Schizophrenia

1. Psychology Class:
Schizophrenia
April 8

2. Post-traumatic Stress
Disorder PTSD
Prolonged maladaptive reaction to
traumatic experience
Traumatic event
“Actual or threatened death, serious injury;
threats to physical integrity of others.”
“The person’s response involved intense
fear, helplessness, or horror.”
Examples:

3. PTSD Symptoms
Avoidance behavior
Re-experience the trauma
Impaired functioning
Heightened arousal
Emotional numbing

4. PTSD Treatments
CBT
Repeated exposure to cues associated with trauma;
Repeatedly talk about the traumatic experience;
Re-experience the emotional aspects of the trauma;
Visit related slides or films;
Visit the scene of traumatic events;
Cognitive restructuring
Stress management skills (self-relaxation)
Anger management skills
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

5. Schizophrenia

6. Overview
Psychotic disorder; psychosis
Major disturbance in thought,
perception emotion, behavior, and
social functioning.
Etiology: Diathesis of Schizophrenia
Treatments: Biological and
Psychological

7. Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Positive symptoms
Disorganized speech
Delusions
Hallucinations
Negative symptoms
Apathy
Alogia
Anhedonia
Flat Affect
Asociality

8. Positive symptoms
Disorganized speech
Incoherence
Loose association
Neologism or word salads

9. Positive symptoms
Delusions
Sensations and thoughts are imposed by an
external agent
Thoughts are being broadcast
Thoughts are stolen by an external thoughts
Behavior is controlled by external force
Impulses are controlled by external force

10. Positive symptoms
Hallucinations
Hearing voices
Reporting one’s own thoughts
Arguing voices
Voices commenting on behavior

11. Negative Symptoms
Apathy
Alogia
Anhedonia
Flat Affect
Asociality

12. Other symptoms
Catatonia
Motor abnormalities
Unusual activity
Catatonic immobility
Waxy flexibility
Inappropriate affect

13. Etiology
Genetic basis
Family and Twin studies (Gottesman, et al, 1987)
44.30MZ twins
12.08DZ twins
7.30Siblings
9.35Children
2.65Nieces / nephews
2.84Grandchildren
1.00Spouse
% with schizophreniaRelation to the person
with schizophrenia

14. Genetic
Genetic basis
Adoption studies (Heston, 1966)
713# of diagnosed neurotic
29# of diagnosed psychopathic
09# of diagnosed mentally defective
04# of diagnosed schizophrenic
18%66%% of clinical diagnosis
5047# of participants
Control offspring47 children of
schizophrenic
mothers (born
btn 1915-45)
Assessment

15. Etiology: Genetic basis
Is schizophrenia completely determined
by genes?

16. Etiology: Psychology
explanation
Expressed emotion (EE):
Brown’s study (1966)
Participants: patients with schizophrenia who returned
to live with their families after hospitalization.
Interviews were conducted with family members before
the patients returned home.
Families were classified into high EE or low EE.
9-month follow up: 58% relapsed in high EE families;
10% relapsed in low EE families.

17. Expressed emotion
Bidirectional
The role of stress:
Increased cortisol, increased dopamine
activity; increased schizophrenia
symptoms

18. Treatments
Biological: antipsychotic drugs
Drawbacks: ; side effects; noncompliance;
high chance of relapse
Psychological treatments
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Social Skills Training
Family Therapy (reduced EE)