Schizophrenia Flashcards
What is the reliability of Schizophrenia?
An important measure of reliability is inter-rater reliability - the extent to which different doctors make identical independent diagnosis of the same patient.
Cheniaux et al (2009) had two psychiatrists independently diagnose 100 patients using DSM and ICD criteria. The different psychiatrists didn’t diagnose the same amount of patients showing that the poor reliability is a weakness of the reliability of the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Evaluation of the diagnosis of schizophrenia:
Validity & reliability.
Reliability - consistency of diagnosis: even if reliability based on classification systems is not perfect, they do provide a common language, permitting communication of research ideas.
Validity : do different assessment systems arrive at the same diagnosis for the same patients
- use evidence from the Cheniaux at al study
-suggests it is either over diagnosed in ICD or under diagnosed in DSM
-either way it is poor validity
What is co-morbidity?
The extent to which two (or more) conditions co-occur. Psychiatric co-morbidities are common among patients with schizophrenia. These include…..substance abuse, anxiety, OCD, depression and PTSD.
What is symptom overlap?
Many of the positive and negative symptoms overlap with other disorders such as depression and bipolar.
