Gender bias and diagnosis of schizophrenia

Question 1

Unreported facts when diagnosing schizophrenia in men and women?

Answer 1

Men suffer more severe negative symptoms than women as well as suffering more from substance related disorders. Men are more likely to be involuntarily committed to psychiatric wards than women (Goldstein 1993).

Question 2

Biassed research?

Answer 2

Some psychologists claim research into schizophrenia has neglected to use many female patients, questioning its usefulness and representativeness.

Question 3

Underdiagnosing female patients suffering from schizophrenia?

Answer 3

Some research has suggested that women actually go under-diagnosed in comparison to men. This could have far reaching consequences as it implies many women could be denied access to treatment and have to continue suffering from the debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia

Question 4

GENDER BIAS - Research?

Answer 4

Supporting research to claim that gender bias is prominent in diagnosis.
Cotton’s research suggests women seem to recover more and suffer less relapse.
Ignoring these factors could result in beta bias in clinicians not considering important factors in diagnosis and recovery.
This affects the rate of misdiagnosis and limits our understanding of the disorder.

Question 5

GENDER BIAS - Representative?

Answer 5

There is an issue with who the research has been focussed on.
Nasser found that early research into SZ was conducted with men only. Therefore many of the findings cannot be applied to women.
Therefore research is androcentric and lacks generalisability.
This results in higher rates of misdiagnosis among women.

Question 6

GENDER BIAS - Clinician preconception?

Answer 6

Gender bias due to clinician’s preconceptions as to which gender the disorder is more prevalent in.
Loring and Powell randomly selected 290 male and female psychiatrists to read two cases. When the patient was described as male or no information about gender was given, 56% gave a diagnosis of SZ. When the patient was described as female only 20% gave a diagnosis of SZ.
Shows that gender can affect the rate of diagnosis.

Question 7

GENDER BIAS - Practical applications?

Answer 7

Good practical applications as it reduces the possibility of diagnosis being made according to gender.
Research can be used to train psychologists to not misdiagnose females who have SZ symptoms.
Results in more women receiving the correct diagnosis.
Studies can show that there are biases when diagnosing, which improves the validity of the process.