diagnosis and classification Flashcards
Weakness of diagnosis and classification
Rosenhan
Ran a participant observation where he presented 8 pseudo patients at 12 different psychiatric hospitals in America for admission. Presented themselves as hearing voices (empty, hollow and thud). after being granted admission to hospital pseudo patients acted completely normal. He found that all were admitted to the hospital and 7 were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were hospitalised for 7-52 days. No staff suspected them and normal behaviours shown were interpreted as symptoms. Shows a Type 1 error as psychiatrics are over cautious diagnosing a disorder that someone doesn’t have.
reduces the validity of the diagnosis as there is an overlap between ‘sane’ and ‘insane’.
strength of diagnosis and classification
Osorio et al.
Osorio et al. reported excellent inter-rater reliability of +0.97 and test-retest of +0.92 for the diagnosis of 180 schizophrenics using the DSM-5. Showing there was excellent agreement between clinicians when using a single diagnostic system. this shows the high reliability.
However, Cheneaux et al. had two psychiatrics independently assess the same 100 clients using the IDC-10 or DSM-5 criteria and found 68 were diagnosed with schizophrenia under the IDC and only 39 under the DSM lowering reliability between clinicians and presenting mixed findings.
weakness of diagnosis and classification
Fischer and Buchanan
Fischer and Buchanan have found that since the 1980s men are diagnosed more than women with a 1.4:1 ratio. Cotton et al. said women could be under diagnosed because of closer relationships and therefore getting more support.
weakness of diagnosis and classification
Ethnocentric
Some schizophrenia symptoms (e.g. hearing voices) have a different interpretation in different cultures e.g. in Haiti this is considered to be communication from ancestors. Escobar said there was an overinterpretation of symptoms in black British people. This shows how it can be considered ethnocentric.
