Schizophrenia

Question 0

What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 0

Affective flattening
Alogia
Avolition

Question 1

What are the positrons symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Delusions
Hallucinations
Experiences of control
Disordered thinking

Question 2

What is reliability?

Answer 2

The consistency of a measuring instrument, such as a questionnaire or scale to assess, for example, the severity of their schizophrenic symtoms

Question 3

What is inter-rater reliability?

Answer 3

Whether two independent assessors give similar diagnoses

Question 4

What is test-retest reliability?

Answer 4

Whether tests used to deliver diagnoses are consistent over time. Test retest method is used to check externally reliability- the same test or interview is given to the same participants on two occasions to see if the same results are obtained

Question 5

What did Carson claim about the DSM-III?

Answer 5

In a review of the success of the DSM-III, he claimed it fixed the problem of inter rater reliability once and for all. Psychiatrists had a reliable classification system which should had led to greater agreement over who did and did not have schizophrenia

Question 6

What do cognitive screening tests do?

Answer 6

Such as RBANS, are important in the diagnosis of schizophrenia as they measure the degree of neuropsychological impairment

Question 7

What did Wilks do for test-retest reliability?

Answer 7

Administered two alternate forms of the test to schizophrenic patients over intervals varying from 1-134 days. The test-retest reliability (correlation scores across the two test periods) was high at .84

Question 8

What is validity?

Answer 8

The extent that a diagnosis represents something that is real and distinct from other disorders and the extent that a classification system such as ICD or DSM measures what it claims to measure

Question 9

What is comorbidity?

Answer 9

The extent that two or more conditions co-occur. These are common in patients with schizophrenia, including substance abuse, anxiety and depression.

Question 10

What did Buckley estimate about comorbidity?

Answer 10

Comorbidity depression occurs in 50% of patients, and 47% patients also have a lifetime diagnosis of comorbidity substance abuse. Comorbidity creates difficulties in the diagnosis of the disorder and deciding what treatment to advise

Question 11

What did Klosterkotter find about positive and negative symptoms (validity)?

Answer 11

Assessed 489 admissions to a psychiatric unit in Germany to determine whether positive or negative symptoms were more valid for a diagnosis is schizophrenia. Positive symptoms were more useful for diagnosis

Question 12

Why does diagnosis of schizophrenia have little predictive validity?

Answer 12

Some people never recover from the disorder but many do

Question 13

Evaluate inter-rater reliability

Answer 13

Over 30 years later there is still little evidence that the DSM is routinely used with high reliability by mental health clinicians. Whaley puns that inter-rater reliability correlations in the diagnosis of schizophrenia as low as +11

Question 14

What did Rosenhan do to show unreliability of diagnosis?

Answer 14

‘Normal’ people presented themselves to psychiatric join the US claiming they heard as unfamiliar voice in their head saying that words ‘empty’ ‘hollow’ and ‘thud’. They were diagnosed as having schizophrenia and admitted. None of the staff recognised they were normal. In a follow up study, Rosenhan warned hospitals of his intention to send out more ‘pseudo patients’. This resulted in a 21% detection rate although he actually sent none

Question 15

Why are symptoms unreliable?

Answer 15

Only one of the symptoms is required ‘if delusions are bizarre’. However when 50 psychiatrists in the US were asked to differentiate between bizarre and non bizarre delusions, they produced inter-reliability correlations of only around +40 so researchers concluded that even the central diagnostic requirement lacks reliability

Question 16

What did Prescott do for test-retest reliability?

Answer 16

Analysed the test-retest reliability of several measures of attention and information processing in 14 chronic schizophrenics. Performance on these measures was stable over a 6 month period

Question 17

How did Cheniaux compare the DSM and ICD?

Answer 17

Investigated the inter-rater reliability of the diagnosis of schizophrenia according to both DSM-IV and ICD-10. Although the inter-rater reliability was above +50 for both systems, schizophrenia was more frequently diagnosed using ICD-10

Question 18

What did Weber do to investigate comorbidity and medical complications?

Answer 18

Examined nearly 6 million hospital discharge records to calculate comorbidity rates. Psychiatric and behaviour related diagnoses accounted for 45% of comorbidity. However, the study also found evidence of many comorbidity non-psychiatric diagnoses. Many patients with a primary diagnosis for schizophrenia were also diagnosed with medical problems. They concluded that a problem with being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder is that patients tend to receive a lower standards of medical care which affects their prognosis