Diagnosis and Classification of Schizophrenia

Question 1

What is classification?

Answer 1

the process of organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms cluster together in sufferer

Question 2

What do psychologists use to diagnose a patient with schizophrenia?

Answer 2

DSM

ICD

Question 3

What does diagnosis refer to?

Answer 3

assigning of a label of a disorder to a patient

Question 4

What does the ICD-10 use?

Answer 4

Negative symptoms only

used world-wide

Question 5

What does the DSM-5 use?

Answer 5

Only positive symptoms

used in America

Question 6

What are positive symptoms?

Answer 6

An excess or distortion of normal functions

Question 7

What are some examples of positive symptoms?

Answer 7

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Thought disturbances

Question 8

What are hallucinations?

Answer 8

auditory or visual perceptions of things that are not present

Question 9

What are some examples of hallucinations?

Answer 9

Imagined stimuli could involve any of the senses.

Voices are usually heard coming from outside the person’s head giving instructions on how to behave.

Question 10

What are delusions?

Answer 10

False beliefs

Question 11

What is an example of delusions?

Answer 11

Usually the person has convinced him/herself that he/she is someone powerful or important, such as Jesus Christ, the Queen (e.g. Delusions of Grandeur). There are also delusions of being paranoid, worrying that people are out to get them.

Question 12

What are the two types of psychomotor disturbances?

Answer 12

• Stereotypyical

- Catatonia

Question 13

what are sterotypical psychomotor disturbances?

Answer 13

Rocking backwards and forwards, twitches, & repetitive behaviors

Question 14

What are catatonia psychomotor disturbances?

Answer 14

staying in position for hours/days on end, cut off from the world.

Question 15

What are negative symptoms?

Answer 15

a diminution or loss of normal functions such as psychomotor disturbances, avolition (the reduction of goal-directed behavior), disturbances of mood and thought disorders.

Question 16

What is associated with a thought disorder?

Answer 16

there are breaks in the train of thought and the person appears to make illogical jumps from one topic to another (loose association).

Question 17

what can happen to someone with athought disorder?

Answer 17

Words may become confused and sentences incoherent (so called ‘word salad)

Question 18

What is broadcasting?

Answer 18

a thought disorder whereby a person believes their thoughts are being broadcast to others, for example over the radio or through TV

Question 19

What is Alogia?

Answer 19

Speech poverty -

a thought disorder were correct words are used but with little meaning.

Question 20

What is avolition?

Answer 20

Lack of volition (i.e. desire)
in which a person becomes totally apathetic and sits around waiting for things to happen. They engage in no self motivated behavior.

Question 21

What did Slater & Roth (1969) about hallucination?

Answer 21

the least important of all the symptoms, as they are not exclusive to schizophrenic people.

Question 22

What are advantages of classificationa and diagnosis?

Answer 22

it allows doctors to communicate more effectively about a patient and use similar terminology when discussing them. In addition, they can then predict the outcome of the disorder and suggest related treatment to help the patient.

Question 23

What did Scheff (1966) point out about diagnosis classification labels of individuals?

Answer 23

Can have many adverse effects,

Self-fulfilling prophecy and lower self esteem

Question 24

What must be done in order for classification to be reliable?

Answer 24

differfent clinicians using the same system (e.g. DSM) should arrive at the same diagnosis for the same individual.

Question 25

What is reliability in terms of classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia?

Answer 25

the level of agreement on the diagnosis by different psychiatrists across time and cultures; stability of diagnosis over time given no change in symptoms.

Question 26

Why is the diagnosis of schizophrenia difficult?

Answer 26

the practitioner has no physical signs but only symptoms (what the patient reports) to make a decision on

Question 27

What did Jakobsen et al. (2005) test?

Answer 27

tested the reliability of the ICD-10 classification system in diagnosing schizophrenia. A hundred Danish patients with a history of psychosis were assessed using operational criteria, and a concordance rate of 98% was obtained. This demonstrates the high reliability of the clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia using up-to-date classification.

Question 28

Gender bias:

Answer 28

Loring and Powell (1988) found that some behavior which was regarded as psychotic in males was not regarded as psychotic in females.

Question 29

What is validity?

Answer 29

the extent to which schizophrenia is a unique syndrome with characteristics, signs and symptoms.

Question 30

What is questioned ablut schizophrenia?

Answer 30

That it is a single disorder.

There is no such thing as a ‘normal’ schizophrenic exhibiting the usual symptoms.

Question 31

What can cause issues with the validity of schizophrenia?

Answer 31

unsuitable treatment may be administered, sometimes on an involuntary basis. This raises practical and ethical issues when selecting different types of tretment.

Question 32

What are the problems with validity?

Answer 32

Are we really testing what we think we are testing? In the USA only 20% of psychiatric patients were classed as having schizophrenia in the 1930s but this rose to 80% in the 1950s . In London the rate remained at 20%, suggesting neither group had a valid definition of schizophrenia.