Biochemical explanations of schizophrenia

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What does the biochemical explanation look at?
It looks at the role of the neurotransmitters in schizophrenia
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Which hypothesis is the most popular biochemical theory relating to schizophrenia?
The dopamine hypothesis
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What does the hypothesis suggest?
Schizophrenia is caused by too much dopamine at certain synapses in the brain. It could be that there is too much dopamine or that the receptors are too sensitive
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What did Snyder suggest?
Sufferers who have high levels of D-2 receptors on neurons that receive dopamine.
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What are phenothiazines?
Some of the drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia. They work by reducing dopamine activity in the brain.
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What is L-dopa?
An artificial dopamine drug. When this drug is given to non-schizophrenic participants, they show symptoms similar to those seen in acute, paranoid schizophrenics.
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What do amphetamines do?
They encourage the brain to release more dopamine. People who take these often show symptoms similar to people with schizophrenia. When people with schizophrenia are given them, their symptoms worsen.
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What did Randrup and Monkvan find?
They injected rats with amphetamines and found that the rats showed similar to those of people with schizophrenia.
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What did Owen et al find?
There were higher levels of dopamine receptors in schizophrenic people than in non-schizophrenic people
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What did Falkai et al find?
In post moretem studies, the amount of dopamine in the left amygdala was higher in schizophrenics than in non-schizophrenics.
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What is a disadvantage of phenothiazines?
Not all people improve after being given anti-psychotic drugs such as phenothiazines
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What cant we do with post moretem studies?
We cannot establish cause and effect as we cannot really know that the differences seen are not a symptom of the disorder rather than a cause.
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What is an evaluation of Randrup and Monkvan?
Some of the symptoms of schizophrenia are too complex to be properly observed in rats which do not have the same language skills as humans.
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What is a problem with anti-psychotic drugs?
They take weeks to work, but start acting on neurotransmitter levels immediately.
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Why is the biological approach a reductionist?
It reduces the human behaviour down to one factor and ignores other influences, in this case, upbringing and environment.
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Card 2

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Which hypothesis is the most popular biochemical theory relating to schizophrenia?

Back

The dopamine hypothesis

Card 3

Front

What does the hypothesis suggest?

Back

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Card 4

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What did Snyder suggest?

Back

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Card 5

Front

What are phenothiazines?

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