Psychiatry - Year 4

Question 1

Define psychosis

Answer 1

An individuals experience of reality is different to everyone else

Question 2

Define a psychotic episode

Answer 2

An episode can begin quite suddenly or gradually

Can last a few days, weeks or months

An individual does not usually realise they are psychotic i.e. have no insight

Question 3

In a psychiatric sense how does the mind work?

Answer 3

Sense data -> An object in space -> A meaningful object

Question 4

In a psychiatric sense how does the world around us get sensed?

Answer 4

The world -> Perception -> Thought

Question 5

What are the 4 main symptoms of psychosis?

Answer 5

1 - hallucinations
2 - delusions
3 - formal thought disorder
4 - fragmentation of the boundaries of the self

Question 6

Define a hallucination

Answer 6

A hallucination is the perception of an object in the absence of an external stimulus

Question 7

What modalities can people have hallucinations?

Answer 7

As it is a perception of an object in the absence of a stimulus - it could be in any of the 5 modalities.
Auditory, Visual, Gustatory, Touch, Olfactory

Question 8

Which of the 5 modalities of hallucinations is most common?

Answer 8

Auditory

Question 9

What psychiatric condition is most commonly associated with visual hallucinations?

Answer 9

Delirium

Question 10

What can olfactory hallucinations indicate that is not necessarily a psychiatric condition?

Answer 10

Frontal lobe pathology

Question 11

What is a pseudo hallucination?

Answer 11

Is not psychosis but occurs in inner subjective space e.g. heard in one’s thoughts, not perceived as auditory, does not come through the ears