...and contrast psychological and biological explanations of schizophrenia. Jessica F Smith University Of Sussex Schizophrenia has been termed a heterogeneous group of disorders with varied etiologies (Walker, Kestler, Bollini, & Hochman, 2004) which includes biological, social, cognitive and psychodynamic perspectives. To progress knowledge of schizophrenia, this essay focuses on how the biological and psychological explanations are independent and interdependent and how they may differentiate from one another. This includes: how our biological predisposition, neuro transmitter dysfunction and genetic inheritance, affects how people with schizophrenia respond to social environments, the importance of socio-economic factors and their ability to shape psychotic symptoms, and how people with schizophrenia have faulty cognitions, which arguably develop from social influence and upbringing. The overruling theory, that is important in explanations of schizophrenia, is known as the Diathesis Stress Model (Davey, 2011), which identifies that psychotic symptoms arise from a combination of both biological predisposition and environmental stress. Servan-Schreiber, Bruno, Carter, & Cohen, (1998) alleviate that dopamine is an important neurotransmitter with a function in regulating movement and guiding attention. The dopamine hypothesis suggests that the dysfunction of movement and attention in those with schizophrenia may be a result of excess dopamine due to an increase of...
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...Thesis abstracts / 75 Writing a structured abstract for the thesis James Hartley suggests how to improve thesis abstracts (From Psychology Teaching Review, 2010, 16, 1, 98-100) Two books on writing abstracts have recently come to my attention. One, Creating Effective Conference Abstracts and Posters in Biomedicine: 500 tips for Success (Fraser, Fuller and Hutber, 2009) is a compendium of clear advice – a must book to have in your hand as you prepare a conference abstract or a poster. The other, Abstracts and the Writing of Abstracts (Swales and Feak, 2009) contains several research-based exercises on writing abstracts for journal articles in the Arts and Social Sciences. Both books extol the virtues of structured abstracts (i.e., those with standard sub-headings found in several journals published by the BPS) but both contain few examples. Thesis abstracts Swales and Feak also have a short chapter on writing the abstract for the PhD – a rather different kind of abstract. Here two such abstracts are presented for analysis. However, because the book is written mainly for a North American audience, British students might like to check their institution’s regulations in this respect. It is likely, of course, that these will not be very helpful. Here, for example, are the regulations from my own University: Abstract The page should be headed Abstract, followed by no more than 300 words describing the key features of the thesis. Many information retrieval...
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...Schizophrenia, referred to as a split personality disorder, is a chronic, severe, devastating mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the population, equivalent to more than 2 million people in the United States. Statistics indicates schizophrenia affects men about 1½ times more frequently than women. (National Comorbidity Survey, 1994) It is a psychotic mental disorders characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. The thought problems linked with schizophrenia described as psychosis, in that the individual thinking is totally out of touch with reality. The individual with this disorder may also have disorganized speech, and behavior, physically or careless behavior, extensively decreased behaviors or feelings, as well as delusions, which are ideas about themselves or others that have no basis in reality. The term schizophrenia first introduced in 1911. In 1887, Emil Kraepelin deemed it a separate mental illness. Regardless of recent history, (Addington, Bouchard, Goldberg, 2005) described throughout written history. Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Greek, and Roman writings described symptoms comparable to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. During medieval times, schizophrenia, like other illnesses, often viewed as evidence of the sufferer possessed by spirits or evil powers. Schizophrenia is a multifaceted illness. Experts in the field are somewhat baffled as to what causes it. Some doctors believe that the brain may not be able to process...
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...Understanding Schizophrenia: a Biological Approach NAME: Maria Saldias DATE: 4-28-2011 TITLES OF ARTCILES: 1-“ What Causes Schizophrenia”, by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.& the National Institute of Mental health12,Nov,2006. 2- “The Concept of Progressive Brain Change in Schizophrenia: Implications for Understanding Schizophrenia”, by Linn E. Delisi. 2008 INTRODUCTION Schizophrenia is a brain disorder, which interferes with normal brain functioning. It is mainly characterize by major disturbances in perception, language, thought, emotions and behavior. Furthermore, it can also trigger hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and lack of motivation (Rosenberg and Kosslyn). Experts now agree that schizophrenia develops as the result of the combination of a biological predisposition, and the kind of environment the person is exposed to. However, not until recent days, schizophrenia was thought to have “no “organic” cause and thus related to the psychological environment that one was born into” (Delisi). In “What Causes schizophrenia, by Grohol, even though the author emphasis how genetic, behavioral and other factors, are interrelated in the development of the disorder, he emphasis his article in how the tools of biomedical research are being used to search for genes or critical moments of brain development. At the same time, “The concept of Progressive Brain Chain in Schizophrenia: Implications...
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...The aim of this literature review is to explore factors that will determine whether race increases the frequency in diagnosis of schizophrenia or not and will look at factors that influence the diagnostic procedures. It will firstly provide the rationale of undertaking literature review. 1.2 Rationale The researcher’s interest in the topic is personal as a person from Black African background and from her observations during clinical placements. The researcher observed that a high proportion of Black services users had diagnosis of schizophrenia. A day spent on PICU ward made her realise that indeed there was indeed an over presentation of black service users especially males. From the previous numerous studies about the disparities in mental...
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...Thesis abstracts / 75 Writing a structured abstract for the thesis James Hartley suggests how to improve thesis abstracts (From Psychology Teaching Review, 2010, 16, 1, 98-100) Two books on writing abstracts have recently come to my attention. One, Creating Effective Conference Abstracts and Posters in Biomedicine: 500 tips for Success (Fraser, Fuller and Hutber, 2009) is a compendium of clear advice – a must book to have in your hand as you prepare a conference abstract or a poster. The other, Abstracts and the Writing of Abstracts (Swales and Feak, 2009) contains several research-based exercises on writing abstracts for journal articles in the Arts and Social Sciences. Both books extol the virtues of structured abstracts (i.e., those with standard sub-headings found in several journals published by the BPS) but both contain few examples. Thesis abstracts Swales and Feak also have a short chapter on writing the abstract for the PhD – a rather different kind of abstract. Here two such abstracts are presented for analysis. However, because the book is written mainly for a North American audience, British students might like to check their institution’s regulations in this respect. It is likely, of course, that these will not be very helpful. Here, for example, are the regulations from my own University: Abstract The page should be headed Abstract, followed by no more than 300 words describing the key features of the...
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...History of Schizophrenia Stephanie Fernandez California Baptist University History of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental illness that people have been dealing with throughout history. When we look at research as early as the 1800s, we find that there is evidence of individuals who were dealing with schizophrenia. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013), Schizophrenia is defined as abnormalities in five domains which are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking and speech, disorganized or abnormal motor behavior, and negative symptoms (p. 87). For this reason, this article will examine the history of Schizophrenia from three time periods which is in the 1800s, mid 1900s, and in the 21st century. 1800s In the 1817, the first moral-treated asylum was opened in America by the Philadelphia Quakers along with the Congregational Church in 1818 (Whitaker, 2002, p. 25). The Quakers and the church would not use any form of treatment to treat the mentally ill, however; they would help the people cope with their illness by creating activities for them such as gardening or playing games (Whitaker, 2002, p. 26). In the asylum, there were people who varied in mental illnesses. Emil Kraepelin, a psychiatrist, was one of the first people who presented schizophrenia in a category which he called dementia praecox. He would diagnose his patients by putting them into categories based on the symptoms and the patterns of the symptoms (Lyons...
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...Analyzing Psychological Disorders Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it hard to tell the difference between what is real and what is not real. Schizophrenia makes it hard to think clearly, and have normal emotional responses. Act normally in social situations is also affected by this disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has no exact known cause but is categorized as a brain disorder affecting the balance in neurotransmitter concentration of dopamine, glutamate and serotonin systems. Symptoms present in the disorder are positive, which means psychosis, or negative, which means affecting emotions and behavior. The primary areas of the brain implicated in schizophrenia are the forebrain, hindbrain and limbic system (LIVESTRONG, Aubri, John, 2011). The forebrain is the topmost and largest portion of the brain and includes the cerebral hemispheres which are divided into four lobes; they are the limbic system, thalamus, hypothalamus and corpus callosum. As a whole, the forebrain serves to control cognition which is the process of thinking, knowing, learning, judging, sensory and motor function, temperature regulation, reproduction, hunger, sleep cycle and emotional expression. It is within the frontal lobe where thought organization occurs, creating the delusional ideas that are a common positive symptom of schizophrenia. It is also in this lobe that overstimulation...
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...Does culture influence auditory hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia? Introduction Approximately 70% of patients with schizophrenia hear voices making auditory hallucinations the most common type of hallucination for people with schizophrenia. For many patients, these voices are disabling and greatly affect individuals’ daily lives. In the US, these voices are often violent, causing fear and distress in patients. Many patients describe their voices as telling them to perform specific violent acts towards both others and themselves (including suicide). While much of the literature focuses on these types of violent voices, most of these studies are centered on patients in western countries, and specifically patients in the US....
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...Issue date: March 2009 Schizophrenia Core interventions in the treatment and management of schizophrenia in adults in primary and secondary care This is an update of NICE clinical guideline 1 NICE clinical guideline 82 Developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health NICE clinical guideline 82 Schizophrenia Ordering information You can download the following documents from www.nice.org.uk/CG82 • The NICE guideline (this document) – all the recommendations. • A quick reference guide – a summary of the recommendations for healthcare professionals. • ‘Understanding NICE guidance’ – a summary for patients and carers. • The full guideline – all the recommendations, details of how they were developed, and reviews of the evidence they were based on. For printed copies of the quick reference guide or ‘Understanding NICE guidance’, phone NICE publications on 0845 003 7783 or email publications@nice.org.uk and quote: • N1823 (quick reference guide) • N1824 (‘Understanding NICE guidance’). NICE clinical guidelines are recommendations about the treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions in the NHS in England and Wales. This guidance represents the view of NICE, which was arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. Healthcare professionals are expected to take it fully into account when exercising their clinical judgement. However, the guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals...
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...Schizophrenia Disrupts Brain Development Monica Jones Behavioral Science and Research Method Southern University and A&M College Lionel Jolla, MSW, LMSW – Professor November 18, 2015 Abstract I embarked on this project because I am interested in how schizophrenia affects the brain and what researchers have discovered as far as medicine for this condition. I am looking for a phenomenon that explains why this disorder is destroying brain volume and how this process can be stopped. Schizophrenia is a baffling disorder that reduces brain volume. When and how does schizophrenia begin is one of my concerns. It is hard to figure out when, why and how schizophrenia begins because it can occur as early as the neonate stage of life and as late as the geriatric stage in life. When schizophrenia starts to decrease brain volume, is the brain fully developed is another one of my concerns. Brain volume decreases in schizophrenia patients naturally, but the antipsychotic medication is a contributing factor also. The antipsychotic medication has been known to have adverse side effects on the brain volume. Have researchers found a medication that has a less severe effect on schizophrenia patient’s brain volume, is another question I am interested in finding the answer too. Schizophrenia is an unexplainable disorder that offers no specific answer to how it occurs. In this study I am hoping to find that specific answer to this brain crippling disorder. MRI scans have been the...
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...Outline and evaluate at least two issues in classifying or diagnosing schizophrenia (24 marks) One issue relating to the diagnosis and classification of sz is reliability. Inter-rater reliability is the extent to which psychiatrists can agree on the same diagnoses when independently assessing patients, and Test-retest reliability is the extent to which the tests used to deliver these diagnoses are consistent over time. DSM-III was designed to provide a more reliable system for classifying psychiatric disorders. Carson claimed that DSM-III had fixed the problem of reliability once and for all. However, 30 years later there is still little evidence that DSM is routinely used with high reliability by mental health clinicians. However, test-retest studies have shown positive results. Prescott et al analysed the test-retest reliability of several measures of attention and information processing in 14 chronic schizophrenics. Performance on these measures was stable over a 6 month period, showing that there is high test-retest reliability when using these measures to diagnose sz. Rosenhan proposed that reliability was a major issue for diagnosis alone and situational factors were more salient in determining sz diagnosis rather than any specific illness characteristics. This shows that the diagnostic procedure used at the time was inconsistent. Rosenhan demonstrated a lack of faith in the system where he arranged pseudo patients to present themselves to psychiatric hospitals claiming...
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...240 April 10, 2011 Thea Lawton Analyzing Psychological Disorders Schizophrenia, referred to as a split personality disorder, is a chronic, severe, devastating mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the population, equivalent to more than 2 million people in the United States. Statistics indicates schizophrenia affects men about 1½ times more frequently than women. (National Comorbidity Survey, 1994) It is a psychotic mental disorders characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. The thought problems linked with schizophrenia described as psychosis, in that the individual thinking is totally out of touch with reality. The individual with this disorder may also have disorganized speech, and behavior, physically or careless behavior, extensively decreased behaviors or feelings, as well as delusions, which are ideas about themselves or others that have no basis in reality. The term schizophrenia first introduced in 1911. In 1887, Emil Kraepelin deemed it a separate mental illness. Regardless of recent history, (Addington, Bouchard, Goldberg, 2005) described throughout written history. Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Greek, and Roman writings described symptoms comparable to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. During medieval times, schizophrenia, like other illnesses, often viewed as evidence of the sufferer possessed by spirits or evil powers. Schizophrenia is a multifaceted illness. Experts in the field are somewhat baffled...
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...statistical for example something which is unusual to the society. Statistically: In this definition of abnormality behaviors which are seen as statistically rare are considered to be abnormal. In terms of statistics, abnormal behaviour involves any behaviour that is significantly different from the norm. for instance some one who is very clever is considered normal in terms of cleverness average on the other hand if some one is less or below the average he or she is considered abnormal. Therefore in the statistical impression, strange behavior improper behaviour could be classified as abnormal. Deviation from Social Norms defines the change or deviation of an individual, from society's traditional acts for example in some cultural backgrounds when couple are getting married women is responsible for every thing while others give the responsibility to the man and they thing other except from their tradition cultural believes is abnormal and they think if some does something different that he or she is deviated from cultural and social norms. There are also a number of principles for one to look at before reaching a judgment as to whether someone has deviated from society's norms. Firstly one of these for instant are cultural norms the cultural definition of abnormality includes any behaviour that deviates from cultural norms because what some one may be seen as normal in one culture, may be seen as...
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...PSYC 100 “I’m not a Schizophrenic, I have Schizophrenia!” December 7, 2011 The movie that I have chosen to write about is called “Identity” with John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and Amanda Peete as the big names. Its focus is on an inmate who is 24 hours from being executed. His defense team is giving it one last attempt to prove he has schizophrenia and was not aware of the murders he committed. The movie does not give much backdrop into the causes or symptoms, but shows one method of treatment. I will explain the symptoms, causes, treatments, and some other useful information on this disease. The best place to start is symptoms of Schizophrenia. They are broken down into 3 main categories. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in people without the disease. These people often “lose touch” with reality and these symptoms can come and go. Hallucinations are things that the person can see, smell, or hear but nobody else can. Hearing “voices” is one of the most common of these. The voices supposedly talk to the person suffering from schizophrenia by ordering them to do things, warn them of danger, or discuss their behavior. In the movie, the character had created several different types of people who all talked to him differently and pushed the character in different directions whether to act in a positive or negative way. Delusions are things the person may believe but are not true. Such as everyone talking on a cell phone must be listening to my...
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