schizophrenia

Question 1

What positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Symptoms that create an additional experience beyond those of ordinary existance

Question 2

Positive symptoms

Answer 2

• Hallucinations: sensory experiences of stimuli that have either no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there
• Delusions: beliefs that have no basis in reality

Question 3

What are the negative symptoms if schizophrenia?

Answer 3

Symptoms that involve the loss of usual abilities and experiences

Question 4

Negative Symptoms

Answer 4

• Avolition: the loss of motivation to carry out tasks and results in lowered activity levels
• Speech poverty: reduced frequency and quality of speech

Question 5

How do the ICD and DSM diagnose schizophrenia?

Answer 5

The DSM requires one of the symptoms to be positive whereas you need 2 or more negative symptoms for the ICD.

Question 6

What are the reliability issues in schizophrenia?

Answer 6

There are reliability issues in diagnosing schizophrenia.
Ellie Cheniaux et al (2009) had 2 psychologists independently diagnose 100 patients with the use of the DSM and ICD. One diagnosed 26 using the DSM and 44 using the ICD and the other diagnosed 13 with the use of the DSM and 24 according to ICD.
This highlights poor inter-observer reliability and suggests there are reliability issues in diagnosing schizophrenia.

Question 7

What are the issues with validity in diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 7

In schizophrenia the standard way to asses validity is the diagnosis criterion validity in which you use what different assessments
to arrive at the same diagnosis.
Through cheniaux et al study it is evident schizophrenia is more likely to be diagnosed with the ICD rather than DSM.
This suggests diagnosis has poor validity as it is either over or under diagnosed.

Question 8

Issues of co-morbidity in diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia

Answer 8

Co-morbidity occurs when 2 or more conditions occur together. Studys such as Peter Buckley et al (2009) concluded that half patients with schizophrenia also have a diagnosis of depression. This leads us to question the validity of the diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia as they might be a single condition.