Lecture 8: Psychotic Disorders: Chapter 9 Flashcards
What is a psychosis? How is it described in the DSM?
Disruption in the experience of reality
DSM doesn’t define what is psychotic, but defines psychosis in terms of symptoms
What are the 2 types of symptoms of psychosis?
- Positive: add something
- Negative: remove something
What are hallucinations? What are 3 characteristics of it?
Perception-like experiences which occur without external stimulus
- Lifelike
- Full force/impact of normal perceptions
- Can occur in all modalities
What is the most common type of hallucination?
Auditory (voices)
What percentage of children around age 8 has audiovisual hallucinations? How is this at age 12?
age 8: 9%
age 12: hallucinations don’t persist, 76% of the kids who experienced hallucinations before don’t experience it anymore
What percentage of the general population experiences audiovisual hallucinations?
5-28%
What percentage of children (5-12y) have an imaginary friend?
46%
In which age categories are the most incidences of psychotic experiences?
Highest in adolescents (5 per 100)
Lowest in older adults (1 per 100)
Fill in the percentage:
About ..% of persons who experienced psychotic experiences will report a second PE each year
30%
What are delusions? Why is this a problematic definition and what is a solution for it?
Beliefs/convictions which conflict with reality
Problematic, because it conflicts with religions or just remembering something that is wrong.
Solution: it depends on how rigid your thinking is and if it’s not part of a subculture
–> Fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence
Why are hallucinations not automatically a sign of an illness?
They can be culturally induced (shamans, burning bushes in bible etc.)
How can you help a kid with an imaginary friend?
Talk to the kid, because he’s probably lonely
Are conspiracy theories a delusion?
No
What debate pops up when defining delusions?
Belief vs. delusion
What are the 2 most common types of delusions?
- Persecutory
- Referential
What are the 7 types of delusions? Give an example for each
- Persecutory: they’re after me
- Referential: things that are not related to you feel related to you, what is seen on TV relates to you
- Somatic: bugs under skin
Insertion: someone implanted chip in brain - Grandiosity: thinking you win a nobel price, but actually didn’t study
- Erotomanic: celebrity is in love with me
- Nihilistic: impending catastrophe, world is going to end, can suck the soul out of people by looking in their eyes
- Control: believe external force controls feelings, e.g. phone signals controls you
Why can’t you make a distinction between bizarre and non-bizarre delusions?
It’s a very subjective judgment. It’s like asking if something is normal or abnormal
What are 2 positive symptoms of Schizophrenia?
Delusions & hallucinations
What are 5 negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Avolition
- Alogia
- Anhedonia
- Blunted affect
- Asociality
What are 2 disorganized symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Disorganized behavior
- Disorganized speech
A study with 200 people with schizophrenia was conducted. Which hallucinations were experienced as unpleasant and which ones were evaluated more positively?
Unpleasant: third person hallucinations
More positive: hallucinations from a known person
Which area in the brain is more active in auditory hallucinations? What is the problem in the brain in hallucinations?
Broca’s area (speech production) and Wernicke’s area (comprehension)
Problem in connections between frontal lobe (production of speech) and the temporal lobe (understanding of speech)
What are the 2 most common negative symptoms in schizophrenia?
- Reduced expressivity
- Avolition: reduced self-motivation and goal-oriented activities
What is avolition in schizophrenia? How is it compared to controls?
Reduced self-motivation and goal-oriented activities, usually in routine-activities
But equally motivated by goals that had to do with interacting with others and with avoiding criticism and more motivated by goals to reduce boredom
What is alogia? Give an example
Reduced speech production: people don’t talk much
E.g. Answer question with 1 word and not elaborating on it
What is anhedonia?
Reduced enjoyment
What is asociality?
Reduced interest in social activities. Have few freinds, poor social skills and little interest in being with others. They spend much time alone and otherwise interact superficially
What are the 2 types of pleasure experiences in anhedonia? Which type is affected in people with schizophrenia?
- Consummatory pleasure: pleasure in the moment (e.g. eating a good meal)
- Anticipatory pleasure: expected pleasure from future events (e.g. graduating)
Schizophrenia: impaired anticipatory pleasure. They can still enjoy a current moment
What is blunted affect? What are some characteristics of it?
Lack of outward expression or emotion
E.g. motionless face muscles, lifeless eyes, flat toneless voice
How can you divide the negative symptoms of schizophrenia in domains?
- Motivation and pleasure domain: emotional experience, sociality, motivation
- Expression domain: outward expression of emotion and vocalization
What is disorganized speech?
Problems in organizing ideas and in speaking so a listener can understand
What are loose associations/derailments in disorganized speech?
A person can communicate with a listener but has difficulty sticking to one topic
What is disorganized behavior in schizophrenia?
Different behavioral symptoms, such as agitation, unusual dressing, act in a silly manner, wander around or collect garbage
They lose ability to organize behavior and conform to community standards
What is catatonia?
A spectrum of different physical symptoms
- Repeated peculiar/complex sequences of movements, which seem purposeful. Having an unusual increas in activity, sometimes similar to mania
- Immobility: adopt unusual postures and maintain them for very long periods of time
What is anosognosia?
Reduced insight into illness
When is typically the onset of schizophrenia? When is the peak of the symptoms?
between 16 and 30 years
Peak (men): early-mid 20
Peak (women): late 20
What is the prevalence of schizophrenia and how does it relate to gender?
1%
Men slightly more often than women
What is the symptom that bothers people with schizophrenia the most? On which symptoms does treatment often focus?
Sense of shattered self and not having any friends
But treatment focuses often more on hallucinations and delusions
What are the DSM criteria for schizophrenia? (A(5) - B - C)
A. For at least one month continuously: 2 of these (at least on of 1,2,3)
1. Delusions
2. Hallucinations
3. Disorganized speech
4. Grossly disorganized/catatonic behavior
5. Negative symptoms
B. Significant impact functioning
C. Continued signs/impairment for 6 months
What is schizoaffective disorder?
Mixture of symptoms of schizophrenia (criterion A) and mood disorders
DSM: requires a depressive or manic episode rather than simply mood disorder symptoms
What is the main difference between schizophreniform disorder and schizophrenia?
Schizophreniform disorder lasts only 1 to 6 months.
Schizophrenia: last at least 6 months
What are 2 characteristics of brief psychotic disorder?
- Lasts from 1 day to 1 month
- Brought on by extreme stress
What are the 5 criteria of delusional disorder?
- Presence of one or more delusions within 1 month or longer
- Criterion A for schizophrenia never been met, hallucinations are not prominent and related to the delusions
- Functioning is not markedly impaired and behavior is not obviously bizarre (apart from the impact of the delusions)
- In case of manic or MD episodes, these were brief compared to delusional periods
- Disturbance not attributable to physiological effects of substance or other medical conditions
Give an example of a delusion
Being convinced that someone in your family tries to poison you
What is the main issue in diagnosing delusional disorder?
The DSM criteria ask for a judgment of if something is bizarre or not. That is very subjective
What are the 8 types of delusional disorder?
- Erotomanic
- Grandiose
- Jealous
- Persecutory
- Somatic
- Mixed
- Unspecified
- With bizarre content
What is the erotomanic type of delusional disorder?
Central theme of delusion is that another person is in love with the individual
What is the grandiose type of delusional disorder?
Central theme of delusion is the conviction of having some great, but unrecognized talent, or insight
What is the jealous type of delusional disorder?
Central theme is that is that his/her spouse is unfaithful
What is the persecutory type of delusional disorder?
Central theme is the individual belief that he/she is being conspired ageainst, followed, cheated on, poisoned etc.