Psychosis and Schizophrenia Flashcards
Psychosis
Mental state in which reality is greatly distorted
What are delusions
a fixed false belief which is firmly held despite evidence to the contrary and goes against the individuals normal social and cultural belief system.
Hallucinations
A perception in the absence of an external stimulus
thought disorder
an impairment in the ability to form thoughts from logically connected ideas
Non-orgaic causes of psychosi
- Schizophrenia
- Schizoaffective disorder
- Drug-induced psychosis
- Delusional disorder
- Mood disorders with psychosis
Organic causes of psychosis
- Drug induced
- Iatrogenic
- Complex partial epilepsy
- Delirium
- Dementia
- Huntingtons
- SLE
- Syphillis
- Endocrine disturbance and metabolic disorders
Mneumonic for other causes of psychosis
Schizophrenia And Schizoaffective Persist For >1 Month, Paraphenia Presents Late
Schizotypal disorder
Acute and transient psychotic disorders
Schizoaffective disorder
Persistent delusional disorder
Folie a deux
Mood disorders with psychosis
Puerperal Psychosis
Late paraphrenia
Schizotypal disorder
eccentric behaviour, suspiciousness and unusual speech with deviations of thinking. Do no suffer from hallucinations or delusions. Inc risk in those with a first degree relative with schizophrenia.
Acute and transient psychotic disorders
< 1 month so not meeting criteria for schizophrenia.
Schizoaffective disorder
schizophrenia and mood disorder in the same episode of illness.
Persistent delusional disorder
> 3 months
Folie a deux
induced delusional disorder - shared paranoid disorder in two or more individuals. Folie imposee is the dominant person with the initial delusional belied and imposes it on a foil simultanee.
Mood disorders with psychosis
secondary to depression or mania
Puerperal Psychosis
onset first 2 weeks after childbirth
Late paraphrenia
late onset schizophrenia. Hallucinations and delusions are prominent and thought disorders and catatonic symptoms are rare.
Schizophrenia
Most common psychiatric condition, characterised by hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders, which lead to functional impairment. It occurs in absence of organic disease, alcohol or drug related disorders and it is not secondary to elevation or depression of mood.
Aetiology schizophrenia
24 million people worldwide
Peak age 15-35
Males and females equally affected.
Pathiphysiology
- Dopamine hypothesis
- Stress vulnerability model
Dopamine hypothesis schiz
schizophrenia is secondary to over activity of mesolimbic dopamine pathways in the brain.
Supported by conventional antipsychotics that act on D2 receptors dopamine receptors and block them.
Stress vulnerability model
Predicts schizo occurs due to environmental factors interacting with a genetic predisposition or brain injury. Patients have different vulnerabilities and so different individuals need to be exposed to different environmental factors to become psychotic.
Predisposing biological
- Genetic
- Neurochemical - inc dopamine or dec glutamate, serotonin and GABA
- Neurodevelopment
- Age 15-35
- Extremes of parental age <20 or >35.