Week 11 Chapter 9 Schizophrenia Revision Caff Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Week 11 Chapter 9 Schizophrenia Revision Caff Deck (14)
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1
Q

What do the symptoms of schizophrenia involve?

A
  • Disturbances in several areas including:
  • thought, perception, & attention
  • Motor behaviour
  • emotion
  • life functioning
2
Q

How are the symptoms of schizophrenia most often divided?

A

Positive Symptoms: *excesses & distortions
-delusions & hallucinations

Negative Symptoms: *behavioural deficits
-avolition, asociality, anhedonia, blunted affect, alogia

Disorganised Symptoms:
*disorganised speech & behaviour

Motor Symptoms: *Catatonia

3
Q

What is the evidence for genetic transmission of schizophrenia?

A

evidence is impressive & comes from:
*Family & twin studies
*adoption studies
Having a parent with schizophrenia (coupled with childhood problems) is strongly associated with developing the disorder in early adulthood

4
Q

Which genes have been associated with the development of schizophrenia?

A
  • DTNBP1, NGR1, COMT, BDNF
  • Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have found rare genetic mutations called copy number variations (CNV’s) to be associated with schizophrenia
5
Q

What is the evidence for neurotransmitters in the development of schizophrenia?

A
  • Increased sensitivity of dopamine receptors in the brain is associated to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (delusions & hallucinations)
  • the negative symptoms are thought to be related to Dopamine underactivity in the prefrontal cortex *Other neurotransmitters such as serotonin, glutamate, & GABA, are also involved
6
Q

In what way are the brains of people with schizophrenia often different to people without schizophrenia?

A

People with schizophrenia often have:

  • enlarged ventricles
  • problems with the prefrontal cortex
  • problems with the temporal cortex & surrounding regions
7
Q

What is thought to be the cause of some of these structural abnormalities?

A
  • Maternal viral infection during the 1st trimester of pregnancy or
  • from damage due to a difficult birth

The combination of brain development during adolescence, stress & the HPA axis are important for understanding why symptoms typically emerge during late adolescence, even if a brain disturbance has been in place since gestation

8
Q

What other factors can contribute to the development of schizophrenia for those with a genetic predisposition?

A

*Cannabis use during adolescence

9
Q

What SES are people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia likely to be in & why is this so?

A
  • People with schizophrenia are likely to be in low SES

* this is due to the downward social mobility caused by the disorder

10
Q

What factors contribute to a relapse for people with schizophrenia?

A
  • High levels of expressed emotion (EE) in families

* increases in general life stress

11
Q

What have retrospective developmental studies found and why is it difficult to interpret the findings?

A

Retrospective developmental studies have identified problems in childhood that were there prior to the onset of schizophrenia
*Because these studies were not designed to predict schizophrenia, it is difficult to interpret these findings

12
Q

What have clinical high risk studies identified?

A

Clinical high risk studies have been used to identify young people with mild symptoms who are at higher risk for developing schizophrenia spectrum disorders

13
Q

What are the common treatments available for schizophrenia?

A
  • 1st generation Antipsychotic drugs (phenothiazines) used since 1950’s - have serious side effects
  • 2nd generation anti-psychotic drugs (Clozapine & Risperidone) are as effective & have different side effects
  • Drugs alone are not sufficient, people require interventions that teach them effective ways of coping with life challenges
14
Q

What are some of the talking therapies used with people who have schizophrenia?

A

*Family therapy
aimed at reduced high levels of expressed emotion can prevent relapse

*social skills training
to meet the challenges of everyday life

*CBT
To change disordered thinking

  • Cognitive Remediation Therapies:
  • improve cognitive skills
  • aid memory & attention, problem solving too