Biochemistry

• neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain which pass from one cell to another through a synaptic gap. If there are problems with the neurotransmitters passing the message such as a disruption this can cause behavioural problems.
• Schizophrenia

  schizophrenic people either have excessive levels of dopamine or the receptors at the synapse are super sensitive to normal levels of dopamine. This means there is a message overload which can cause positive symptoms to occur such as hallucinations.
• Depression

  Low serotonin leads to a failure to regulate the levels of dopamine and noradrenaline as such lowering mood and disrupting activity levels. Serotonin is taken back up by the pre-synaptic neuron before the full message is passed to the post synaptic neuron. This disrupts the flow of messages around the brain so there will be lower mood levels and disruption of normal behaviour.
• Useful- the biochemical explanation can provide lots of practical applications. the biochemical explanation can provide lots of practical applications. Schizophrenics absorb too much dopamine thereby dopamine blockers were created to fix this. This is useful as it improves people’s quality of life by creating treatments. However, there are lots of dangerous side effects to these treatments which limits the usefulness.
• Deterministic- the biochemical explanation implies that behaviour is beyond people‘s control. This explanation says that mental illness is beyond our control as we can’t control our brains chemicals. For example schizophrenics can’t control how much dopamine their brain absorbs. This is a problem as it may give people an excuse for their negative behaviour when they could seek treatment. Although not everyone will use mental illness as an excuse to make bad choices.