Interactionists approach

• What is the interactionist approach to schizophrenia

  Acknowledges that there are biological, psychological and social factors in the development of schizophrenia
• What is the Diathesis stress model ?

  theory that there is a vulnerability (diathesis) and a stress trigger required to develop schizophrenia
• Possible diathesis

  • genetic factors
  • abnormalities in brain structure or function
  • abnormalities in brain activity
• Possible stressors

  • trauma, abuse, neglect
  • Relationships- loss or turbulence
  • Exposure to a virus
  • Drug use
• What is the modern diathesis ?

  expands diathesis beyond genetics to include various factors like psychological trauma, which can act as a vulnerability rather than just a stressor, integrating both biological and psychological perspectives to emphasize their interaction in the disorder’s development.
• Research evidence of how trauma (stress) can become diathesis

  Read et al. (2001) proposed a neurodevelopmental model in which early trauma alters the developing brain. Early and severe trauma such as child abuse can seriously affect aspects of brain development
• What is modern stress?

  refers to any factor that may trigger the disorder, with recent research highlighting cannabis use as a key stressor, as it can increase the risk of schizophrenia up to sevenfold by interfering with the dopamine system.
• Interactionists treatments for schizophrenia

  same as biological and psychological treatments- antipsychotics, CBTp, family therapy
• limitation of the diathesis stress model- overly simplistic

  • claims a single ‘schizogene’ and parenting style is the major source of stress
  • Read et al.
  • Triggering stressor can come in many forms
• strength of interactionist approach- significant support for combined treatment methods

  • shows interactionist approach is useful to adopt in relation to schizophrenia
  • studies comparing effectiveness of combinations of biological and psychological treatments
• Nicholas Tarrier et al. (2004) supporting the interactionist approach

  • studied 315 patients randomly allocated to a medication with CBTp group, a medication and supportive counselling group and a control group with medical treatments alone
  • patients in both combination groups showed lower symptom levels that controls
  • however, found no difference in relapse rates and hospital readmission rates

  = there is a practical advantage of adopting an interactionist approach
• Issue of interactionist approach- we don’t know how stress and diathesis work

  we don’t yet have an understanding of the mechanisms by which the symptoms of schizophrenia appear and how both vulnerability and stress produce them.

  = this means we have an incomplete understanding when it comes to the interactionist model which weakens it
• What is treatment-causation fallacy

  The treatment causation fallacy is the mistaken assumption that if a treatment is effective for a disorder, it must mean that the cause of the disorder is directly related to the mechanism of that treatment. For example, just because antipsychotic medication helps alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia by affecting dopamine levels, it does not necessarily mean that schizophrenia is solely caused by dopamine dysfunction.