Schizophrenia Flashcards
Classification
Organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms cluster together in sufferers i.e. what are the symptoms of schizophrenia?
Positive Symptoms
Atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences.
Negative Symptoms
Atypical experiences that represent the loss of usual experiences or abilities.
Hallucinations
Things a person sees, hears, smells or feels that no one else can see, hear, smell or feel. Have no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there.
Delusions
Bizarre beliefs that seem real to the schizophrenic. Person believes delusions even after beliefs (which can be paranoid) are proved to be not true or logical.
Poverty of speech
Speech becomes less fluent. Sometimes there is a delay in responses during conversation.
Avolition
Lack of ability or motivation to begin and sustain planned activities. Might lead a person to fail to take care of themselves e.g lack of hygiene, poor diet.
Diagnosis
Deciding whether someone has a particular mental illness using the classifications.
Schizophrenia
A severe mental illness where contact with reality and insight are impaired, an example of psychosis.
DSM
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder. 2 positive symptoms must be present for diagnosis but only one if delusions or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary. There must be continuous signs of disturbance for at least 6 months.
ICD
International statistical classification of diseases. 2 or more negative symptoms are sufficient for diagnosis or one positive symptom. Recognises a range of subtypes of schizophrenia.
Reliability (in relation to diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia)
The level of agreement (consistency) on the diagnosis of schizophrenia by different psychiatrists (inter-rater reliability), across time (test- retest reliability) and across cultures. It is also the stability of diagnosis over time given no change in symptoms.
Validity (in relation to diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia)
The extent to which schizophrenia is a unique syndrome with unique characteristics, signs and symptoms.
4 issues with the validity of diagnosing schizophrenia
symptom overlap, co-morbidity, cultural bias, gender bias.
Symptom Overlap
Occurs when 2 or more conditions share symptoms. Where conditions share may symptoms this calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately.
Co-morbidity
The occurrence of two illnesses or conditions together, for example a person has both schizophrenia and a personality disorder. Where two conditions are frequently diagnosed together, it calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately.
Gender Bias
Diagnosis of schizophrenia is said to occur when the accuracy of diagnosis is dependent on the gender of the individual due to gender-bias diagnostic criteria or stereotypes. Loring and Powell is research evidence of this.
Loring and Powell
Research evidence for gender bias. Randomly selected 290 psychiatrists (male and female) to read of patient behaviour and offer judgement. When told the patient was male or the gender was not specified, 56% were given diagnosis of schizophrenia. But when told the patient was female, only 20% diagnosed.
Cultural Bias
Research shows that there’s a significant variation between cultures when it comes to diagnosing schizophrenia.
Escobar
Research evidence for cultural bias. Pointed out that white psychiatrists may tend to over-interpret the symptoms of black people. Such factors may be causing the problems such as: cultural differences in language and mannerisms, difficulty in relating, myth that black people rarely suffer from affective disorders. Clinicians must pay more attention to effects of cultural differences on diagnosis.
Biological Explanations of Schizophrenia
Candidate genes (Ripke et al). Dopamine Hypothesis (Goldman-Rakic et al). Neural correlates (Juckel et al. and Allen et al).
Rosenhan
Tested reliability of mental health diagnosis. Being sane in insane places study.
Biological Therapies for Schizophrenia
Drug treatments for schz include first gen typical antipsychotics (e.g. Chlorpromazine) and second gen atypical antipsychotics (e.g. Clozapine, Risperidone).
Ripke et al.
Meta-analysis of genome studies in schz. Genetic makeup of patients compared to control groups. 108 separate genetic variations were associated with increased risk of schz.