AB: Psychotic Disorders Flashcards
What is a psychosis formally?
(Formally) Disruption in the experience of reality/ reality testing
How does the DSM define psychosis?
In terms of positive (adding something) and negative (detracting somethings symptoms) and disorganised.
How are hallucinations defined?
Perception-like experiences which occur with our an external stimulus that are
- Lifelike
- Full force and impact of normal perceptions
- Can occur in all modalities
- Most common: auditory
How may culture impact hallucinations?
In some (sub)cultures, hallucinations are normal religious experience
What percentage of the population has audiovisual hallucinations?
Children around 8: +/-9%
general population : 5%-28% although very mild
How has the definition for delusions changed from the dsm 4 to the dsm 5? Why is this definition still problematic
Changed from erroneous beliefs that usually involve a misinterpretation of perceptions and experiences to being defined as fixed beliefs that are not amendable to change in light of conflicting evidence. This is problematic as it includes religion, anti vaxxers etc
What are the two most common types of delusions according to the slides?
Referential- where they believe things are aimed at them that aren’t (perceived messages etc)
Persecutory- The belief that everyone is out to get you
What are some delusions that are less common according to the slides(4)
Somatic, grandiosity, erotomania (celebrity x is in love with me) and nihilistic (impending cataostrophe- perhaps if they do or don’t do something)
What is the difference between bizarre and non-bizarre delusions according to the DSM?
Delusions are deemed bizarre if they are clearly implausible and not understandable to same-culture peers and do not derive from ordinary life experiences
Name two common negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Reduced expressivity and avolition: reduces self-motivated goal-orientated activities
Name four less common negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Alogia: reduced speech production
Anhedonia: reduced enjoyment
A-sociality: reduced interest in social activities.
Blunted effect: difficulty expressing emotions
Give some examples of disorganised symptoms (2)
Disorganised speech or catatonic behaviour (disorganised behaviour)
Give four other symptoms
- jumping to conclusions
- Disrupted self-experience
- Neurocognitive difficulties
- Anognosia: Reduced insight into the illness
What problems are presented by the diagnostic criteria of the DSM
People can reduce schizophrenia to just these observable symptoms
What is the criterion A for schizophrenia in the DSM5?
Duration of 1 month or less if successfully treated.
2 of the following symptoms and 1 must be 1,2 or 3
1) Delusions.
2) Hallucinations.
3) Disorganized speech
4) Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior.
5) Negative symptoms
What are the criterion B and C for schizophrenia?
B: significant impact functioning
C: Continued signs of disturbance for 6 months
What is the general onset of schizophrenia and when does it peak for men and women?
16-30 years old
‘Peak’ men- early to mid 20s
‘peak’ women: late 20s
What is schizoaffective disorder?
An uninterrupted period of illness during which there is a major mood episode (major depressive or manic) concurrent with criteria of schizophrenia
What is the problem with this definition of a schizoaffective disorder?
A schizophrenic disorder must, according to the DSM, not meet the criteria for a major mood disorder. This can also be hard to distinguish in reality; a lot of the time sz/sa is used to describe schizophrenic/schizoaffective
What are the requirements for delusional disorder?
A. The presence of one or more delusions with a duration of one month or longer
B. Criterion A for schizophrenia has never been met
C. Apart from the impact of the delusions or its ramifications, functioning is not markedly impaired, and behaviour is not obviously bizarre or odd.
D. If manic or depressive episodes have occurred, these have been brief relative to the duration of the delusional periods
How would you differ diagnoses between delusional disorder and OCD and BDD or mood disorders?
even if the belief of catastrophe / body experience is extremely solidified, and there is anosognosia, OCD or BDD fits better than delusional disorder. Similar to schizoaffective disorder, symptoms of mood have to be relatively short compared to symptoms of delusional disorder
What diagnostic tools are often utilised in diagnosing schizophrenia?
(Semi) structured interviews which correlate to diagnosis algorithms (charts) and a symptom/ severity profile.
Also a bead task can be used to track a tendency for jumping to conclusions and a digit span test to track neurocognition (working memory.)
Why may a clients answers not fully correlate with the results of his structured interview?
clinicians can give an alternate answers to the clients (hearing voices example)
What is the main theory on the etiology of schizophrenia at the minute? What evidence is there for this
The dopamine hypothesis (biological neurological perspective)
-Medication implies that dopamine is at the foundation of (positive) symptoms
How does the ethology differ between men and women?
◦ A little more men than women
◦ Symptomatology: women have a little more symptoms, but social functioning remains a little better
How is genetics linked to schizophrenia?
Strong genetic component; those who have schizophrenia most likely got it genetically but those who have it are more likely to pass on another serious mental disorder then schizophrenia
What effect do anti psychotic medications have?
Reduce positive symptoms but doesn’t / barely works on negative symptoms
Briefly describe the aberrant salience model of schizophrenia
If schizophrenia causes dopamine irregularities, a sudden shot of it could signal a feeling of importance to the person which could be attributed to a stimulus in the area such as a person, the mind could then try to fill the gaps to make sense of this (ie the person is a spy)
Give two location based risk factors regarding schizophrenia
higher chance in urban areas, being a migrant raises risk (moving back decreases)
Is there a link between schizophrenia and drugs?
There is a clear link between cannabis and psychosis (especially if you have a predisposition)
What is the link between trauma and psychosis? (3)
50-98% of those suffering had previous trauma and 80% of patients experience their psychotic episodes as traumatic too. 19% of people with psychosis have PTSD.
What is mentalising and what link does it have with psychosis
Put yourself in other peoples shoes. Deafness/ deprivation impedes development of mentalising and there has been associations found between hearing difficulties, trauma in development and later psychotic symptoms/ disorders. This led to a social defeat hyptheses
What may these risk factors point towards as an overall risk factor for schizophrenia?
Social exclusion and inability to relate to other people
Explain the cognitive model of schizophrenia
Trigger stimulates an intrusive thought. This increases cognitive dissonance and is misattributed to an external source and experienced as an auditory hallucination which decreases cognitive dissonance. This leads to an appraisal of hallucination which may either be somatic, affective or behavioural and can lead to another intrusive thought.
What are downsides to antipsychotic medication
Awful side effects, especially in motor skills (parkinsonism) also stuff like makes you fat, makes you drool etc
How and when should you reduce meds?
The odds of relapse 43% with tapering vs 21% with reduced meds
What is the recovery options for someone with schizophrenia?
Symptom free is unlikely -20% however undergoing a meaningful personal recovery with the illness is very possible
What (behavioural) risks are associated with schizophrenia? (3)
Substance abuse, suicide and their mortality rates are as high or higher than those who smoke
What delusions does the book add regarding our internal thoughts and processes
Thought insertion- believing thoughts are placed from an external source
Thought broadcasting- believing that his or her thoughts are broadcast or transmitted
Also believing an external force control their feelings or behaviours
In a study what affected whether hallucinations were perceived to be pleasant or unpleasant?
those whose hallucinations were longer, louder, more frequent, and experienced in the third person found the hallucinations unpleasant. Hallucinations that were believed to come from a known person were experienced more positively
What have studies on the brain shown during auditory hallucination?
greater activity in Broca’s area and in Wernicke’s area