introduction to schizophrenia Flashcards
Define schizophrenia
a severe mental disorder where contact with reality and insights are impaired
an example of psychosis.
1% of the world have this disorder.
where is schizophrenia commonly diagnosed
cities, men and lower socio-economic groups.
how are disorders identified
by clusters of symptoms that occur together and classifying this as one disorder.
Diagnosis is then possible by identifying symptoms and deciding what disorder a person has.
what are the two major classification systems.
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual edition 5 (DSM-5).
The World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Disease (ICD-10).
how dose the DSM-5 and the ICD-10 differ in schizophrenia classification
DSM-5: one positive symptom must be present for diagnosis.
ICD: two or more negative symptoms are sufficient for diagnosis.
define positive symptoms
atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences.
two examples of positive symptoms.
hallucinations
delusions-paranoia.
define hallucinations
unusual sensory experiences.
have either no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there.
positive symptom
example of hallucinations
hearing voices. often related to senses.
distorted facial expressions
define delusions- paranoia.
involve irrational beliefs
may believe they are under external controls
positive symptom
example of delusions.
person believes that they are someone else of they are a victim of conspiracy.
under external control.
define negative symtpoms.
atypical experiences that represent the loss of usual experience.
such as a loss of clear thinking or a loss of motivation
two examples of negative symptoms
speech poverty
avolition-apathy
define speech poverty
reduced frequency and quality of speech
delay in verbal responses.
DSM-5: speech disorganisation.
speech becomes incoherent or the speaker changed topic mid sentence.
define avolition
involves loss of motivation to carry out tasks: results in lowered activity levels.
example of avolition
Nancy Anderson: 3 signs of avolition- poor hygiene and lack of persistence.
One strength of the diagnosis of schizophrenia
good reliability.
A reliable diagnosis is consistent between clinicians (inter-rater) and between occasions (test-retest).
Osorio et al. (2019) ; report excellent reliability for schizophrenia diagnosis (DSM-5)
one limitation
low validity
One way to assess validity is criterion validity,
involves seeing whether different procedures used to assess the same individuals arrive at the same diagnosis.
Cheniaux et al. (2009):
two psychiatrists independently assess the same 100 clients.
68:diagnosed with schizophrenia with ICD compared to 39: under DSM.
Another limitation of schizophrenia
co-morbidity with other conditions.
Schizophrenia is commonly diagnosed with other conditions.
Buckley et al. (2009): 50% of individuals with schizophrenia also have depression.
47% have co morbidity with substance abuse and for OCD it is 23%
define co morbidity
the occurrence fo two disorders or conditions together.
eg: person has both schizophrenia and personality disorders.
A further limitation
cultural bias.
Some symptoms : hearing voices are accepted in some cultures. for example : some people in Afro-Caribbean societies ‘hear voices’ from their ancestors.
Afro-Caribbean men are up to ten times more likely to receive a diagnosis as white British men: due to overinterpretation of symptoms by UK psychiatrists
final limitation
symptom overlap with other conditions.
overlap between the symptoms of schizophrenia and other conditions
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may be the same condition Schizophrenia is hard to distinguish from bipolar disorder.
