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13 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Describe the negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia. |
Negative symptoms: -weak or absent signs of emotion, speech, and socialization Positive symptoms: -delusions -hallucinations -disorganized speech -disordered thinking |
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Describe the conditions resembling schizophrenia, with which it may be confused. |
Conditions resembling schizophrenia: - Mood disorder with psychotic features - Substance abuse - Brain damage - Undetected hearing deficits - Huntington's disease - Nutritional abnormalities |
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Describe the demographic factors related to schizophrenia. |
-1% worldwide -declining prevalence (since the mid-1900s in many countries) -more common in cities than in rural areas -more common in the United States and Europe than in most Third World countries -more common for men than women (7:5) -more severe & earlier onset in men |
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Describe the evidence for a genetic contribution to schizophrenia. |
-high concordance for monozygotic twins -more common in the person's biological relatives than adopting relatives -children of a mother with schizophrenia have a moderately high probability of schizophrenia -more than a dozen genes (that appear to be more common in people with schizophrenia) |
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Describe the evidence for the neurodevelopmental hypothesis. |
-Several kinds of prenatal or neonatal difficulties are linked to later schizophrenia -minor brain abnormalities that originate early in life -It is plausible that abnormalities of early development could impair behavior in adulthood |
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The areas with the most consistent signs of abnormality in schizophrenics include the: |
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex |
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Research suggests that the brain abnormalities of schizophrenics develop: |
early and then remain fairly steady |
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If the brain is affected prenatally or neonatally, it could be that it takes many years before the symptoms of schizophrenia are evident because the: |
affected areas are among the slowest to mature |
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What happens when schizophrenics stop taking neuroleptic drugs? |
Tardive dyskinesia may continue |
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Describe the evidence for and against the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. |
Evidence for: - (large, repeated use of amphetamine, methamphetamine, or cocaine induces) substance-induced psychotic disorder (characterized by hallucinations and delusions, the positive symptoms of schizophrenia) -twice as many D2receptors occupied as normal -the greater the amount of D2 receptor activation in the prefrontal cortex, the greater the cognitive impairment Evidence against: -the antipsychotic effects of drugs that block dopamine are compatible with either the excess-dopamine hypothesis or the deficient-glutamate hypothesis |
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Describe the evidence for the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia. |
- associated with lower release of glutamate - fewer receptors in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus - phencyclidine (PCP) inhibits glutamate receptors at larger doses, it produces both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia |
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Describe the potential role for glycine and for metabotropic glutamate receptors in treating schizophrenia. |
- Glycine increases the effectiveness of glutamate -increase the activity at NMDA synapses without overstimulating glutamate -increases the effects of other anti-psychotic drugs (especially negative symptoms) - drugs that stimulate particular kinds of metabotropic glutamate receptors have shown much promise in treating schizophrenia |
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Describe one undesired effect of antipsychotic drugs and the mechanisms of action of the newer drugs that minimize these effects. |
-tardive dyskinesia (tremors and other involuntary movements that develop gradually and to varying degrees among different patients) -antipsychotics block dopamine neurons in the mesostriatal system (that leads to the basal ganglia) -newer drugs have less effect on dopamine type D2 receptors but more strongly antagonize serotonin type 5-HT2 receptors and increase release of glutamate |
