PCL200H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Dopamine Receptor D2, Typical Antipsychotic, Twin
Document Summary
Thought disorder where patients have difficulty perceiving reality. Psychotic symptoms: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized flow of thoughts, and an absence of clear, goal-directed behaviors. Cognitive impairments: impaired working memory, executive function, and cognitive ability. The cognitive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia are usually not improved with antipsychotic drugs. Diagnoses solely on the basis of behavioral symptoms (no biological measurements) Just under 1% of the global population suffers from schizophrenia, the exact etiology is unknown. Genetic components - children of affected parents are most likely to develop the disorder and identical twins have a greater concordance than fraternal twins (50- Environmental component - materla infections and starvation. When researchers observed that all of the effective drugs also impaired movement, they found a new compound - haloperidol. Using motor activity as a screening method also meant that all typical antipsychotics will have a side effect of impairing motor activity.
