Diagnosis And Classification Of Schizophrenia

Question 1

What are the two types of symptoms in schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Positive symptoms and Negative symptoms

Positive symptoms add to daily experience, while negative symptoms take away from daily experience.

Question 2

What are examples of positive symptoms in schizophrenia?

Answer 2

Hallucinations and Delusions

Question 3

What are examples of negative symptoms in schizophrenia?

Answer 3

Alogia and Volition

Negative symptoms include alogia (speech poverty) and volition.

Question 4

What are paranoid delusions in schizophrenia?

Answer 4

When an individual believes that something or someone is deliberately trying to mislead, manipulate, hurt, or kill them.

Question 5

What are grandeur delusions in schizophrenia?

Answer 5

When an individual believes they have some imaginary power or authority, such as thinking they are on a mission from God or a secret agent.

Question 6

What is Alogia?

Answer 6

Alogia is speech poverty.

• When a person loses their ability to speak fluently (reduction in the amount of quality speech).
• There can also be a noticeable delay in verbal responses during conversation.
• Speech can be incoherent (does not make sense, move onto different topics without finishing talk about the original topic)

Question 7

What is Avolition?

Answer 7

Avolition is a lack of motivation.

• Results in low activity levels therefore do not follow through with any plans/goals and neglect household chores, such as washing the dishes or cleaning their clothes, or maintaining personal hygiene.

Question 8

What are hallucinations?

Answer 8

Hallucinations: seeing objects/people that aren’t there.
They can include all of the five senses.

Question 9

What are delusions ?

Answer 9

An unshakeable belief in something that is very unlikely, bizarre or obviously not true.

Question 10

What is classification in mental health?

Answer 10

Classification is the system used to list symptoms. Symptoms are grouped according to mental disorders. Schizophrenia should have a distinct set of symptoms from other disorders. We use the ICD-11 and the DSM-V.

Example: The ICD-11 and DSM-V are commonly used classification systems in mental health.

Question 11

What are the criteria for diagnosing schizophrenia according to DSM-V?

Answer 11

DSM-V: you need 2+ symptoms of schizophrenia for 6 months

No additional information.

Question 12

What are the criteria for diagnosing schizophrenia according to ICD-11?

Answer 12

ICD-11: you need symptoms of schizophrenia for 1 month to meet the classification.

No additional information.

Question 13

What is the importance of getting the label of schizophrenia correct?

Answer 13

Diagnosis is giving a person the label schizophrenia. Generally need 2+ symptoms for ONE month or more. It is important to get this label right as it stays with someone for the rest of their life.

No additional information.

Question 14

What was the aim of Rosenhan’s 1973 study?

Answer 14

Aim: To test the reliability of mental health diagnosis.

No additional information.

Question 15

What was the procedure followed in Rosenhan’s study?

Answer 15

Procedure: The pseudopatients went to clinical interviews and reported their symptoms. When they were admitted to a hospital, they started behaving normally and stopped reporting hearing voices. They took a notepad and pen along with them to record what they heard and saw. They tried to do this covertly, but if the staff detected them they carried on recording things overtly. As soon as they were admitted, the pseudopatients requested to be discharged. They secretly disposed of any medication they were given (eg they flushed pills down the toilet) but otherwise they were friendly and polite and did everything that was asked of them

No additional information.

Question 16

What were the results of Rosenhan’s study?

Answer 16

Results: All 12 hospitals diagnosed the pseudopatients as mentally ill. 11 hospitals diagnosed schizophrenia, 1 hospital (the private hospital) diagnosed manic-depression (bipolar disorder). The pseudopatients went to hospitals that had diagnosed them with schizophrenia.

No additional information.

Question 17

What was the conclusion drawn from Rosenhan’s study?

Answer 17

Conclusion: The problems with diagnosis were identified as the hospitals incorrectly diagnosed the pseudo patients with schizophrenia.

No additional information.

Question 18

What does the classification of schizophrenia have good reliability in?

Answer 18

The classification of schizophrenia has good reliability in inter-rater agreement and test-retest reliability.

This is shown through a psychologist’s study in which two psychologists had an inter-rater agreement of +0.97 and a test-retest reliability of +0.92.

Question 19

How does the use of two classification systems affect the validity of diagnosis?

Answer 19

The use of two classification systems can decrease the validity of diagnosis as they have different procedures.

A psychologist had two psychiatrists independently assessing the same 100 clients, with 39 clients diagnosed with the DSM-V classification and 68 clients diagnosed with the ICD.

Question 20

What is co-morbidity in the context of schizophrenia?

Answer 20

Co-morbidity in the context of schizophrenia refers to the diagnosis of schizophrenia within other conditions.

Buckley found that 50% of schizophrenia cases are also diagnosed with depression and 23% also have OCD in addition to schizophrenia.

Question 21

What is the overlap of symptoms between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?

Answer 21

There is an overlap of symptoms between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, both involving delusions and avolition.

This makes it hard to distinguish between the two disorders and raises questions about the distinct nature of schizophrenia.

Question 22

What is the gender bias within the diagnosis of schizophrenia?

Answer 22

There is a gender bias within the diagnosis of schizophrenia, with men being more likely to be diagnosed than women.

This could be due to genetic vulnerability in men or better social support in women, leading to underdiagnosis in some women.

Question 23

What is the cultural bias within the diagnosis of schizophrenia?

Answer 23

There is a cultural bias within the diagnosis of schizophrenia, particularly in Afro-Caribbean cultures.

In these cultures, hearing voices from ancestors is desirable, leading to potential misdiagnosis by psychiatrists labeling individuals as having schizophrenia.