Case History The patient presented today is Norman Bates. Bates is a 22-year-old male who was born October 14, 1995. He lives in White Pine, Oregon currently. Bates had moved to White Pine with his mother Norma, when an accident involving Bates had killed his father. Bates has one half-brother, Dylan Bates who has not been present for a majority of Bates childhood. Recently he moved back into the house after his mother and brother moved away from Arizona. The Bates family bought a motel as a family when they moved to White Pine. Bates has decided to seek help after the death of his mother. Bates has expressed concern over the fact that he experiences blackouts. He has had them since he was 16, and in these blackouts, he has no recollection …show more content…
Transmitters for dopamine are over stimulated and because of this, the symptoms of schizophrenia are increased. Drugs such as amphetamines that activate dopamine are proven to worsen some patients with schizophrenia. Due to the fact that certain drugs that increase dopamine cause more symptoms, shows how there is a connection between dopamine and schizophrenia. Furthermore, drugs that block dopamine are shown to help patients with schizophrenia. The other thought with the dopamine hypothesis is that there is another dopamine receptor could be causing it which is dopamine D2. Dopamine D2 is located in the striatum of the brain and these cells control movement, balance, walking, and are reliant on dopamine to function (Barlow & Durand, 2015). The reason this is now a thought in the dopamine hypothesis is because there is a new effective antipsychotic that block all types of dopamine, including dopamine …show more content…
Because of the substantial amount of evidence, the dopamine hypothesis is the best explanation for schizophrenia. Studies have shown that while not all dopamine genes show signals, the DRD2 genes have a significant number of signals (Edwards, A. C., Bacanu, S., Bigdeli, T. B., Moscati, A., & Kendler, K. S. 2016). The DRD2 genes also have low levels of methylation which are trait biomarkers in schizophrenia patients (Yoshino, Y et al. 2016). Patients with schizophrenia who also have depressive symptoms have problems with their dopamine genes and there is also a connection between the reward system to the depressive symptoms (Peitl, V., Štefanović, M., & Karlović, D. 2017; Walter, H., Kammerer, H., Frasch, K., Spitzer, M., & Abler, B. 2009). In addition to these pieces of evidence, elevated dopamine levels are associated with the striatum which would prove that in patients with schizophrenia dopamine is a main cause biologically (Kegeles, L. S. et al. 2010). All of this evidence supports the theory of the dopamine hypothesis and proves how the biological model works best for