Module 5.3: Psychotic disorders

Question 1

Define Psychosis

Answer 1

means abnormal condition of the mind, or “loss of contact with reality”. There may be severe disturbances / changes in: thinking, emotion & behaviour

Question 2

Define Schizophrenia

Answer 2

a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.

*(in general use) a mentality or approach characterized by inconsistent or contradictory elements.

Question 3

What is the diagnosis criteria for Schizophrenia? (5)

Answer 3

1) Delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech (at least 1 of these symptoms)
2) Grossly disorganised behaviour
3) Negative symptoms (flat affect, lack of volition)
4) Social & occupational dysfunction
5) Evidence of dysfunction in the previous 6mths
* Symptoms divided into 2 groups (+ & -)

Question 4

Describe the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (4)

Answer 4

• symptoms that may/are present
  1) Hallucinations - false sensory perceptions
  2) Delusions - Fixed false belief, cannot be dissuaded despite contradictory: persecutory or paranoid, grandiose, somatic, ideas of refence, religious
  3) Disorganised thinking - Underlying disturbance to conscious thought
  4) Behaviour - Grossly disorganised or abnormal motor behaviour ( incl. catatonia)

Question 5

Describe the negative symptoms of schizophrenia (3)

Answer 5

1) Blunted emotions - Restricted emotional responses
2) Cognitive deficits - Difficulties in communication, concentration
3) Apathy / Avolition - Difficulty with straight forward tasks. Slow & unmotivated.

Question 6

list the 5 types of Hallucinations

Answer 6

1) Visual - seeing something that is not there.
2) Auditory - hearing something that does not exist
3) Tactile - Feeling something on your skin or body that isn’t really there
4) Proprioceptive - hallucinations of posture (floating, flying, out-of-body experience, phantom limbs)
5) Olfactory - smelling an odour that does not exist.(typically something unpleasant like vomit or faeces).