Psychosis and Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is psychosis?
A mental disorder in which thoughts, affective response, or ability to recognise reality AND the ability to communicate and relate to others are sufficiently impaired to interfere grossly with the capacity to deal with reality
What are the classic characteristic of psychosis?
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Disordered form of thought
What are the key factors of psychosis?
- Qualitatively different from normal experiences
- Inability to tell apart subjective experiences from reality
- Lack of insight
- Harmful to the individuals functioning and relationships
Give 4 examples of types of psychotic experiences.
- Hallucinations
- Passivity phenomena
- Delusions
- Formal thought disorder
Define the term hallucinations.
A perception which occurs in the absence of an external stimulus
What is a hallucination experienced as?
Originating in real space, not just in thoughts
Are the qualities of hallucination the same as normality?
YES - they are vivid, solid and compelling
What are hallucinations not subject to?
Conscious manipulation
What is passivity phenomena?
Belief that one is no longer in control of ones body, emotions or thoughts
What can hallucinations occur with?
Any sensory modality
When are hallucinations significant?
Only in the context of other relevant symptoms
Hallucinations can be?
Simple
OR
Complex
What is the pattern of brain activity during auditory hallucinations very similar to?
That in normal people, generating inner speech
What however, is the difference in auditory hallucinations compared to normal inner speech?
- Supplementary motor areas (monitor self-generated actions).
- Hippocampus – parahippocampal gyrus (detects mismatch between perceived and expected activity)
Name 3 types of auditory hallucinations.
- 2nd person
- 3rd person
- Thought echo
What do 2nd person voices do?
Directly address the patient
What do 3rd person voices do?
Discuss the patient, as if they were not there, or provide a running commentary of their actions
What happens in ‘thought echo’?
The patient experiences his own thoughts spoken or repeated out loud.
1st person is a hallucination
FALSE
In order to decide what type pf auditory hallucinations a patient is having, what should you ask them?
‘Do they speak to you, or about you?’
What are visual hallucinations often associated with?
Altered consciousness/organic impairment
Name, and give examples of 2 types of visual hallucinations.
Simple - flashes of lights
Complex - faces or figures
Name the 3 bodily sensations.
- Olfactory
- Gustatory
- Somatic
What is the sensation of insects crawling on the skin called? And what may this be an indication of?
Formication
- cocaine use
What is passivity phenomena?
Where behaviour is experienced as being controlled by an external agency, rather than by the individual.
What can passivity phenomena affect? How?
Thoughts – thought insertion, thought withdrawal, thought broadcasting.
What is the ‘theme’ of a delusion?
What the delusion is about
There are relatively few themes of delusion. Give examples of themes which more commonly occur in i) depression ii) schizophrenia iii) mania
i) Disease, nihilism, poverty, sin, guilt.
ii) Control, persecution, reference, religion, love.
iii) Grandiosity, persecution, religion.
What is the specific content of delusions defined by?
Culture
Delusions are often attempts to do what?
Explain anomalous (un-natural) experiences e.g. hallucinations, passivity experiences, depression. ie. secondary delusions.
“They are being transmitted by the Mafia”
Explanatory delusion
What are self-referential experiences?
The belief that external events are related to oneself
Describe how self-referential thought varies intensely.
From a brief thought, to frequent and intrusive thoughts to delusional intensity (self-referential delusions or delusions of reference).
Give examples of the beliefs people with self-referential thought have.
- The feeling that others are speaking about me / laughing at me
- The belief that TV or the radio are transmitting message for me
- The belief that car registration numbers contain hidden codes