Schizophrenia

Question 1

What is schizophrenia?

Answer 1

• A mental disorder than affects 1% of the worlds population.
• It is commonly diagnosed in men, individuals that live in cities and working class individuals

Question 2

How is schizophrenia classified?

Answer 2

ICD-10 and DSM-5

Question 3

DSM-5

Answer 3

Recognises the positive symptoms of schizophrenia

Question 4

What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

Speech disorganisation, Delusions and Hallucinations

Question 5

ICD-10

Answer 5

Recognises the negative symptoms

Question 6

What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 6

Avolition and Speech poverty

Question 7

Positive Symptoms: Hallucinations

Answer 7

• Unusual sensory experiences which have no basis of reality or distorted perceptions of real things
• It is experienced in relation to sense

Question 8

Examples of hallucinations?

Answer 8

Hearing voices and seeing people that are not really there.

Question 9

Positive Symptoms: Delusions

Answer 9

Irrational beliefs- have no basis to reality. Therefore the person behaves in a way that makes sense to them but is bizarre to others

Question 10

Examples of delusions?

Answer 10

• Delusions of being prosecuted

- Delusions about being a very important person or the victim of a conspiracy

Question 11

Positive Symptoms: Speech disorganisation

Answer 11

Incoherent speech

Question 12

Negative Symptoms: Speech Poverty

Answer 12

• There is a reduction in quality and quantity of speech.

- There is a delay in verbal responses during conversation

Question 13

Negative Symptoms: Avolition

Answer 13

-Unwillingness to begin or complete a task. The individual looses motivation to carry out everyday tasks

Question 14

What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 14

Anderason (1982) identified three signs of avolition:

1. poor hygiene and grooming,
2. lack of persistence in work or education
3. lack of energy

Question 15

Issues in diagnosis

Answer 15

1. Reliability
2. Validity
3. Co-morbidity
4. Symptom overlap

Question 16

Relliability

Answer 16

The extent to which the diagnosis of schizophrenia is consistent. An important measure of reliability is inter-rater reliability.

Question 17

Inter rater reliability

Answer 17

The extent to which different assessors agree on the same diagnosis for patients

Question 18

A03 Reliability:

Answer 18

P: Cheniaux et al (2009) had 2 psychiatrists independently diagnose 100 patients using the DSM and ICD

E: Inter rater reliability was poor . One psychiatrist diagnosed 26 with schizophrenia using the DSM and 44 using the ICD

E: The inconsistency between mental health professionals and different classification is a limitation of diagnosis

Question 19

Validity

Answer 19

The extent to which the diagnosis of classification techniques measure what they are intended to measure

Question 20

Name a standard way to measure validity in terms of schizophrenia?

Answer 20

Criterion validity

Question 21

Criterion validity

Answer 21

Assessing the validity by considering the extent to which people do well on a test do well on other things that you would expect to be associated with the test

Question 22

A03 Validity:

Answer 22

P: A standard way to measure validity is to use criterion validity

E: Cheniaux et al’s study shows that schizophrenia is much more likely to be diagnosed using the ICD than DSM.

E: This suggests that schizophrenia is either over-diagnosed in ICD or under-diagnosed in DSM. This is poor validity and is a weakness of diagnosis

Question 23

Co-Morbidity

Answer 23

Occurrence of 2 illnesses together which may confuse diagnosis and treatment.

Question 24

A03 Co-Morbidity:

Answer 24

P: Co-Morbidity is where 2 or more conditions occur together. If conditions occur together it questions whether it may just be one condition

E: Buckley et al (2009) found that half the schizophrenic patients were also diagnosed with depression (50%) and substance abuse (47%)

E: It confuses the validity of classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia. As we are unsure whether it is just one condition,