schizophrenia AO3

Biological explanation- dopamine

-supporting evidence of the dopamine hypothesis, high levels of dopamine found in post mortem examinations of Sz brains compared to control group

-reserach found that dryg treatments whichnormalise dopamine levels worked better than the placebo. Treatment shows support of dopamine hypothesis

-treatments that include increased dopamine are associated with schizophrenia symptoms e.g. parkinsons disease

-biologically reductionist

-biological determinism

-diathesis stress is better to explain than just biology

biological explanation- genetic

-gottesman study ob Sz concordance rates of Mz and Dz twins. Findings show MZ twins= 48% abd DZ=17%. The percentage being higher in MZ twins shows Sz must have a genetic influence.

-The fact that the MZ twins concordance rate isn’t 100% shows there must be a environmental influence, not fully nature.

-biologically reductionist

-biological determinism

-diathesis stress is better to explain than just biology

-neural correlates conflicting evidence. not all patients have enlarged ventricles.

psychological explanation - family dysfunction

-58% of Sz patients relapsed in high EE households.

-research into family dysfunction has led to the development of family therapy. Family therapy is a commonly used theraapy to help Sz families.

-socially senetive as it balmes the family members or the mother specifically for caused or incrasing the symptoms of the Sz patient.

-cause and effect unable to distinguish. Don’t know whether EE causes higher levels in Sz or if Sz causes higher levels in EE.

-Bergner found that Sz patients reported a higher number if double bind statements by their mothers than non- Sz patients.

Psychological explanation - cognitive explanations

-Evidence by Stirling found in the Stroop test Sz patients took longer to identify the colours of the colour words compared to the controls. shows there is cognitive issues for Sz patients

-issues with cause and effect. Don’t know if dysfunction thinking causes Sz or does Sz cause dysfunctional thinking .

-incomplete explanation. what causes these deficits? However, there are some links with dopamine been made

biological treatments -antipsychotics

-Supporting research by Cole finding 75% improvement for Sz patients on antipsychotics compared to the placebo group

-harmful side effects e.g. Tardive Dyskinesia by typical drugs

-the research and development into antipsychotics has led to a reduction in hospitak stays which makes it less expensive for the economy.

-cheap, easy to distribute

-doesn’t fix the cause, only alleviates the symptoms

psychological treatment- token economy

-possibly seen as unethical. Sz patients can almost be seen as being punished due to not having free will to these rewards due to their diagnosis.

-short term benefits. despite it may work into a psychiatric hospital, it may not replicable to the real world situations

-supporting research. Alloyn and arzin demonstrated an effective token economy programme with chronic Sz patients

-easy to make, don’t need specialists

psychological trestment- family therapy

-family therapy has no side effects compared to drug treatment

-effectiveness difficut to measure due to subjective measurment of EE

-economic implications extra costs are decreased due to the reduction in hospitalisation

-doesn’t reach the cause. doesn’t offer a cure but it does improve the quality of life of the patient.

psychological trestment- CBT

-no side effcts compared to the drug therapy

difficut to judge effectiveness as patients often often take drugs as well

-CBT gives patients control and tools to continue therapy themselves.

-reduces numbers in hospitalisation

interactionist approach - explanations

-this is a more holisitic (less reductionist ) viewpoint on explaining Sz

-the original Diathesis stress model is too simplistic

-Gottesman not 100% but is 48% shows its an interaction of them both

interactionist approach treatment

-could be expensive due to the combination of two types of treatments.

-extra costs are offset by longer lasting effects

-combination of CBT and drugs is good because the CBT helps to strengthen the patien't;s continuation of their medication, reduces symptoms more and reduces relapse rates

classification and diagnosis

-Researcher told two psychiaatrists to idependtely diagnose 100 patients using the DSM and ICD. One psychiatrist diagnosed 26 with ICD and the other diagnosed 44 with the DSM.

-comorbidity (that two or more conditions occur together). Sz is commonly diagnosed with other conditions. e.g. research shown hald the people with Sz have depression. It’s hard to classify if something is Sz or something else.

-Symptom overlap. someone might have bipolar disorder but have be classified and diagnosed with Sz due to similar symptoms.