Outline and evaluate one biological therapy and one psychological therapy for schizophrenia (8+16 marks)
Schizophrenia, a psychotic disorder in which an individual has lost touch with their sense of reality, has been treated both biologically, with therapies such as drug therapy, and psychologically with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Both of these therapies are used extensively for an individual with the disorder, reflecting the view that no single approach can appropriately explain and treat schizophrenia single-handedly.
When treating schizophrenia biologically, drug therapies are the most commonly used type of therapies. Within drug therapies, antipsychotics are the drugs which are the most appropriate for treating the disorder, as they help the patient gain a better subjective feeling of wellbeing and allow them to function within society adequately. Antipsychotics can come in typical forms, which includes drugs such as chlorpromazine and haloperidol. These drugs, work on the assumption that schizophrenia is caused by too much of the neurotransmitter (a chemical messenger within the brain) dopamine. The way in which they act is by binding too, but not stimulating the dopamine receptors (notably the D2 receptors on the receiving end of the synapse). This means that the dopamine itself cannot bind to the receptor, as it is already occupied and so a lower level of dopamine enters the synapse. This lowers the overall levels of dopamine in the brain, combatting the positive symptoms associated with it such as hallucinations.
Support for the effectiveness of these drugs has come from studying the relapse rates of people who take them alongside those who are taking a placebo, a fake drug. Davis et al (1980) looked at the results of 28 studies regarding relapse rates between typical antipsychotics and placebos, and found that people on a placebo were 55% more likely