Psychology Case Study

In Psychology 101, you learn about a personal fable; something that I have not lost. I have always wanted to change the world that I was destined for greatness and teaching elementary school students gives me that power. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Schizophrenia is a brain disease. Many studies have been conducted regarding the brain localization of schizophrenia. One study established that schizophrenia is characterized by significant loss in the grey matter of the brain. The loss was detected to be up to 25% in some areas and the damage was seen to begin at the parietal (outer) regions of the brain then spreading to the rest of the regions of the brain over a period of about five years ADDIN EN.CITE Rajagopalan1998923(Rajagopalan, MacBeth, & Varma, 1998)92392317Rajagopalan, MMacBeth, RVarma, SLXXY chromosome anomaly and schizophreniaAmerican Journal Medical GeneticsAmerican Journal Medical Genetics64-65811998( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_9" o "Rajagopalan, 1998 #923" Rajagopalan, MacBeth, & Varma, 1998). Another study showed that patients who had the worst loss of brain tissue also exhibited the worst symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations, psychotic and bizarre thoughts, hearing voices, depression and delusion ADDIN EN.CITE Conklin2002797(Conklin & Iacono, 2002)79779717Conklin, Heather M.Iacono, William G.Schizophrenia: A Neurodevelopmental PerspectiveCurrent Directions in Psychological ScienceCurrent Directions in Psychological Science33-371112002Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of Association for Psychological Science09637214http://www.jstor.org/stable/20182759( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Conklin, 2002 #797" Conklin & Iacono, 2002).

Schizophrenia is a complex and highly debilitating mental illness that we are currently unable to treat in any way that guarantees success or return to previous function. It affects around 1% of the population and is associated with a thirteen-fold increase in the likelihood of suicide, so its effective control is paramount (Gogos et al., 2015). There have been several hypotheses as to the cause of schizophrenia. Many link genetic and environmental factors, and dysregulations of neurotransmitters dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin (Egbujo, Sinclair, & Hahn, 2016). The dopamine hypothesis currently suggests that hyperactive dopamine transmission in the basal ganglia leads to psychosis and underactive dopamine transmission in the prefrontal

H. F. is an 11 year old male with a history of major depressive disorder and ADHD who presented to the inpatient child and adolescent mental health unit for concerns of suicidal ideation. During an interview with H. F. and family members, it became clear that there were behavior concerns during school, increased difficulties in interpersonal relationships with peers, and increasing use of the internet and social media to form social relationships. His parents were also concerned about the inappropriate content of his conversations online.

Psychologists work in a vast array of areas with a myriad of clients; school children may be assessed for special services or supports in school based on individual needs, adults may self refer for various reasons including stress, marital issues, anxiety, or an infinite assortment of other potential personal reasons, or those facing the legal system may be assessed for their ability to stand trial. It is up to the psychologist to be educated in the tools available to them in their chosen field and how to best use them in the situations presented so the client is best served. In order to best select a proper assessment tool, often it is necessary to conduct an intake interview in order to obtain historical background from the

The brain is composed of mostly grey and white matter. Grey matter contains most of the neuronal connections for the brain. It can be found on the outer surface of the cerebellum and around the spinal cord. “Observations have been made of reductions in the size and total neuron numbers, but not in neuronal density,” (Höistad, 2009, p. 3). This is an outstanding discovery when analyzing schizophrenia. White matter contains many neurons as well. Researchers pay close attention to these neurons and the myelination of the axons. “Interstitial white matter neurons have been found to be increased in prefrontal white matter and temporal white matter in subjects with schizophrenia, supporting further the presence of a neurodevelopmental abnormality in schizophrenia,” (Höistad, 2009, p. 3). This means that they white matter neurons never became myelinated and mature in parts of the brain. Problems like these can mess with the connections in the brain between neurons. Research like this highlight schizophrenia as being a developmental disorder of the brian, but more research is being done including other areas as well. “The pruning of axonal connections during brain development and maturation may be necessary for adequate formation of appropriate neuronal circuits,” (Höistad, 2009, p.

Joe has schizoid personality disorder. Like many with schizoid personality, Jose does not seem inclined to feel the need to interact with people. It is not because of paranoia, but because these people genuinely like to be alone and don’t show many emotions. To help Joe one could recommend cognitive-behavioral and group therapy. Cognitive side of the therapy would consist of talking to Jose about his feelings. Especially focusing on any positive feelings that he can remember. The behavioral part would be teaching Jose social skills by role-playing or exposure techniques.

Fig. __ Feed-forward projections from the eyes to the brain and topographic mapping. In each eye the visual field on the left and right of the fovea (the cut goes right through the fovea!) projects to different cortical hemispheres: the ipsilateral retina projects to the ipsilateral visual cortex, and the contralateral retina crosses the contralateral cortex (hemifield crossing in the optic chiasma). The first synapse of the retinal ganglion cells is in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), but information from the left (L) and right (R) eye remains strictly separated. The LGN consists of six layers, layers 1 and 2 are primarily occupied by the magnocellular pathway, and 3–6 by the parvocellular. Information from both eyes comes first together

Alaina is a 16 year old, Hispanic female who has chronic Depression. Her counselor was concerned with Alaina’s negative behavior and suicidal tendencies. She was clouded with self-destructive thoughts. If Alaina was having a bad day, she was easily upset. She struggled to cope which lacked her ability to move forward.

Biological theorists believe that individuals may have a genetic predisposition for the schizophrenia if a close family member has been diagnosed with the disorder. Stress during adolescent years seems to provoke the disorder among individuals who have a family history of the disorder. In addition, this theory suggests biochemical abnormalities related to the dopamine neurotransmitters may also contribute to the illness as the brains neurotransmission of the dopamine is too frequent in occurrence (Comer, 2005). CAT and MRI scans have also indicated that abnormal brain structuring may also play a role in the development of schizophrenia due to a common occurrence of enlarged ventricles within schizophrenia sufferers (Comer, 2005). Various parts of the brain may not develop for function properly which seems lead to Type II schizophrenia. Studies have also pointed towards the idea that exposure to certain viruses before birth may lead to the eventual development of schizophrenia (Comer, 2005).

Atypical antipsychotics (APDs) are the first line treatment for schizophrenia. But their mechanisms of action are not well understood. Studies have found that the APD quetiapine prevented the cortical OL demise resulting from cuprizone (CPZ) treatment in mice (Zhang et al., 2008) and facilitated OL lineage development in vitro (Zhang et al., 2008). In addition, neuroimaging studies showed that APD treatment resulted in increased myelination in patients with schizophrenia (Bartzokis et al., 2009). These studies suggest that APDs may exert their therapeutic effects by enhancing OL function and myelin integrity. The gap between in vitro and human neuroimaging studies emphasizes the importance of the development of an animal model to study the link between molecular and cellular changes and the pathological and behavioral outcomes after APD treatment.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe neurological brain disorder characterized by disruptions in perception and reality and disturbances in emotions and language. This disorder is extensively studied by researchers, however the specific mechanisms and factors behind its development are still not completely understood. Most cases of schizophrenia arise in men between the ages 16-30, though the disorder is not confined to this group. Additionally, studies have identified over 100 genes associated with schizophrenia, making the causes of the disorder difficult to elucidate.What is better understood about the disorder is that there are changes in brain structure and communication.

In a schizophrenic brain the receptors on the postsynaptic membrane are too sensitive to the effects of dopamine uptake – this results in an over receptivity to dopamine. CPZ binds to but does not stimulate the receptors on the postsynaptic membrane. This means that a more normal level of dopamine transmission is experienced by the individual. There are several dopamine pathways in the brain which CPZ affects. In particular, CPZ blocks receptors in both mosolimbic and nigrostriatal pathways, and displays antipsychotic effects due to blockage of receptors in the former system, and the extrapyramidal side effects (abbreviated EPSE, drug induced movement disorders) due to blockage in the latter. Shutdown of the tuberoinfundibular pathway may cause hyperprolactinemia (increased prolactin concentrations). It also blocks serotonin receptors, which leads to lower aggression levels and has a mitigating effect on the EPSE, although causing problems with ejaculation and weight gain. CPZ also blocks histamine, α-adrenergic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, resulting in side effects such as tachycardia, vertigo, dry mouth, blurred vision, increased salivation, sexual dysfunction, constipation and difficulties with urinating. Because CPZ blocks some of the histamine receptors, it possesses mild anti-allergic properties. Due to its non-selectivity towards multiple receptors, CPZ is often referred to as a “dirty

While most animals stop their myelination process after birth, humans undergo complex myelination developments until adulthood10. The constant refinement and recalibration of this process during our adolescence and adulthood is essential in regulating the speed of signal propagation and the synchrony of the network during learning11,12. The complex communication between our brain networks is dependent on synchronous firing, which can be observed through electroencephalography in the form of oscillations13. Irregular oscillatory patterns in multiple psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia14, bipolar disorder15, autism16 and dementia17 have been observed, which have lead some researchers to define them as diseases of dysconnectivity18,19. This elaborate myelination machinery needed for the creation and maintenance of proper circuit functionality might explain the elevated energy requirements of our brain20. Unsurprisingly, disruption in energy and lipid metabolism can be observed prior to the onset of Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia21. Furthermore, studies have shown that myelination slows down during childhood before resuming in late adolescence10, and others have demonstrated that oligodendrocytes developing later in life become more vulnerable22. These two studies corroborate the hypotheses of a meticulous myelin structure role in psychiatric disorders which often presents themselves in late adolescence.

Increasing evidence supports an important role of oligodendrocytes and myelination in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Oligodendrocytes are the myelin-producing cells in the central nervous system. To test the myelination dysfunction hypothesis of schizophrenia, possible myelination dysfunction was evaluated in a phencyclidine (PCP)-induced neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia. On postnatal day