Diagnosis and classification of SCZ Flashcards
Positive symptom and examples?
Addition to normal experience;
- auditory and visual hallucinations,
- delusions such as irrational beliefs about themselves or the world.
Negative symptom and examples?
Loss of normal experiences and abilities;
- Avolition: lack of purposeful, willed behaviour, no energy or sociability.
- Speech poverty: speak less often, use fewer words, take longer to talk or are less likely to talk.
Inter-rater reliability
Measures if two observers agree.
Test-retest reliability
Giving the same diagnosis over time with the same symptoms.
Validity in the diagnosis of SCZ
Validity questions if a person has the disorder when diagnosed, or if SCZ is a real disorder with clear and unique symptoms.
Co-morbidity
SCZ is often diagnosed with other disorders, which can lead to inaccurate diagnosis of SCZ when it could be a severe case of depression.
Symptom overlap
If two disorders are so similar, they may not be distinct and should be redefined.
Concordance rates (evaluation)
153 patients diagnosed by multiple doctors, had only a 54% concordance rate between the doctor’s assessments. Lack of agreement suggests low inter-rate reliability in diagnosing SCZ. Suggesting many people are diagnosed incorrectly, receiving wrong, inappropriate treatments.
Co-morbidity (evaluation)
Buckley found co-morbidity rates with SCZ, depression 50%, drug abuse 47%, PTSD 29% and OCD 23%.
Gender bias
Cotton argues women’s experience of SCZ is taken less seriously and underdiagnosed compared to men due to women’s better social coping strategies leading to be less likely to seek treatment.
Culture bias
DPeople with Afro-Caribbean heritage in the UK are up to 9x more likely to be diagnosed with SCZ. Due to “category failure” when Western definitions of mental illness are applied to people from non-western cultures.
Classification of mental disorder
Process of organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms cluster together in sufferers.
