biological explanations of schizophrenia

• what are the 3 biological explanations of schizophrenia?

  genetic factors

  dopamine hypothesis

  neural correlates
• what does the genetic basis of schizophrenia say?

  Schizophrenia runs in families and people with SZ have inherited a mutated gene that makes them more vulnerable to SZ. Difficult to be certain how far genetics play as a family members are exposed to similar and different environments
• Tienari (2000) study into adoptees

  164 adoptees whose biological mothers had been diagnosed with schizophreni, 7% also got the diagnosis

  only 1.5% got the diagnosis of their mother didn’t have sz.
• schizophrenia is polygenic. multiple genes are affected and requires a number of factors in combination.
• what does aetiologically heterogenous mean?

  different combination of factors can lead to the condition.
• Ripke (2014) compared the genetic make up of 37,000 people with sz to 113,000 people who did not have sz. Found that 108 separate genetic variations are associated with sz.
• Ao3- strength of genetic explanation

  s- strong evidence base

  e- Hilker showed a 33% concordance rate for monozygotic twins compared to 7% for dizygotic twins

  L- supports some people are more vulnerable due to their genetic makeup