Clinical characteristics of schizophrenia

Question 1

How does schizophrenia (SZ) affect the world?

when does it occur?

Answer 1

• affects 1% of the total population of the world.
• occurs in late adolescence or early adulthood but it can develop in later life, although rarely past the age of 45.
• it affects men as equally as women.
• can be defined with either positive or negative symptoms.

Question 2

What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (sz)?

Answer 2

• delusions; can be defined as either delusions of grandeur or paranoid delusions.
• hallucinations; either auditory or hallucinations from other sense eg smell, etc.
• thought insertion, withdrawal or broadcast
• incoherent speech; sufferers speech goes in every directions without following a logical and coherent thread, making it impossible for others to understand.
• catatonic behaviour; might be motionless for long periods of time. repetitive and aimless behaviour.

Question 3

What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Sz)/

Answer 3

• flatness of affect; the sufferer is apathetic (without enthusiasm and talk without emotion.
• anhedonia; inability to enjoy pleasurable experiences.
• alogia; poverty of speech which becomes less fluent. it is thought that this reflects ‘thought blocking’ (when the person reports that the thought had been taken out of their head’.
• avolition; lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities. this might lead a person to fail to take care of themselves. i.e lack of hygiene, poor diet.

Question 4

What is the different between negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

• positive symptoms are behaviours and features which non schizophrenics do not experience
• negative symptoms are symptoms that are characterised by being disruptions to normal patterns of emotions and behaviours.

Question 5

For positive symptoms, what types of delusions do schizophrenics experience?

Answer 5

• delusions of grandeur; the sufferer believes he/she is someone important i.e Jesus or has some special powers.
• paranoid delusions; which is the belief that others want to harm the sufferer