characteristics

Question 1

what is the definition of schizophrenia?

Answer 1

• a significant mental disorder characterised through psychosis (loss of touch with reality)
• people suffering from schizophrenia can suffer both positive and negative symptoms

Question 2

what are positive symptoms?

Answer 2

• behaviours that are not present in normal, healthy behaviour
• hallucinations (vivid and clear involuntary experiences that can be auditory and sensory; hearing voices is the most common)
• delusions (fixed beliefs that do not change in the face of reason or new evidence e.g. persecutory delusions, risk of harm or harassment by another individual or organisation, like the government )

Question 3

what are negative symptoms?

Answer 3

• behaviours that are present in normal behaviour, but have
  slowed or stopped
• catatonia (the inability to move normally; movement and speech slows or stops, and their skin appears wax-like, reductions in emotional expressions such as eye contact, facial expressions and hand movements)
• disorganised speech (speech is incoherent featuring incorrect grammar or the inability to form complex sentences leading to slurring and poor pronunciation, known as a “word salad”)

Question 4

what are prodromal symptoms?

Answer 4

• early symptoms that may appear weeks or months before the first episode
• they indicate the onset of a disease or illness
• however, they are not enough for a diagnosis
• avoiding the company of others, social withdrawal and being irritable or oversensitive can be perceived as typical teenage behaviour (schizophrenia usually arises during adolescence) or the symptoms of another illness like depression
• it is only in retrospect that prodromal symptoms are recognised

Question 5

what are diagnostic criteria?

Answer 5

• the UK and EU use ICD-10 to diagnose mental and physical illnesses
• the US uses DSM-5 to diagnose mental illnesses.
• these are consulted when a patient presents their symptoms to a doctor and are used to assess their experiences to conclude a diagnosis
• both are regularly updated and renewed
• however, they generalise the findings of Western studies and apply them to people of all nationalities, ethnicities and backgrounds making them culturally biased
• predominantly Western based research with Western norms and ideals are applied to patients from all over the world, leading to a potential misdiagnosis