Schizophrenia

Question 1

List some positive, negative, cognitive and mood/anxiety sx

Answer 1

Positive: hallucinations, delusions, disorganised speech
Negative: affective flattening, anhedonia, avoilition
Mood/anxiety: depression, stress, O-C
Cog: social cog- emotional recognition, neuro- attention, memory

Question 2

Explain the course of schizophrenia

Answer 2

Prodromal- non-specific sx for weeks-months following up to psychotic sx
Active- psychotic sx
Residual- similar to prodromal but usually more extreme negative sx displayed

Question 3

Explain two aetiologies of schizophrenia.

Answer 3

Neurobiological: found excessive subcortical dopamine in the straital pathways
Neuroanatomical: small hippocampus volume, Enlarged ventricles-> surrounding tissue atrophy
Reduced dendritic spines
Neurodevelopmental: viral, perinatal, disruption of maturation

Question 4

What are positive treatments for the active phase

Answer 4

Medication to control positive sx. Group based interventions help with reintegration skills based training and life skills training.