schizophrenia
Tarrier (2004): Randomly allocated 315 patients to a medication and CBT group, medication and
supportive counselling group, or a control group. Found that patients in the combination groups showed
lower symptom levels than the control group, although there was no difference in rates of hospital
readmission.
Vasos (2012): Found the risk of schizophrenia was 2.37 times greater in cities than it was in the
countryside, probably due to stress levels.
Hickling (1999): The stress of urban living made African-Carribean immigrants in Britain 8 to 10 times
more likely to experience schizophrenia.
Faris and Dunham (1939): Found clear pattern of correlation between inner city environments and
levels of psychosis.
Pederson and Mortensen (Denmark 2001): Found Scandanavian villages have very LOW levels of
S psychosis, but 15 years of living in a city increased risk.
Fox (1990): It is more likely that factors associated with living in poorer conditions (e.g. stress) may
trigger the onset of schizophrenia, rather than individuals with schizophrenia moving down in social
status.
Bentall’s meta-analysis (2012): Shows that stress arising from abuse in childhood increases the risk of
developing schizophrenia.
Toyokawa, Et. Al (2011): Suggest many aspects of urban living – ranging from life stressors to the use of
drugs, can influence human epigenetics
Kopelowicz and Liberman: Found CBT moderately improved symptoms in 50-60% of sufferers but only
when used with drug therapy
Tienari et al: See genetic explanations sheet
P N/A
Labelling: Studies correlating drug abuse and schizophrenia can lead people to believe that those with
schizophrenia are former drug addicts/users which is not true for all patients.
I
A
Tarrier (2004): Found that there was no difference in rates of hospital readmission so the combined
approach is either not significantly more effective, or cannot prevent relapse.
C