Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is Schizophrenia NOT
“Split personality”
Violent/Dangerous/Unpredictable/Out-of-Control
Untreatable
All the same
Four people with schizophrenia
Why the misconceptions?
“Schizophrenic” has been used to describe the erratic behavior
of the weather, the stock market, and even the 2002 New
England Patriots’ football team.
schizophrenia
category of psychotic disorders
Schizophrenia is the most common diagnosis in this group of disorders
psychosis
impairment of reality testing
Different types of symptoms
positive symptoms
negative symptoms
symptoms of disorganization
positive symptoms
a. Sensory perception (hallucinations)
b. Ideations (delusions)
positive=psychotic
pathological excesses (50-70% experience)
! Delusions (firmly held beliefs)
! Hallucinations (sensory experience in absence of environmental stimuli or input)
negative symptoms
a. Social/motivational deficits
b. Decreased expressions of emotion
symptoms of disorganization
a. Disorganized speech/thought
b. Disorganized behavior
schizophrenia prevalence
! Present in humans through recorded history ! 1% of most populations (roughly similar worldwide with some differences) ! About 2.5 million Americans currently have the disorder ! Appears in all socioeconomic groups; found more frequently in the lower levels ! Stress of poverty causes the disorder? ! Downward Drift? ! Disorder causes victims from higher social levels to fall to lower social levels and remain at lower levels
making sense of schizophrenia
In 1960s: being sane in an insane world; constructive inward search
! R.D. Laing: “The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a
special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.”
! Floyd Pinkerton: The Wall
! Half of people with schizophrenia will attempt suicide (role of
remission)
! Age
! Positive symptoms dwindle, negative symptoms come to forefront
! Late adolescence – early adulthood onset (20-32)
! Prodromal symptoms
! Stress plays major precipitating role
! No gender differences in prevalence, although men & women have
different courses
! Peak ages of onset: males 20–28 years and females 26–32 years
! More recent data suggest prevalence higher in MEN
clinical features of schizophrenia
chart
interesting schizophrenia fact
more severe course the less likely to kill themselves
DSM-5 diagnosis
five key symptoms: 1) delusions 2) hallucinations 3) disorganized speech 4) disorganized or catatonic behavior 5) negative symptoms !two of these five symptoms are required AND at least one symptom must be one of the first three (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech).
History-Emil Kraepelin
This illness develops relatively early
in life, and its course is likely deteriorating and
chronic; deterioration reminded dementia („Dementia
praecox“).
History-Eugen Bleuler
He renamed Kraepelin’s dementia
praecox as schizophrenia (1911); he recognized the
cognitive impairment in this illness, which he named
as a „splitting“ of mind.
Kurt Schneider
He emphasized the role of psychotic
symptoms, as hallucinations, delusions and gave
them the privilege of „the first rank symptoms”
delusions
persecution, reference
Jesus, Satan, Heads of State
hallucinations
Vast majority auditory (could be olfactory)
Command
Visual hallucinations are morphing what is already there
edgar allen poe quote
“Have I not told you that what
you mistake for madness is but
the overacuteness of senses?”
errotomania:
thinking you have a special relationship with someone who might not even know you exist
disorganization in terms of speech
Rambling speech Jumping topic to topic
Word salad, “clanging”, loose associations
Neologisms
disorganization in terms of behavior
Inappropriate affect
Agitation
Repetition (echolalia)
Bizarre Behavior (ex: pouring OJ on head)
disordered thought
DISORDERED THOUGHT seems to be core of what disease is about
hallucinations more florid/dramatic…responsive to medications
loose associations (derailment)
“The problem is insects. My brother used to collect insects. He’s now a man 5 foot 10 inches. You know, 10 is my favorite number; I also like to dance, draw, and watch TV.”
Neologisms
(made-up words)
“This desk is a cramstile”
“He’s an easterhorned head”
Flusterated
Preservation symptom of disorganized speech
Patients repeat their words and statements again and again
Clang
rhymes
How are you? “Well, hell, it’s well to tell”
How’s the weather? “So hot, you know it runs on a cot”
word salad
“Much of abstraction has been left unsaid and undone in
these products milk syrup, and others, due to economics,
differentials, subsidies, bankruptcy, tools, buildings, bonds,
national stocks, foundation craps, weather, trades,
government in levels of breakages and fuses in electronics too
all formerly states not necessarily factuated”
negative symptoms
avolition alogia thought blocking anhedonia blunted/flat affect social withdrawal
avolition
inability to initiate
behavior (I.e. showering)
alogia
poverty of speech–difficult to access info
ex: hit two bears with one stone -> do two things at once
anhedonia
no pleasure in things you use to enjoy
blunted/flat affect
toneless expression