What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
Hallucinations- perceptions of reality that aren’t real. Many people with Sz report auditory hallucinations such as hearing voices or sounds. However hallucinations do have sensory modality meaning that they can come in the form of any of the 5 senses. Kathryn Lewandowski (2009) estimated that 20% of people with Sz have tactile hallucinations whereby they feel like something is touching their skin.
Delusions- These are beliefs that are not real. Usually experienced with no evidence to offer in support of delusion. Most common delusions are persecution (the belief that a person or group are following the sufferer as they are believed to be a threat) or grandiosity. (the individual believes that they are special or powerful, have superior knowledge.
Disordered thinking- the person’s thoughts and discourse seem to jump from one topic to another and show no logic of discussion. The comments of someone with Sz may be hard to follow or their speech may be muddled and incoherent which can be difficult for those trying to communicate with them.
Catatonic behaviour- can be fast and useless movement. They may make unexpected gestures and make loud utterances. Echopraxia may also occur where the persons mimics the movement of the people around them.
what are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Alogia- Sometimes known as speech poverty. People with Sz may have a reduction in the amount they talk and their breadth of vocabulary.
Avolition- People are no longer concerned or are indifferent to their surroundings and the life that is going on around them. They don’t enjoy activities that they once loved and there is a lack of goal directed behaviour
Anhedonia- an individual does not react appropriately to pleasurable experiences e.g a lana del rey fan may not show joy when they get tickets to her concert (something is very wrong)
Flatness of Effect- The individuals appear to have no emotion. They may show little or no facial expressions or may grimace or laugh in inappropriate situations. They may be percieved as apathetic and may not smile or laugh when delivering a joke. Speech patterns can be monotonous and flat
Catatonic Behaviour- individual may remain immobile for long period of time in seemingly uncomfortable positions. If/when someone attempts to move them they may resist and maintain a rigid posture.
Summarise the mesocortical pathway
This pathway carries signals from the ventral tegmental area to the frontal lobe. This nerve pathway is vital in emotional responses, motivation and cognition. Kenneth Davis et al (1991) note that too little dopamine (hypofunction) is evident in D1 receptors of the frontal lobe of many individuals
Summarise the mesolimbic pathway
This pathway carries signals from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens. Too much dopamine either from neurons that fire too often or too quickly, cause overstimulation and positive symptoms of schiz such as hallucinations or delusions. Antipsychotic drugs reduce dopaminergic neurotransmission and reduce dopamine in this pathway and ultimately reduce the positive symptoms of many people with sz.
Describe the characteristics of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a major psychotic disorder that can cause someone to experience a lack of contact with reality. Most people are found to be diagnosed with this between the ages of 15 to 35 and both women and men are affected equally. Schizophrenia is a long term condition but patients may experience different symptoms and different levels of severity.
According to Kurt Schneider (1959) categorised symptoms of Schizophrenia into positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms consist of new behaviour trait(s) that is added to the individual that distorts their normal function. These symptoms include, delusions, disorganised speech/thinking and catatonic behaviour. A person must experience two positive symptoms for at least a month to be schizophrenia, For example, they may experience by believing the government has planted a chip in their brain controlling their thoughts and hallucinations by talking to themselves /responding to voices no one else can hear.
Negative symptoms consist of behaviour trait(s) that is removed from an individual , contributing to a lack of normal function. These symptoms include apathy (no emotion), a flat effect. social withdrawal, alogia etc. For example, someone with schizophrenia may rarely leave the house or seem uninterested in hobbies they used to enjoy. This can affect their daily since they may struggle to maintain their relationships and can negatively impact their social skills, decreasing their levels of happiness
Evaluate the Dopamine Hypothesis
+ One advantage of the dopamine hypothesis is that it’s useful in developing drug treatments for schizophrenia: For example, Cole et al (1964) developed one of the first controlled pieces of research investigating the effectiveness of phenothiazines, reported that 75% of those gives the drugs were ‘much improved’ in reducing positive symptoms of Sz such as delusions and hallucinations by binding to dopamine receptors and blocking the buildup of dopamine receptors compared with only 25% receiving a placebo. This is an advantage because it makes Sz more manageable from those who suffer from it, allowing them to contribute more to society such as enabling them to have a job, live independently etc
+ Another advantage of the dopamine is that its reductionist. This is supported by
