diagnosis and classification

Question 1

what are the strengths of the diagnosis of schizophrenia?

Answer 1

1. one strength of the diagnosis of schizophrenia is its reliability
   - prior to the DSM-5 reliability for diagnosis was low but it has now improved
   - excellent reliability was reported for schizophrenia diagnosis in 180 people using the DSM-5 with a inter-rater reliability of +9.7 and test-retest reliability of +9.2
   - can be sure that the diagnosis process is consistently applied

Question 2

what are the weaknesses of the diagnosis of schizophrenia?

Answer 2

2. one limitation of the diagnosis is its validity
   - Cheniaux tested the criterion validity
   - 2 psychiatrists independently assessed the same 100 clients using one the systems and 68 were diagnosed with ICD and 39 under DSM
   - the incongruence between the amount of diagnoses shows it’s either being under or overdiagnosed
3. in cases of co-morbidity - many people can have more than one mental disorder which questions whether it might be a single unique condition
   - schizophrenia is commonly diagnosed alongside depression or substance use
   - this is a problem for classification as there may be cases where someone might have an unusual case of depression with schizophrenia associated symptoms