meta-representation= hallucinations and delusions 2. Dysfunction in central control= disorganised speech.
42
What is central control?
The cognitive ability to suppress automatic responses whilst we perform deliberate actions.
43
How does dysfunction in our central control lead to schizophrenic symptoms?
Inability to suppress automatic thoughts and speech triggered by other thoughts- causes disorganised speech and thought disorder.
44
What is metarepresentation?
Cognitive ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour and allow us insight into our own intentions and interpret actions of others.
45
How does dysfunction in our metarepresentation lead to schizophrenic symptoms?
- Disrupts our ability to recognise our own actions and thoughts as being carried out by ourselves rather than someone else= hallucinations and delusions.
46
What evidence shows the role of family dysfunction in the development of schizophrenia?
Read et al. (2005)- 69% of women in-patients with schizophrenia had a history of physical abuse, sexual abuse or both.
47
What evidence shows the role of dysfunctional thought processes in the development of schizophrenia?
Stirling et al. (2006)- compared schizophrenic patients with non-patients on range of cognitive tasks. ## Footnote Stroop test- patients took twice as long to name the ink colour.
48
What are antipsychotics?
Drugs used to reduce the intensity of positive symptoms of psychotic conditions.
49
What are the two types of antipsychotics?
Typical and atypical.
50
What are typical antipsychotics?
The first generation of antipsychotic drugs. They target dopamine reducing the positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
51
What are atypical antipsychotics?
The second generation of antipsychotic drugs. They target dopamine and serotonin, reducing positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
52
How do typical antipsychotic drugs work?
They act as dopamine antagonists in that they bind to dopamine receptors at the postsynaptic neuron and block the action of dopamine.
53
What is a dopamine antagonist?
Something that works against dopamine.
54
How do atypical antipsychotic drugs work?
Also act as dopamine antagonists, but they also block the action of serotonin.
55
What is an example of a typical antipsychotic?
Chlorpromazine.
56
What are 2 examples of an atypical antipsychotic?
Clozapine and Risperidone.
57
Which type of antipsychotic causes severe side effects?
Typical antipsychotics.
58
What are 3 psychological therapies for schizophrenia?
1. Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis 2. Family therapy 3. Token economies.
59
What is cognitive behavioural therapy?
A combination of cognitive therapy (way of changing maladaptive thoughts and beliefs) and behavioural therapy (way of changing behaviour in response to these thoughts and beliefs).
60
What is the main aim of CBTp?
Helps patients to identify irrational thoughts and challenge them by reality testing.
61
What framework does CBTp make use of?
Ellis' ABCDE model.
62
How does the ABCDE model work?
Identify activating events (A) which trigger irrational beliefs (B) and cause emotional and behavioural consequences(C). The beliefs can be disputed (D) and changed leading to an effect (E) which is the restructured belief.
63
What is normalisation?
Therapist shares with patient that many people have unusual experiences making them feel less isolated and stigmatised.
64
What behavioural assignments can be set during CBTp?
Tasks to improve general level of functioning- shower every day, go out and socialise with friends.
65
What is family therapy?
A range of interventions carried out with members of a family of someone with a mental disorder - improves their communication and reduces stress of living as a family.
66
What is the main aim of family therapy?
To reduce relapse rates.
67
What are token economies?
A form of therapy where desirable behaviours are encouraged by selective reinforcement. Rewards (tokens) are given as secondary reinforcers, which can then be exchanged for primary reinforcers- food or privileges.
68
What is the interactionist approach to schizophrenia (diathesis-stress model)?
Explains schizophrenia as the result of an interaction between biological (the diathesis) and environmental (stress) influences.
69
What does Meehl’s (1962) original diathesis-stress model state?
That diathesis (vulnerability) is entirely genetic and the result of a single schizogene which leads to a biologically based schizotypic personality (sensitivity to stress).
70
What does the modern understanding of diathesis entail?
Many genes each can increase genetic vulnerability, not just one gene. Also diathesis can be more than just genetics- e.g. psychological trauma (child abuse).
71
What does the term diathesis mean?
Vulnerability.
72
What combination of treatment would an interactionist model use?
Antipsychotics and CBT.
73
What is one study which shows support for an interactionist approach for schizophrenia?
Tienari (2004).
74
What were the results of Tienari's study?
Found that child-rearing style only affected the development of schizophrenia in children who had a high genetic risk.
75
What is one study which shows the effectiveness of a combination of treatment for schizophrenia?
Tarrier et al. (2004).
76
What were the findings of Tarrier et al.'s study?
Patients who were given a combination of either medication and CBT or medication and supportive counselling showed lower symptom levels than those who had medication only.
77
Why is the original diathesis-stress model oversimplified?
Claims that schizophrenia is caused by one single 'schizogene', whereas research has shown there are multiple genes involved. Also other factors other than genes that can lead to a diathesis for schizophrenia.

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