Psychosis and schizophrenia | Flashcards
What is the definition of psychosis?
State in which there is loss of contact with reality and includes:
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Formal thought disorder
What are 3 components of psychosis?
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Formal thought disorder
What is a hallucination?
A percept without object - i.e. a sensory experience without an external stimulus
What is a delusion?
A pathological belief where there is:
- absolute subjective certainty and cannot be rationalised away
- no external proof - held even with contradictory evidence
- personal significance
- cannot be understood as part of the subjects cultural or religious background
What is formal thought disorder?
A pattern of disordered language use that reflects disordered thought form
- Can sometimes be difficult to describe
- loosening of association (derailment), flight of ideas, circumstantial thoughts, tangential thoughts, thought block
What are Schneider’s first rank symptoms for schizophrenia?
ABCD:
- Auditory hallucinations:
- thought echo
- hearing voices referring to himself / herself, made in the third person (not in 2nd person)
- auditory hallucinations in the form of a commentary - Broadcasting of thought
- Controlled thought (delusions of control)
- Thought withdrawal, insertion and interruption
- Passivity of affect/impulses/voilition
- Somatic passivity - Delusional perception
What is delusional perception?
What is an example?
The patient who takes a precept and ascribes an delusional idiosyncratic value to it, e.g. “I heard the church bells and knew I would win Wimbledon”
What is thought echo?
Hearing thoughts spoken aloud
What is passivity of affect/impulses/ made volition?
The patient reports his will/sensation of feelings, impulses or acts to be under the control of an external force as if they have been hyponotised or had become a robot
What is somatic hallucinations/passivity?
Patient reports experiencing sensations on their body and believed being controlled by an external force e.g. an electric current though legs
What is broadcasting of thought?
The patient believes that their thoughts are being made known to other agencies. This may be via telepathy, the radio broadcasting his thoughts, the newspaper telling about his thoughts etc.
What is thought withdrawal?
the delusion that thoughts have been taken out of the patient’s mind
What are 5 organic causes of psychosis?
- Delirium - is another syndrome and there are many causes of delirium (e.g. sepsis)
- Medication-induced (e.g. corticosteroids, stimulants, dopamine agonists)
- Endocrine disorders (e.g. Cushings, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism)
- Neurological disorder (e.g. temporal lobe epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders, Wilson’s disease, Huntington’s disease)
- Other systemic diseases (e.g porphyria, SLE)
What are other psychiatric disorders apart from schizophrenia that can cause psychosis?
- Schizoaffective disorder (a mixture of first rank symptoms and mood symptoms)
- Delusional disorder (the main symptom is non-first rank delusional belief with minimal hallucination)
- Schizotypal Disorder
- Acute and transient psychotic disorder (symptoms less than 28 days)
- Mood disorder (Mania, Severe depression)
- Substance misuse - e.g. alcohol withdrawal, intoxication with stimulants, cannabis
What is the lifetime risk of schizophrenia?
1 in 100
Is schizophrenia more common in M or F?
M=F
What is the peak incidence of schizophrenia in M and F?
M = 23 years F = 26 years (2nd peak between 30-40)
What are the 3 groups of causes of schizophrenia?
- Biological
- Psychological
- Social
What are the biological causes of schizophrenia?
- Genetic - Family history (possible multiple genes)
- Obstetric complication - increased risk
- Dopamine theory - dopaminergic overactivity
- Neurodevelopmental theory
What are psychological causes of schizophrenia?
- Cognitive errors - jumping to conclusions (especially in delusions and paranoia)
- Premorbid personality - schizotypal disorder
What are social causes of schizophrenia?
- Urban living (x2 to x3 - consistent research finding)
- Migration (x3)
- Life events (including physical and sexual abuse)
- Ethnicity (x4 in Afro-Caribbeans in the UK; higher incidence also in South Asians)
What is the course of schizophrenia?
Preceded by a prodrome before they meet the criteria for diagnosis
What is the prodrome of schizophrenia?
The period of time when the individual is gradually developing symptoms but has not yet met the criteria for diagnosis. These symptoms include:
- Non-specific negative symptoms
- Emotional distress/ agitation without reason
- Transient psychotic symptoms
How does a longer duration of untreated psychosis affect the outcome of schizophrenia?
Worse outcome
What % of people with an episode of psychosis never have another episode?
20%
What % of people have continuous illness, and are not free of symptoms, after their episode of psychosis?
30%
What % of people improve, but require extensive support network, after an episode of psychosis?
25%
What are 6 positive prognostic factors for schizophrenia?
- Marked mood disturbance, especially elation during initial presentation
- FH of affective disorder
- female
- Living in a developing country
- Good premorbid personality
- Early treatment
What are 6 poor prognostic factors of schizophrenia?
- Poor premorbid adjustment
- Insidious onset
- Early onset in childhood/adolscence
- Cognitive impairment
- Enlarged ventricles
- Substance misuse
What is the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia?
- At least one of the following:
a. Thought echo, insertion, withdrawal or broadcasting
b. Delusions of control, influence or passivity, clearly referred to body or limb movements or specific thoughts, actions, or sensations and delusional perception
c. Hallucinatory voices giving a running commentary on patient’s behaviour or discussing them between themselves or other types of voices coming from some part of body
d. Persistent delusions of other kinds that are culturally inappropriate or implausible - OR at least 2 of of the following:
a. Persistent hallucinations in any modality, when accompanied by fleeting or half-formed delusions without clear affective content, persistent over-valued ideas, or occurring everyday fr weeks/months on end
b. Breaks of interpolations in the train of thought, resulting in incoherence or irrelevant speech or neologisms
c. Catatonic behaviour such as excitement, posturing, or waxy flexibility, negativism, mutism and stupor
d. Negative symptoms such as marked apathy, paucity of speech and blunting or incongruity of emotional responses
e. A significant and consistent change in the overall quality of some aspects of personal behaviour, manifest as loss of interest, aimlessness, idleness, a self-absorbed attitude and social withdrawal - Duration of over 1 month
What is waxy flexibility?
When you move their arm, it stays there until you move it again, like a wax figure
What is mutism?
Severe anxiety, stopping people speaking to certain people or in certain social situations
What is the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia?
A. Characteristics of symptoms: 2 or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a 1 month period
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disorganised speech
- Grossly disorganised or catatonic behaviour
- Negative symptoms (i.e. affective flattening or avolition)
NB. only 1 symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice eeping up a running commentary on the person’s behaviour or thoughts, or 2 more voices conversing with each other.
B. Social/occupational dysfunction
C. Duration - continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least 6 months, during which much include at least 1 month of symptoms meeting critera A
What are physical conditions that can occur with psychosis?
- Catatonia
- Water intoxication
- Risk of suicide
- Increased risk of CVD
- Increased risk of T2 DM
- Increased risk of stroke