Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is schizophrenia
A type of psychosis, a server ,mental disorder characterised by profound disruption of cognition and emotion so that contact with external reality and insight are impaired.
What is classification
Organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms cluster together
What is diagnosis
Deciding on whether someone has a particular mental illness using the classifications.
What are positive symptoms
Atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences- including hallucinations and distortions.
What are negative symptoms
Atypical experiences that are the loss of a usual experience- loss of a normal function
What are the two positive symptoms of schizophrenia
Hallucinations and delusions
What are hallucinations
Disturbances of perception in ant sense. False perceptions of reality (hearing voices). Many schizophrenics hear many voices or see people telling them to do something e.g. harming themselves or commenting on their behaviour
What are the 4 types of delusion
Delusion of persecution
Delusions of grandeur
Delusions of control
Delusions of reference
What are delusions of persecution
The belief that others want to harm, threaten or manipulate you e.g. The government
What is reliability in schizophrenic classification
Reliability is the level of agreement/ consistency on the diagnosis of schizophrenia by different psychiatrists
What is validity in schizophrenia
The extent to which schizophrenia is a unique syndrome with characteristics, signs and symptoms
What are the four issues with the reliability and validity in the diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia
Co- morbidity
Symptom overlap
Cultural differences/ bias
Gender bias
What are the two negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Avolition
Speech poverty
What are the two negative symptoms of schizophrenia
Avolition
Speech poverty
What is avolition
A lack of purposeful, willed behaviour. It is the reduction, difficulty or inability to start and continue with goal-directed behaviour i.e. actions performed to achieve a result. People with schizophrenia often have a sharply reduced motivation to carry out a range of activities and results in lowered activity levels.
E.g. no longer being interested in going out and meeting friends, poor hygiene and grooming, lack of persistence in work or education, sitting in the house every day doing nothing.
What is avolition
A lack of purposeful, willed behaviour. It is the reduction, difficulty or inability to start and continue with goal-directed behaviour i.e. actions performed to achieve a result. People with schizophrenia often have a sharply reduced motivation to carry out a range of activities and results in lowered activity levels.
E.g. no longer being interested in going out and meeting friends, poor hygiene and grooming, lack of persistence in work or education, sitting in the house every day doing nothing.
What is speech poverty
limited speech output with limited, often repetitive content. It involves reduced frequency (amount) and quality of speech. This is sometimes accompanied by a delay in the sufferer’s verbal responses during conversation. It’s not that they don’t know the words, but that they have a difficulty in spontaneously producing the speech.
What is the definition of symptom overlap
There is considerable overlap between the symptoms of schizophrenia and other conditions, despite the claim that the classification of positive and negative symptoms would make for more valid diagnoses (symptom overlap).
How can symptom overlap the validity of classification
lack of distinction calls into question the validity of the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia as a unique syndrome with its own characteristics, signs, and symptoms.
How can symptom overlap the validity of classification
lack of distinction calls into question the validity of the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia as a unique syndrome with its own characteristics, signs, and symptoms.
what is co- morbidity
refers to the extent that two or more conditions occur together. Co-morbidities are common among patients with schizophrenia
What was Serper et al. (1999) study into co- morbidity in schizophrenia
They assessed patients with co-morbid schizophrenia and cocaine abuse, cocaine intoxication on its own and schizophrenia on its own. They found that despite there being considerable symptom overlap in patients with schizophrenia and cocaine abuse, it was actually possible to make accurate diagnoses.
What was the process of Ketter’s (2005) research into symptom overlap and what did it tally us about receiving treatment
Ketter points out that misdiagnosis due to symptom overlap can lead to years of delay in receiving relevant treatment, during which time suffering and further degeneration can occur, as well as high levels of suicide- so symptom overlap can have serious consequences. Focusing on fixing this issue could save money and lives.
What did Buckley et al. Tell us about the diagnosis of schizophrenia
They concluded that around half of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also have a diagnosis of depression (50%) or substance abuse (47%). PTSD also occurred in 29% of cases and OCD in 23%.