Schizophrenia - BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION - NEUROCHEMICAL

Investigations into neurotransmitters can be carried out by;

•  Looking at metabolites in the blood

•  Post-mortems

•  Neuroimaging techniques 

Dopamine Hypothesis

At first it was believed that excessive dopaminergic activity in brain causes schizophrenic symptoms.

- Drugs that increase dopaminergic activity such as amphetamines result in similar symptoms to schizophrenia when took by healthy people

- Such drugs also exacerbate psychotic symptoms in schizophrenic people

-Neuroleptic drugs that block dopaminergic neurons reduce psychotic symptoms

This theory was difficult to support, as post mortems did not show…