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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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A01 Genetic Explanation of Schizophrenia |
Genetics: - Several genes contribute to schizophrenia - The closer related you are to someone with schizophrenia, the more at risk you are
Twin Studies: - Gottesman: The closer the genetic relationship is, the higher the concordance rate - Identical twins (monozygotic) have a 47℅ concordance rate
- Torrey: 28℅ concordance rate
- Gottesman & Shields: 5 twins studies reviewed, 72℅ - 91℅ concordance rates
- Kety & Ingraham: 10× higher in genetically predisposed schizophrenics that have been adopted by normal parents than normal adopted children, suggesting its genetics not the environment. |
"We are family..." |
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A02 Genetic Explanation of Schizophrenia |
:) :(- Twins studies can accurately show how schizophrenia affects people with the same genetic code but fails to take other factors such as the environment into account.
:( - Studies find it impossible to isolate genetics from environment factors
:( - Fails to take environmental factors that could affect schizophrenia into account so its reductionist as it only accepts genetic factors.
:( - Twin studies have such a variation on concordance rates that it is impossible to determine a solid cause from such fluctuations
:( - Kety and Ingrahams have a poor sample which makes it less generalisable to the general population
:) :( - Genetic screening could be used as a practical application to help treat schizophrenia before it becomes too severe. However, it could result in identifying vulnerable people and discrimination could occur. |
Twins, environment and genetics. FIGHT! |
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A01 Schizophrenia Explanation - The Dopamine Hypothesis |
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with schizophrenia. There could be different causes for schizophrenia according to this definition:
- excess dopamine - excess dopamine receptors - over sensitivity to dopamine
LSD releases dopamine causing schizophrenic symptoms. Parkinson's, which is caused by a lack of dopamine, is treated with a drug to increase levels, and this can result in schizophrenic symptoms. Medication for schizophrenics like Thorazine focus on lowering dopamine levels and can alleviate symptoms.
Genetic factors may be involved in creating a faulty dopamine system.
Davis: - High levels of dopamine is associated with positive symptoms - Low levels of dopamine is associated with negative symptoms |
Loadsa drugs |
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A02 Dopamine Explanation of Schizophrenia |
:) :( - PET scans provide evidence for dopamine hypothesis. Wong found double the amount of dopamine receptors in schizophrenic patients than non-schizophrenic. However, later PET scans haven't replicated the results. :) :( - Iversen & Bird found an excess of dopamine in schizophrenic limbic systems in postmortems. This suggests it is involved in schizophrenia. However, the schizophrenics had been taking antipsychotic drugs prior to their death, which could have affected the results. :( - Drugs that block dopamine don't always work with everyone, suggesting that other explanations other than the dopamine hypothesis may be responsible for schizophrenia. :( - Drugs only tend to act on the positive symptoms and not the negative symptoms suggesting that although dopamine may be a factor, it cannot fully explain all schizophrenic symptoms. :( - It is almost impossible to determine whether the schizophrenia causes the excess dopamine or the other way around. :( - Much of the research into the dopamine hypothesis is correlational so it is impossible to say that it causes schizophrenia. We can only say that there is a link as there could be hidden third factors that may have caused the excess dopamine. |
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(A01) Neuroanatomical Factors |
- May have abnormalities in the structure of their brains - Frontal lobes (controlling higher intellectual functioning) are smaller - Reduced brain blood flow to frontal lobe - Schizophrenics often have symmetrical prefrontal cortexes - Enlarged blood ventricles (only for men, not women, and only with schizophrenics unresponsive to treatment) - Abnormalities have been found in the limbic system and the corpus collosum (like Rain Man) |
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(A02) Neuroanatomical Factors |
:) - Kim found that schizophrenics have small frontal lobes and abnormal blood flow in certain areas of the brain. :) - Torrey found that enlarged ventricles were present in the brains of schizophrenics :) - Research has found 2 different types of schizophrenia according to the biological explanation 1.) A genetically inherited disorder which causes dopamine dysfunction, characterised by positive symptoms 2.) A neurodevelopmental disorder arising from prenatal issues (e.g. infection/complications whilst giving birth) :) - Crow found that not all schizophrenics have enlarged ventricles. |
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(A01) Cognitive Explanations |
- Sees faulty thought processes as the cause of schizophrenia - Could occur directly/indirectly (for example brain abnormalities causing the faulty thought processes. - Can't filter out sensory data, leading to sensory overload - Helmsley believed schizophrenics had a breakdown between new and present data. - Normally, information that we have stored is used in conjunction with new information to help us realise what we should do next - Schizophrenics' schemas aren't activated properly, so they have thoughts "telling" them what to do, but don't realise that they've come from their own memory. - Believe that the thoughts have risen externally, and therefore causes delusions and hallucinations - Can't suspend thoughts - Have issues performing actions based on conscious intent - Positive symptoms - come from inability to distinguish between internal thoughts and external speech - Negative symptoms - come from problems separating conscious thoughts from automatic responses. |
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(A02) Cognitive Explanation |
:) - Liddle found that people with schizophrenia perform poorly in the Stroop test, which required a breakdown between conscious thought and automatic responses. Schizophrenics cannot restrain automatic thoughts
:) - Frith found that when schizophrenics had been asked to predict the colour of the cards coming up next, they mostly had a structured pattern e.g. red black red black, all reds, or all blacks, showing that they couldn't base a decision bases on past memories.
:) - Gartey suggested that schizophrenia should be considered in terms of linking the psychological and the biological explanation together, with the cognitive being an important link in the chain.
:) - Kane suggested that "cognitive impairment" might be a useful diagnostic condition for schizophrenia |
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(A01) Behavioural Explanation |
- Schizophrenia is a learned condition - Rewarded for their odd behaviour with attention and encouraged to keep going with it (operant conditioning) - Can't explain what caused behaviour in first place tho - Schizophrenics often copy each other cos it runs in families - Retreating into an inner world in rewarding for schizophrenics - The Conspiratorial Model suggests that people labeled as schizophrenics will act up to their label - Rosenhan's study - psychiatrists unable to tell whether healthy patients were schizophrenic or not supporting the idea that classifications and diagnoses are unreliable |
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(A02) Behavioural Explanation |
:) - Scheff found that schizophrenics become aware of their label and comply with it unconsciously at first, and then consciously :) - Ullman found that psychiatric hospitals reinforced the idea of patients being schizophrenic and their condition worsened as the staff fussed over them :) - Tarrier found that the behavioural model was useful when designing intervention as it had lower relapse rates than usual, supporting the idea of it being a successful model. :) - Token economy therapy has been met with great success inside hospital settings and institutes. |
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