Studying Schizophrenia

Is schizophrenia genetic? 

    The graph on the right shows that first degree relatives of schizophrenics are at a higher percentage risk of developing/having schizophrenia than those who are second or third degree relatives. Identical twins show the greatest percent at risk, implying that if a twin is diagnosed with schizophrenia the other twin is 60% likely to have schizophrenia as well. The graph presented supports the argument that schizophrenia is mainly genetic (or nature). However, there is some debate that schizophrenia is note purely genetic (nurture). An example of this is the Double-blind theory proposed by Bateson et al.

Bateson et al. (1956) suggested that children who frequently received contradictory messages from their parents were more likely to develop schizophrenia. For example, if a mother tells her child that she loves them, yet at the same time she turns her head away in disgust, the child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship on different communicative levels, one of them being affection on a verbal level, and the other of animosity on the non-verbal level. This results in the child’s ability to respond to the mother is incapacitated by these contradictions because one message invalidates the other.  These interactions prevent the development of an internally coherent construction of reality, and over time, this manifests itself as schizophrenic symptoms (e.g. withdrawal and flattened effect).

 

The Dopamine Hypothesis

      Dopamine is one of the many different neurotransmitters that operate inside the brain. The dopamine hypothesis states that impulses from the neurons that transmit dopamine fire too easily/often, which lead to the characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenics are thought to have abnormally high numbers of D₂ receptors on receiving neurons, which then results in more dopamine binding and therefore more neurons firing. 

Here is an example of the key role played by dopamine in schizophrenia:

Low levels of dopamine activity were discovered in people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative neurological disorder.  It was found out that people who had been taking the drug known as ‘L-dopa’ (to raise the levels of dopamine) were developing schizophrenic type symptoms.

Thanks for reading. I hope this blog inspires you to read more. Remember- ignorance isn't bliss.