Lecture 12-13: Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders Flashcards
- Positive symptoms
- Delusions (thoughts)
- Hallucinations (sensory perceptions - ex: auditory is most common)
- Disorganized symptoms (disorganized speech -> say things that don’t make sense, loose associations, clangs (saying things bc they rhyme), neologisms (new words!) - Negative symptoms
- often the ones that cause the most impairment - Anhedonia
- Avolition
- Alogia
Understand the stages in the chart Vanessa presented showing the “stages” of schizophrenia.
- Premorbid: normal psychotic-like experiences, slight abnormalities
- Prodromal: at risk for psychosis, showing clinical signs, starting to have some impairmnets
- Onset/Deterioration
- Chronic/Residual
What are some indicators that point toward a high risk for developing psychosis? Why would it
be ideal to be able to identify individuals who are most at risk for developing psychosis?
- Negative symptoms
- Attenuated positive symptoms
- Disorganized symptoms
- Decline in functioning
- Cognitive changes
Identifying high risk individuals early can lead to better outcomes!! (early intervention can prevent or delay onset of psychotic symptoms)
Describe the three different psychosis risk syndromes Vanessa discussed.
1) Brief Intermittent Psychosis Syndrome: have psychotic symptoms, but they are infrequent
2) Attenuated Positive Symptom Syndrome: have positive symptoms (delusions or hallucinations) but they are REDUCED
3) Genetic Risk and Functional Decline Syndrome: have a 1st degree relative w/ a psychotic disorder and there is a decline in your functioning
What does it mean to say that schizophrenia is likely a “neurodevelopmental disorder?”
- symptoms are present from young
- occurs bc there was an IMPAIRMENT in the development of your brain
What environmental or pre-natal factors seem to increase the risk for schizophrenia?
- Maternal infections
- Stress (loss of loved one)
- Nutritional Deficiency
- Low Birth Weight
- Material Weight (high or low)
- Late fatherhood
How does adolescent brain development appear to play a role in schizophrenia?
- Excessive pruning!!!
- Increases in myelination, amygdala, hippocampus
- Adrenal hormones that can increase sensitivity to stress
How has research attempted to explain the less-than-perfect concordance rate between monozygotic twins?
The less than perfect concordance rates b/w MZ twins show that ENVIRONMENT also plays a role in developing schizo. More than just genetics.
What are the major differences between first generation and second generation antipsychotics? For what types of symptoms are anti-psychotics most effective?
- First-generation (neuroleptics): work on reducing dopamine, TERRIBLE SIDE EFFECTS (tardive dyskinesia, tiredness)
-> low compliance
- Second-generation (atypical): work on reducing serotonin and dopamine, not as bad side effects but still has metabolic side effects (a lot of weight gain, liver problems)
Anti-psychotics only really work on positive symptoms (get rid of hallucinations, delusions)
- They don’t help with getting negative symptoms back
What is tardive dyskinesia?
- Involuntary movements, significantly impairs your life!
Be able to briefly describe the findings of the clinical trial for the treatment of schizophrenia that we discussed in class
- One group: treatment as normal (high doses of antipsychotics
- Another group: low does of antipsychotics (psychotherapy, help at work/school, family education, etc.)
- Had much better results!
(reduced time in the hospital and
symptoms improved)
What are the key diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia?
Two or more of the following (at least 1 of the core symptoms:
- Delusions, Hallucinations, disorganized symptoms, negative symptoms, disorganized behavior
- Needs to be impaired functioning
- At least for SIX MONTHS!
