Mental Health Conditions Flashcards
Is schizophrenia a mental health condition?
Yes
What is a delusion?
Delusions are fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence (not explained by culture)
What is a hallucination?
Hallucinations are perception-like experiences that occur without an external stimulus
State some sign and symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disorganized speech
- Disorganized or abnormal behavior
- Diminished emotional expression
- Avolition (total lack of motivation that makes it hard to get anything done)
- Impoverished speech
- Anhedonia (lack of interest)
- Decline in interest in socialization and relationships
What are some effects to cognition that arise from schizophrenia?
- Decline in processing speed
- Attention and working memory negatively affected
- Verbal and visual learning
- Problem solving
- Social cognition
- Anosognosia (lack of insight)
Schizophrenia is a progressive disorder that can be treated but not cured.
True or False?
True
This lifelong brain disorder is characterized by periods of psychosis.
Schizophrenia
________ is the presence of hallucinations or delusions without insight, and/or disorganized thoughts/speech, abnormal motor behavior, and diminished volition and emotional expression.
Psychosis
There is no one cause for schizophrenia, there are a number of models that attempt to explain the multiple factors that can contribute to the development of the disorder, name a few.
- Genetic vulnerability
- Environmental triggers
- Structural abnormalities in all regions of the brain
- Reduced activity in the frontal and temporal regions of the brain
- Abnormal cortical, sub-cortical brain connectivity
- Complications in prenatal development or delivery
- Complications in later development of the brain (chronic cannabis use, exposure to trauma)
The incidence of schizophrenia is relatively ______
High or low?
Low
Some studies have indicated that migrant status, lower economic status, residing in higher latitude or urban setting, and gender are factors associated with a higher incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia.
How might these variables also have an effect on an individual’s occupations while living with the disorder?
- Most likely would present an added challenge
- May be lacking adequate funds or social support to participate in meaningful occupations
- Progressive decline in daily living skills
- Work and education skills
- Social/relationship skills
- Basic self-care abilities
Schizophrenia affects the brain, which regulates impulse control, judgment, affect, social skills and self-awareness. As a result people with schizophrenia may struggle with…
- Accepting or recognizing that they have the disorder
- Can lead to resistance to treatments that could help reduce or eliminate symptoms
Resistance to treatments that could help reduce or eliminate symptoms is most-likely caused by what symptom of schizophrenia?
Lack of self-awareness (anosognosia)
Delusions are categorized into bizarre and non-bizarre, explain the difference
Bizarre: characterized by beliefs or events that are clearly impossible and not related to everyday life experiences, such as belief that aliens have impregnated the person while he/she was asleep.
Non-Bizarre: involve situations that could possibly occur in real life, such as being followed, deceived or loved from a distance. An example could be the belief that all coworkers are talking about the person.
Hallucinations are most commonly of which type?
Auditory
Describe disorganized speech as it relates to schizophrenia
Speech content, which can provide clues about thought processes may encompass any type of disorganized thinking such as: loose associations (answers that begin to veer of track of the original question), tangential (unrelated comments or answers), incoherent (often referred to as word salad and is seen in more severe cases)
Describe grossly disorganized behavior as it relates to schizophrenia
Unpredictable, socially inappropriate, behavior that interferes with daily activities. Examples include agitated or angry outbursts with no known provocation, sexually acting out in public, and difficulties performing goal directed tasks such as preparation and grooming
Describe Catatonia as it relates to schizophrenia
An abnormal motor behavior characterized by a loss of responsiveness to environmental cues. The individual may assume rigid or bizarre postures and resist attempt to move or reposition him or her. Excessive, non-purposeful motor activity may also be observed. In severe cases, the individual appears to be completely unresponsive, as in a catatonic stupor.
Negative symptoms are features that represent an absence of function or experience. Two prominent features of schizophrenia include diminished emotional expression and avolition. Please describe these features as they relate to the disorder
Diminished emotional expression is restricted facial expressions, eye contact, speech intonations and movements that are typically used to convey meaning or emphasize speech.
Avolition is lack of motivation to engage n social or productive activities.
Alogia (impoverished speech), anhedonia (loss of pleasure in previously enjoyed activities), and asociality (decreased interest in socialization and maintenance of relationships) are all _______________ of schizophrenia
Negative symptoms
Tests done on people with schizophrenia have shown impaired neurocognitive functioning in completing tasks requiring use of the frontal and temporal lobes, what might this impaired cognitive functioning look like?
Memory, attention, language, executive function (such as abstract reasoning and planning skills)
Flattened or inappropriate affect is a common symptom of schizophrenia, and people with schizophrenia are more likely to identify difficulties in identifying and expressing emotions, this coupled with a limited ability to identify social cues, can lead to maladaptive ___________
Social functioning
Dysphoria can be present during or following a psychotic episode, what does dysphoria entail?
A state of generalized unhappiness, restlessness, dissatisfaction, or frustration, and it can be a symptom of several mental health conditions.
Onset of symptoms for schizophrenia can be gradual or acute, but there are usually earlier signs of dysfunction in both _____________ and ______________
Premorbid functioning and the period from birth to the prodromal phase (the prodromal phase is the period during which the individual is experiencing changes in feelings, thought, perceptions and behavior although they have not yet started experiencing clear psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions or thought disorder)
Studies of premorbid functioning reveal subtle signs of problems in motor development, affect, and school performance. Impairments in cognitive functioning are often first documented by _________
Schools
Noncompliance with medication and chronic substance abuse significantly increase the risk for relapse. Relapses, which are associated with deterioration in daily functioning, can also be triggered by…
Lack of available psychosocial treatment and support, noncompliance with psychosocial treatment, and environmental stressors
People with schizophrenia die, on average, 12 to 25 years earlier than do those in the general population
True or False?
True, these deaths are usually related to pulmonary, cardiac, and infectious diseases and cancer. Complications from antipsychotic medications, self-neglect, fear of health-institutions, lack of access to healthcare and increased suicide rate are all contributing factors to this disparity in life expectancy
The age of onset for schizophrenia is between ___ and ____ years of age and is typically earlier for _____ than _______
16 and 30 years of age
Earlier for males then females
Childhood schizophrenia refers to a diagnosis before the age of ____ an is characterized by an insidious onset, rather than a clear first episode, with multiple neurodevelopmental impairments present prior to onset of psychotic or negative symptoms
13
The focus of treatment for schizophrenia is to reduce or eliminate symptoms and to provide environmental supports to enhance quality of life. The primary treatment for symptom reduction is _______________
Medication
Unfortunately, the side effects of “first-generation” or “typical” antipsychotics were often severe, including _________________, ______________, ____________, and ____________
Extrapyramidal syndrome (abnormal movements similar to Parkinson’s disease), tardive dyskinesia (motor abnormalities such as writhing movements), cardiac problems, and heavy sedation
Antipsychotic medications can cause weight gain, cardiac problems, and other health risks.
True or False?
True
Many individuals with schizophrenia have impaired motor functioning, visual processing deficits, and cognitive deficits, which, coupled with avolition and anhedonia symptoms can limit interest or ability to participate in traditional exercise, nutrition, or smoking cessation programs. The following describes impact on what type of occupational performance?
Basic activities of Daily Living
Name some instrumental activities of daily living that may be difficult for those experiencing schizophrenia
The majority of people with schizophrenia do not live or work independently. The ability to work or succeed in school; to manage a household including cooking, cleaning, laundry, and budgeting; or to function as a caregiver requires multiple skills such as higher level cognitive processes, sensorimotor skills, and social interaction skills, all of which can be affected by the symptoms of schizophrenia.
