Lesson 2: The positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Question 1

What are positive symptoms?

Answer 1

Refers to excesses or symptoms that have been added ➕ to patient’s personality because of illness- symptoms ✖️ present when person was healthy

Question 2

What are negative symptoms?

Answer 2

Refers to reduction or loss of normal functioning- person will have a weakened ability to cope and manage everyday life- person loses ability to do certain things because of illness

Question 4

State the positive ➕ symptoms of schizophrenia

Answer 4

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Disorganised speech
• Disorganised 🏃‍♂️

Question 5

State the type of hallucinations a person with schizophrenia could face

Answer 5

1) Auditory 👂 hallucinations
2) Visual 👀 hallucinations
3) Olfactory 👃 hallucinations
4) Tactile ✋ hallucinations

Question 6

State the type of delusions a person with schizophrenia could face

Answer 6

1) Delusions of grandeur
2) Delusions of persecution
3) Delusions of reference

Question 7

State the type of disorganised speech a person with schizophrenia could face

Answer 7

1) Derailment
2) Neologisms
3) Word salad

Question 8

State the type of disorganised 🏃‍♂️ a person with schizophrenia could face

Answer 8

1) Catatonia

2) General disorganised 🏃‍♂️

Question 9

State the type of Anhedonia a person with schizophrenia could face

Answer 9

1) General Anhedonia
2) Physical Anhedonia
3) Social Anhedonia

Question 10

What are auditory hallucinations?

Answer 10

Patient will hear 👂 voices that ✖️ exist BUT feel very real to patient)
Voices usually loud and heard in both 👂(or maybe one)
Voice might sound like patient’s own inner voice BUT sometimes can be one they ✖️ recognise
Sometimes ⬆️ than 1 voice can be heard and voices may be mixture of 👨 and 👩 voices
Voices usually give running commentary on what patient is doing
Mostly voices say ➖ comments (rather than ➕ ones)
Patients might respond to voices (and that is why they might be seen talking to themselves)

Question 11

What are visual hallucinations?

Answer 11

Patient might 👀 things that ✖️ exist such as shapes, images, objects
Disturbing vivid images e.g. bugs crawling on their skin

Question 12

What are Olfactory hallucinations?

Answer 12

Patient might 👃 odours that ✖️ exist e.g. smelling gas, burning or perfume

Question 13

What are tactile hallucinations?

Answer 13

Patient might believe they can feel things that are not really present e.g. someone touching them or might feel intense heat (burning 🔥 )

Question 14

What are delusions of grandeur?

Answer 14

Patient might believe they are someone important/powerful e.g. God- might believe they have special powers (can walk on water or fly)-> causing great harm to themselves

Question 15

What are delusions of persecution?

Answer 15

Patient believes everyone conspiring against them and that everyone dislikes them- very ➖ attitude towards most people because of this issue

Question 16

What are delusions of reference?

Answer 16

Patient believes objects, events and songs have personal significance- refers directly to them- may become emotionally attached to objects (e.g. a vase) and might name the object and talk to it

Question 17

What is derailment?

Answer 17

Due to abnormal 💭 processes, individual has problems organising his/her 💭 which means that when talking, the patients changes from 1 topic to another and makes little sense

Question 18

What are Neologisms?

Answer 18

Patient might make up words that ✖️ exist and puts these made up words into sentences

Question 19

What is a word salad?

Answer 19

Patient might string random words together in order to try to make a sentence and their speech pattern is very disorganised

Question 20

What is catatonia?

Answer 20

Patient has ⬇️ reaction to environmental stimuli and in some cases might adopt rigid postures or aimless psychomotor activity e.g. rocking movements 🪑

Question 21

What is general disorganised behaviour?

Answer 21

Patients might have an inability/lack of motivation to initiate a task or complete it- dress 👗 /act in bizarre ways which seems strange and disorganised, e.g. wearing a thick heavy jumper in the middle of summer ☀️

Question 22

What is deficit syndrome?

Answer 22

When patient has experienced 2 negative symptoms for the last 12 months or longer- cognitive deficits which are ✖️ likely to be alleviated by drug 💊 treatment

Question 23

What is speech poverty?

Answer 23

Speech is lessened in terms of fluency and productivity as patients thinking is slow 🐌 and 💭 might be blocked- patient might reply to questions with brief replies and minimal elaboration- fewer words tend to be produced in a given amount of ⏰ when completing a task, e.g. naming as many animals as possible in 1 minute- patients cannot spontaneously produce a long list of words

Question 24

What is Avolition/apathy?

Answer 24

Patient has ⬇️ interest/desire/inability to initiate/persist in goal directed 🏃‍♂️ that is available to them- happy to sit and do nothing even though they have the opportunity to talk to other people around them and interact- occurs mainly when the patient has poor hygiene/grooming 🧔, lack of persistence in work/education 📚/lack of energy

Question 25

What is affective flattening?

Answer 25

Patient has restricted ability to respond to emotional 😭 stimuli- patient has ⬇️ in range and intensity of emotional 😭 expressions e.g. facial expression, tone of voice, 👁 contact and body language- behave inappropriately in social situations e.g. laugh 😆 when they are told bad news, or 😢 when everyone is 😆 at a joke

Question 26

What is general Anhedonia?

Answer 26

General lack of interest in almost all activities and a lack of interest in pleasurable stimuli

Question 27

What is physical Anhedonia?

Answer 27

Inability to experience any physical pleasure for instance from eating, body contact, sex, touch etc

Question 28

What is social Anhedonia?

Answer 28

Inability to experience pleasure from interacting with others in different situations- patient might withdraw and refuse to interact with others

Question 29

State the negative ➖ symptoms of schizophrenia

Answer 29

• Deficit syndrome
• Speech poverty
• Avolition/apathy- no motivation and lack of energy
• Affective flattening
• Anhedonia