Classification Of Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is schizophrenia?
It is a chronic brain disorder characterised by distorted thinking, impaired emotional responses, poor interpersonal skills and a distortion of reality.
What is the prevalence of schizophrenia in most countries around the world?
About 1% in the population aged over 18
When does the emergence of psychotic symptoms usually occur?
After a prodromal period of a few weeks or months
What is a prodromal period in schizophrenics?
This is when symptoms are vague and easy to miss, meaning it is a period of decreased functioning that correlates with the onset of psychotic symptoms.
What happens during this prodromal period?
Individuals often suffer from low mood and anxiety plus difficulties in social relationships and concentrating on work or study
What happens during the active phase of schizophrenia?
The active phase of the disorder follows the prodromal phase and a psychotic episode may last from one to six months but can extend to a year.
Inter-episode functioning varies greatly but better inter episode functioning is associated with better prognosis.
The course of schizophrenia:
- generally develops in adult life
- effects both male and females but females develop it 5-10 years later than men (no explanation)
- childhood schizophrenia is rare
- not everyone who has schizophrenia experiences all the symptoms, some people experience a few, some experience many
- the severity of symptoms varies with individuals and also varies over time
A few common signs of schizophrenia:
- delusions (believing things that are not true)
- hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not true)
- agitation
- disorganised thinking
- disorganised speech
- social withdrawal
- apathy (lack of interest and concern)
- emotional unresponsiveness
CROW has distinguished between positive and negative symptoms:
What are positive symptoms?
Where there is an addition to individuals behaviour such as hallucinations, delusions or disorganised speech.
What are negative symptoms?
Involve the loss of emotion, interest, pleasures etc. Social withdrawal, apathy and indifference to personal welfare and hygiene
POSITIVE SYMPTOM:
Delusions
Firmly held erroneous beliefs that result from distortions or exaggerations of reasoning or misinterpretations of a person’s perceptions of experiences.
common delusions include unrealistic beliefs that the person is being watched or followed
POSITIVE SYMPTOM:
Hallucinations
These are abnormalities of perception that can occur in any of the senses, although auditory hallucinations are most common. These voices often insult the person, comment on his/her behaviour or give commands. Visual hallucinations are the second most common type.
POSITIVE SYMPTOM:
Disorganised speech or thinking
Generally appears as illogical thinking and speech that is difficult to understand and sometimes incoherent.
This type of thought disorder is considered a central part of schizophrenia
POSITIVE SYMPTOM:
Grossly disorganised behaviour
Includes difficulties with activities of daily living, unpredictable agitation or behaviour that appears bizarre,
POSITIVE SYMPTOM:
Catatonic behaviour
This behaviour characterise by a significant decrease in how someone responds to his or her immediate environment.
Someone with this symptom might appear motionless or assume strange postures
