Schizophrenia (SZ)

Clinical characteristics and diagnosis:

Negative symptoms (social withdrawal, alogia, affective flattening)
Positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions)
DSM and ICD (2+ characteristic symptoms, duration of least 6 months, social and occupational dysfunction)
Catatonic (refusal to follow instructions, echo back speech of others, swollen/stiff limbs)
Paranoid (delusions/hallucinations, emotionally responsive, angry, agitated…

Biological therapies of SZ

Antipsychotic medication: do not cure a patient but dampen symptoms down to a level where they can function
normally
1st generation (chlorpromazine) reduce the effects of dopamine so reduce positive symptoms of SZ (e.g. delusions)
2nd generation (clozapine) reduces both positive and negative symptoms because it…

Addiction

Biological models of addiction

Genetics: initiation caused by genetic predisposition and triggered by environmental stressors
Kendler et al found that common genetic factors contributed to the total variance in drug abuse and alcohol
dependence
Culturally biased (carried out only in US) temporal validity (2003) ignores environmental factors
Disease model:…