essay on a 20 marker about to what extent does the role of neurotransmitters explain Michael's schizophrenia (scenario question), including AO2, AO1 and AO3 and other explanations for schizophrenia.
5 PEEL paragraphs and a conclusion for top band marks.
6) Michael has just been diagnosed with schizophrenia. His symptoms include
hearing voices telling him what to do, and not being able to put his thoughts into a
logical sense. Michael also has a lack of energy and has withdrawn from his friends.
Michael’s doctor says that his schizophrenia is due to his neurotransmitters. His
mother thinks it is due to genetics as she also has schizophrenia. His father, however,
thinks it is due to Michael taking illegal drugs such as phencyclidine (PCP, ‘angel
dust’). To what extent can Michael’s schizophrenia be explained by the function of his
neurotransmitters? You must make reference to the context in your answer. (20)
-June 2019 paper 2
Michaels schizophrenia may be explained by the dopamine hypothesis. This shows that
hyperactivity of D2 dopamine receptors which are involved in awareness may lead to
symptoms of schizophrenia. Michael hearing voices may be explained by overactivity of
dopaminergic neurons in his brain which raise his awareness of the events around him and
lead to him experiencing auditory hallucinations of voices telling him what to do. This means
that his positive symptoms may be best explained by the function of dopamine in his brain
which is exhausted. On the other hand, attention deficit Theory may also explain Michael's
auditory hallucinations. This proposes that a faulty attention system in the Brain where
preconscious thoughts are not filtered as irrelevant may result in sensory overload as these
thoughts are treated more significantly than they really are. This may lead to hallucinations
of hearing voices since according to Guigan 1996 the patients misunderstood their voice as
belonging to someone.
Genetics might explain Michael’s schizophrenia because his mother also has it. Adoption
studies such as Heston 1966 have shown that a concordance rate for developing
schizophrenia if a family member has it is 10%. This suggests that Michael's schizophrenia
and symptoms might be explained by his mother also suffering from the same disorders as
him. However this concordance rate is not 100% implying that the development of Michael’s
schizophrenia must be caused by other environmental and physiological factors because the
concordance rate for schizophrenia is not 100%. This implies the genetics may not fully
explain Michael’s schizophrenia but may only predispose him to an increased risk of
developing the disorder and they do not cause it directly since the environment is also likely
to play our role in it.
Michael taking illegal drugs may explain his schizophrenia. Recreational drugs have been
linked to an increased dopamine activity in their brain and schizophrenia-like symptoms such
as hallucinations and disorganised speech which is defined to as cocaine psychosis.
Because high levels of dopamine in the brain may make it too active and hence make the
patient overreact to the presence of dopamine, this may suggest that drugs like PCP that
Michael is taking may contribute to his onset of schizophrenia as the brain may be to aware
of the world around, therefore he experiences positive symptoms. This may be due to high
dopamine activity in the mesolimbic pathway which is linked to positive symptoms of
schizophrenia. This suggests that Michael’s schizophrenia may be due to him taking PCP
which affects the function of neurotransmitters such as dopamine in his brain. This is
important as it indicates that Michael schizophrenia may be due to their abnormal functioning
of neurotransmitters as a result of taking PCP. However, Lieberman et al. 1997 found that
only a small proportion of Regular amphetamine users experienced psychotic symptoms.
Since amphetamine is linked to positive symptoms of schizophrenia this suggests that PCP
may not actually contribute to Michael's schizophrenia since not all the users who regularly
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