Schizophrenia Flashcards
Psychosis
broad term referring to a
disconnection from reality
- Typically manifests as hallucinations and/or delusions
Schizophrenia
a type of psychosis with
disturbed thought, emotion, language, and behaviour
– It is a brain disease (more likely, brain diseases)
– A disconnection between the brain and the external world it perceives and interacts with
Diagnostic Criteria for Schizophrenia
Criterion A. (two or more of the following five + at least one of the first three)
(1)Delusions
(2)Hallucinations
(3)Disorganized Speech
(4)Grossly disorganized or abnormal motor
behavior
(5)Negative symptoms: Alogia, Asociality, Apathy, Anhedonia, Affective Flattening
Criterion B. Social or Occupational Dysfunction
- For a significant proportion of the time since onset,
one or more major areas of functioning, such as
work, interpersonal relations, or self-care are
markedly below the level achieved prior to illness
onset (or, if onset during childhood/adolescent,
failure to achieve expected level of functioning) - Must be a pervasive pattern
- Dysfunction usually appears in many domains
Criterion C. Duration
- Continuous signs of
disturbance persist for at least
6 months. - At least 1 month of the 6
month period (or less time if
successfully treated), must
include Criterion A symptoms - The remaining time may
include periods of prodromal or residual symptoms, which may include only negative
symptoms or attenuated
positive symptoms
Schizoaffective Disorder
Co-occurring mood disorder, either bipolar or depressive
type; two week period of just positive symptoms that
precede or follow the mood episode
Schizophreniform Disorder
Criteria the same as schizophrenia but lasts 1 to 6
months; no requirement for decline in functioning
Delusional Disorder
Delusions for one month; no other psychotic symptoms;
functioning not impaired; behaviour not bizarre or odd
Brief Psychotic Disorder
Positive symptoms that last for one day to one month
Substance/medication-
induced Disorder
Symptoms temporally related to use or withdrawal from
a substance
Psychotic Disorder due
to another medical
condition
Positive symptoms caused by a medical condition, e.g.,
epilepsy
Delusions
Erroneous beliefs that usually involve a misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences
- Persecutory/Paranoid
- Guilt/Sin
- Grandiose
- Religious
- Somatic
- Reference
- Being Controlled: Feelings, movements, impulses
- Mind Reading
- Thought Broadcasting: escape and experienced by others
10.Thought Insertion: thoughts not own and inserted
11.Thought Withdrawal: thought cessation and withdrawn
12.Somatic passivity: bodily sensations imposed by external
agency
I lock my door at night to people are out to get me
3 Mechanisms of Relevance
Reward system is hypersensitive
* Paradoxically, this makes behaviour look like it is not goal-directed
* Affects ability to distinguish between the salience of phenomena
Jumping to conclusions
* Making a decision or forming a belief
with very little information
* Contributes to delusion formation
because beliefs are often formed with
very little evidence
Confirmatory biases:
* Preferentially seek evidence to confirm belief system and reject contradictions
AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS
Auditory is most common (>50% of Sz)
* Not simply an illusion or distortion of sounds in
environment
* Voices usually intensify if
* there is less noise in environment
* ambiguous environment
* stress
* The misattribution of one’s own thoughts
* Not a faulty perceptual process
* In other words, it is not the voices I hear, it is the
thought I do not recognize as my own
i hear my name when no one really said it to the voices in my head talk to me
Visual Hallucinations
15% of Schizophrenia
Patients
– Tend to be unreal objects or parts rather than whole
* A big octopus like monster
* A tail coming from my backside
Tactile Hallucinations
incidence of ~5%
– Tend to produce fear and action
Somatic and gustatory hallucinations
rare and often associated
with delusions
– My pancreas has been equipped with a flux capacitor,
which allows me to travel back to my birth
