Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia (4)
Clinical characteristics of schizophrenia
Biological explanations of schizophrenia
Psychological explanations of schizophrenia
The cognitive model of schizophrenia (Beck et al., 2009) explains the development of the disorder as due to the interplay of genetic, environmental, psychosocial and cognitive factors. The cognitive model of schizophrenia can, therefore, be considered a holistic approach to the disorder.
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Schizophrenia
Sunday, 25 May 2008 16:12
Biological Explanations of Schizophrenia - The dopamine hypothesis
Written by Keiron Walsh
The dopamine hypothesis suggests that dopamine over-activity causes schizophrenia. Dopamine over-activity could happen in one of the following ways:
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Schizophrenia
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Saturday, 24 May 2008 17:19
Schizophrenia - Biological Explanation - Abnormal Brain Structure
Written by Keiron Walsh
Abnormal Brain Structure
When diagnosing schizophrenia, clinicians make a distinction between positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms involve additions such as hallucinations, delusions and formal thought disorder. These are transient and respond well to medication. Negative symptoms are mental deficiencies such as withdrawal, blunted affect and poverty of speech. Negative symptoms do not respond well to antipsychotic medication. This suggests that there may be different mechanisms responsible for each type of symptom.
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Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder; this means that it involves a loss of contact with reality. Schizophrenia sufferers experience hallucinations (perception of phenomena that do not exist - e.g., hearing voices) and delusions (false beliefs). Schizophrenia sufferers, therefore, often have severe difficulties in functioning.
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Schizophrenia
