interactionist approach

• The interactionist explanation of schizophrenia suggests schizophrenia is caused by an interaction between biological factors and psychological factors.
• A diathesis for schizophrenia means that a person carries biological risk factors that make them more likely to develop schizophrenia.
• The diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia suggests people with a diathesis only develop schizophrenia if they experience enough psychological stress in their environment.
• The more stress people have, the more likely they are to develop schizophrenia and the more diathesis people have, the more likely they are to develop schizophrenia.
• Supporting evidence for interactionist approach. Tienari et al conducted an adoption study comparing children whose biological mothers had schizophrenia to a control group whose mothers did not have schizophrenia and found children only developed schizophrenia if they had a diathesis for schizophrenia and experienced stress in their environment. This is positive as it supports the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia.
• Supporting evidence for interactionist approach. Birley and Brown 1968 conducted interviews with patients who had recently developed schizophrenia and found 50% of the participants had a stressful life event three weeks prior and concluded stress acts as a trigger for the development of schizophrenia. This is positive as it supports the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia.
• the interactionist approach to treating schizophrenia involves giving the patient a combination of treatments.
• Patients are given antipsychotic medication to treat positive symptoms, and CBT to reduce dysfunctional mental processes and reduce the negative symptoms. Patients and their families also go through family therapy to prevent relapse and help reduce the stressful family environment that triggered schizophrenia.
• A strength of the interactionist approach to treatment is that  it is supported by a randomised, controlled trial conducted by guo et al, which found combining medication and therapy is more effective at treating schizophrenia than just using medication. However, a limitation is that combining treatments is an expensive option but it could be argued this is cost-effective because patients are less likely to relapse and more likely to return to work.