schizophrenia Flashcards
schizophrenia definition
a severe mental disorder involving impaired insight and loss of contact with reality, it is a form of psychosis
what are the 2 major classification systems used for psychology and where are they mostly used
diagnostic statistical manual (DSM-5) (USA)
world health organisation - international classification of diseases (ICD-11) (europe)
what are the 2 types of symptoms a person with schizophrenia could experience
positive and negative
what are positive symptoms of schizophrenia (overall definition)
they appear to reflect an excess or distortion of normal functions
ie hightening/more off, they arent positive as in good
what are the 4 positive symptoms of schizophrenia
hallucinations
delusions
disorganised speech
grossly diorganised/catatonic behaviour
what are hallucinations
they are unreal perceptions of the environment involving any sense, things that other people dont experience.
auditory/hearing voices to eg harm themselves or others.
visual/seeing eg faces, lights
olfactory/smelling eg rotting meat
tactile/feeling eg bugs under skin
usually hearing many voices
what are delusions
beliefs that seem real to the person but arent
paranoid- ie persecutory eg being followed/spied on
inflated beliefs- about power/importance believing theyre famous/have special powers.
Of reference- external events appear to be related to themselves eg on TV/radio
what is disorganised speech
result of abnormal thought processes which has problems organising thoughts and it shows up in speech
includes:
derailment- slipping from one topic to another even mid sentence
experience “word salad”- extreme incoherence resulting in gibberish
what is grossly disorganised/catatonic behaviour
inability/lack of motivation to initiate/finish a task.
difficulties in daily life eg personal hygiene, wearing thick clothes on a hot day, acting bizarre.
catatonic behaviour is reduced reactions to immediate environment eg rigid postured, aimless motor activity
what are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia (4)
speech poverty
avolition
affective flattening
anhedonic
what is speech poverty
aka alogia
the lessening of speech fluency and productivity (reflecting slowing/blocked thoughts)
you produce fewer words in a given time on a task of verbal fluency eg name as many animals as you can in 1 min. its not about not knowing about them but problem spontaneously producing them
less complex syntax eg fewer clauses
what is avolition
reduction of interests, desires, inability to initiate and persist in goal directed behaviour
could cause them to just sit in the house for hours everyday.
it isnt about poor social function/disinterest but a reduction in self initiated involvement in activities that are available to the patient
what is affective flattening
a reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression inc facial expression eg decrease in smiling and facial movement
voice tone, eye contact and body language decrease
a decrease in coverbal behaviour ie of hands, head and face movements that accompany speech
decrease in prosody ie prarlinguistic features eg inotation, tempo, loudness and pausing that give cues to listener about emotional and attitudinal content and turn taking
what is Anhedonia
a loss of interest or pleasure in all/almost all activites or lack of reactivity to normally pleasurable stimuli
may be persuasive ie all embracing
may be confined to a certain aspect of experience
physical anhedonia is the inability to experience physical pleasures eg food, bodily contact
social anhedonia is inability to experience pleasure from interpersonal situations eg interacting with other people
social anhedonia is associated with other disorders eg depression whereas physical isnt which makes it a more reliable symptom of schizophrenia
