Problem 8 Flashcards

1
Q

Psychosis

A

Inability to tell the difference between what is real + what is not

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2
Q

Schizophrenia

A

Refers to a psychotic disorder that involves a breakdown in the relation between

a) thought
b) emotion
c) behaviour

–> that leads to faulty perception + inappropriate actions and feelings and a withdrawal from reality + personal relationships

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3
Q

Prevalence of Schizophrenia ?

A
  1. 0.5-2% general pop. prevalence
  2. Develops in late adolescence/ early adulthood
  3. Slight ethnic differences may occur due to differences in socioeconomic status
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4
Q

There are 3 types of Schizophrenic symptoms.

Name them.

A
  1. Positive symptoms
    - -> adding qualities

a) Delusions
b) Hallucinations
c) Disorganized thought or speech
d) Catatonic behavior

  1. Negative symptoms
    - -> loosing qualities

a) affective flattening
b) alogia
c) avolition

  1. Cognitive deficits

a) attention
b) WM
c) abstract thinking

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5
Q

Delusion

Positive symptom

A

Refer to ideas that an individual believes are true but are highly unlikely

–> often impossible

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6
Q

Winning the lottery might be a highly unlikely event as well.

Why is this nonetheless a self deception and not a delusion ?
Where are the crucial differences between the two ?

A
  1. Self deceptions are possible, delusions are not

2. People holding self deceptions know their beliefs may be wrong, delusional people will insist on their views

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7
Q
Persecutory delusion
(Positive symptom)
A

Believing that you are being watched by people you know

ex.: FBI, Professor at school

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8
Q

Delusion of reference

Positive symptom

A

Believing that random events or comments by others are directed at you when they are not

ex.: comments of a politician at directed at none other than you

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9
Q
Grandiose delusions
(Positive symptom)
A

Believing that one is a special being that possesses special powers

ex.: most intelligent on earth

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10
Q

Delusion of thought insertion

Positive symptom

A

Believing that ones thoughts are being controlled by outside forces

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11
Q

Hallucinations

Positive symptom

A

Refer to unreal perceptual experiences

–> may be consistency with delusions

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12
Q

Auditory hallucination

Postitive symtom

A

Consist of voices speaking to the individual through his thoughts or somewhere outside

–> most common schizophrenic hallucination

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13
Q

Visual hallucination

Positive symptom

A

Consists of seeing things that aren’t there

ex.: seeing a ghost (that may talk to the individual)

–> 2nd most common, often accompanied by auditory H.

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14
Q

Tactile hallucination

Positive symptom

A

Involves the perception that something is happening outide the persons body

ex.: bugs are crawling up the back

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15
Q

Are there any cultural differences when it comes to hallucinations and delusions ?

A

Yes,

The specific content of the hallucinations or delusions vary from culture to culture

BUT: form of these symptoms remain similar, thus it can be diagnosed reliably across cultures

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16
Q

Disorganized thought/Speech

Formal thought disorder

A

Refers to the disorganized thinking, by slipping from one topic to the next, where the second one is totally unrelated

–> loosening of associations/derailment, “Word salad”

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17
Q

Men with schizophrenia tend to show more severe deficits in language than women.

Why ?

A

Language is controlled more bilaterally in women

–> as it is more localized in men their deficits are larger

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18
Q

Catatonic disorganized behavior

Positive symptom

A

Unpredictable + apparently untriggered agitation

  1. Catatonia
    - -> unresponsiveness to environment
  2. Negativism
    - -> lack of response to instructions
  3. Mutism
    - -> complete lack of verbal/motor responses
  4. Catatonic excitement
    - -> purposeless & excessive motor activity for no apparent reason

Is disorganized behavior that occurs in response to delusions + hallucinations and reflects unresponsiveness to the world

–> becoming wildly agitated for no reason

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19
Q

Affective flattening

Negative symptom

A

Refers to a severe reduction or absence of affective responses to the environment

ex.: no body language, immobile face

20
Q

Alogia

Negative symptom

A

Refers to a reduction in speaking

ex.: no initiation of speech, brief answers

21
Q

Avolition

Negative symptom

A

Inability to complete tasks and being rather disorganized, careless + unmotivated

e.g.: work, school, home

22
Q

People with schizophrenia show deficits in basic cognitive processes.

Name them.

A
  1. WM
    - -> holding + manipulating info, thus more difficult to ignore irrelevant info and making connections between relevant ones
  2. Attention span
    - -> early marker of the risk for schizophrenia
23
Q

Prodromal vs residual symptoms

A

Prodromal
–> present before people go into acute phase of schizophrenia

Residual
–> present after they emerge from acute phase

=> during these phases people may have unusual but not delusional beliefs, milder version

24
Q

Prognosis of Schizophrenia

A
  1. 50-80% of people who have previously been hospitalized, will be so again
  2. Life expectancy is 10 years shorter
  3. Suffer from infectious diseases for unclear reasons
  4. No progressive detoriation
    - -> stabilization within 5-10 years with no relapse
25
Q

Gender differences in Schizophrenia ?

A
  1. Onset is earlier for men than women
  2. Women show milder negative symptoms, social adjustment, are hospitalized less

–> differences are not yet understood

26
Q

Schizoaffective disorder

DSM IV

A

Is a mix of schizophrenia + mood disorders

27
Q

Brief psychotic disorder

DSM IV

A

Showing a sudden onset of

a) delusions
b) hallucinations
c) disorganized speech or behavior

BUT: only having it for less than a month + no functional impairment

28
Q

Delusional disorder

DSM IV

A

Having delusions lasting at least 1 month regarding situations that could occur in real life

ex.: being followed, poisoned, deceived by a spouse

–> no impairment of everyday life

29
Q

Shared psychotic disorder

DSM IV

A

Having a delusion that develops from a relationship with another person who already has delusions

ex.: woman thinking she is pregnant convincing the husband

30
Q

Structural + functional brain abnormalities

A
  1. Enlarged ventricles
    - -> suggests deterioration in other brain tissue
  2. Lower volume density of neurons in

a) PFC
- -> less active, connects to the other regions mentioned
b) temporal lobe
c) basal ganglia
d) limbic area

  1. Hippocampus
31
Q

Dopamine theory

A
  1. Excessive dopamine activity in mesolimbic pathway
    - -> positive symptoms
  2. Usually low dopamine activity in PFC
    - -> thus negative symptoms
  3. Other neurotransmitters also play a role
    - -> interaction between serotonin + dopamine may be crucial
  4. Abnormalities in levels of GABA
32
Q

Which key role does stress play in the life of a schizophrenic person ?

A

May be the trigger to new episodes in people with the disorder

BUT: cannot cause it in people who lack a vulnerability to it

33
Q

Expressed emotion

A

Families who are over-involved/overprotective + hostile at the same time will increase the risk of relapse for the ill family member

34
Q

Cognitive factors contributing to schizophrenia

A

Schizophrenic people try to conserve their already limited cognitive resources, by using biases/schemas to understand the load of info they receive

–> delusions arise as a consequence of trying to explain different phenomena

35
Q

Biological treatment options

A
  1. Electroconvulsive therapy
    - -> little effect
  2. Phenothiazines
    - -> antipsychotic drug, reduce the positive symptoms but not negative, have major side effects (=Tardive dyskinesia)
  3. Atypical antipsychotics
    - -> more effective as they treat both symptoms, w/o side effects
36
Q

Psychological/Social treatment options

A

Involve helping schizophrenic people

  1. reduce stress
  2. improve family interactions
  3. learn social skills
  4. cope with the impact it has on their lives
37
Q

Tardive dyskinesia

A

Refers to an irreversible neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movements of the face, jaw etc

38
Q

Comprehensive treatment program

A

Combines drug therapy with psychological + social therapies

–> significantly reduces relapse

39
Q

A study compared people having AVH with and without psychotic features.

They then established 4 characteristics that together could accurately predict the presence or absence of a psychotic disorder in individuals.

Name them.

A
  1. Negative emotional valence of the AVHs content
    - -> most predictive power
  2. Higher frequency
  3. Less control over AVHs
  4. Later age at onset

–> Seen in schizophrenic individuals

40
Q

Which cognitive biases are essential in the pathogenesis of Schizophrenia ?

A
  1. JTC
    - -> gathering little info before arriving at strong conclusions

BUT: individuals are unaware of their hastiness; think they are indecisive

  1. Incorrigibility
    - -> persistence + stubbornness
  2. Blaming others
    - -> attributional style
  3. Reduced memory vividness
    - -> over-confident in wrong memories
  4. ToM deficits
    - -> inability to infer others intentions
41
Q

Metacognitive training for schizophrenia

MCT

A

Targets the specific biases involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, by combining

a) Psychoeducation
b) cognitive remediation
c) CBT

–> goal is to

  1. raise the participants awareness of these distortions
  2. make them critically reflect on them
  3. teach them problem solving skills
42
Q

Frontal lobe model

A
  1. Hypo-frontality
    - -> have reduced frontal to posterior blood flow
  2. WM abnormalities
    - -> basis for other cognitive deficits
  3. Decreased activation of ACC
    - -> for errors + conflict
43
Q

Temporal lobe model

A
  1. Left hemispheric overactivation model
    - -> showing less lateralisation during verbal tasks + greater left hemispheric activation during spatial task
  2. Hippocampus abnormalities
    - -> reduced hippocampal + abnormally increased frontal activation

BUT: Meds possibly restore it

44
Q

Schizotypal disorder

A

Having all symptoms of schizophrenia

BUT: more moderate + not loosing ease of reality

45
Q

Schizophrenie form

A

Having all symptoms of Schizophrenia

BUT: only more than a month but less 6 months + more functional impairment

46
Q

Fronto-temporal network dysfunction

A

Refers to the integrated model of the temporal lobe + frontal lobe models

–> suggests that schizophrenic patients have dysfunctions in both regions

47
Q

Somatic hallucination (positive symptom)

A

Refers to the perception that something is happening inside the body

e.g. worms are eating the person’s testines