Schizophrenia Flashcards
1
Q
types of hallucinations & brain scans
A
- Auditory: hearing voices
- Brocas area most active during hallucination: responsible for speech production, suggests patients are just listening to their own thought but unable to distinct them from external
- Olfactory: smelling things
- Visual: see things
- Tactile: (burning or tingling sensation)
- Gustary (tasting lemons)
- d
2
Q
Other causes of psychosis
A
- L-dopa: Parkinson’s medication produces symptoms relating to
- Cocaine, meth, and psychedelics
- Huntington’s disease (disease of nerves, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms)
3
Q
Neurobiological Contributions to schizophrenia
A
- Overfiring of dopamine neurons
- drugs that increase dopamine produce schizophrenia-like symptoms
- Drugs that decrease DA decrease symptoms
- Multiple NT likely involved
- Enlarged ventricles (holes) in brain:
- Cerrebellum shrinking: movement control– catatonia
- Thalamus: controls incoming information to brain
- Takes longer for sensory info to reach brain
- Deficits in top-down processing
- Viral infections in pregnancy
- Most born with schizophrenia during winter
- flu viruses may impact brain development
4
Q
Psychosocial contributions Schizophrenia
A
- Family interactions: high expressed emotion
- Critisism hostility toward individual; tendency to blame them for their symptoms
- greater chance of relapse
- Stress may activiate underlying vulnerability
5
Q
Antipsychotic side effects
A
- First gen
- grogginess, restlessness, weight gain
- Parkinsons-like effects (tremors)
- Tardive dyskinesia: unvoluntary movement of lips
- Second gen
- Fewer side effects, less effective
- Compliance is a problem
- don’t like side effects financial burden, bad relationship with doctors
6
Q
Psychosocial Treatments (not CBT)
A
- Psychoeducation: increased awareness, less self stigma
- Training to form better relationships and skills to function
- Family therapy to help families support patient
- Token economics for inpatients: reward adaptive behaviors
7
Q
CBT
A
- help patients see thoughts as thoughts not external stimuli
- help examine the evidence against delusions
- e.g. “i built a time machine to get away because everyone is out to get me” ask if anyone helped them build a time machine, if they say their neighbor, maybe it’s evidence that not everyone is out to get them
- Modify beliefs about schizophrenia: what are some strengths?
- Focus on emotional distress
- Some improvement over medication alone
8
Q
Management, prevention, and recovery
A
- Illness management and recovery: work towards meaningful life even with symptoms
- Realistic goal setting: don’t say voices will go away
- Involve community if possible
- Prevention
- Identify at-risk children
- Supportive environment
- Treatment at prodromal phase social skills
9
Q
Schizophreniform
A
- Psychotic symptoms last 1-6 months
- Functional before psychotic episode
- Better prognosis than schizophrenia: remission more possible
- 0.2% lifetime prevelance
10
Q
Brief Psychotic
A
- at least 1 symptom positive of schizophrenia
- less than a month
- individual returns to normal functioning
- Usually caused by trauma or stress
- usually mid-30s
11
Q
Schizoaffective
A
- Symptoms of schizophrenia + major mood episode (depressive or manic)
- psychotic symptoms must occur outside of mood episode for at least two weeks (otherwise manic w psychotic symptoms)
- Long term prognosis slightly better than schizophrenia
- do not get better on their own usually
12
Q
Delusional disorder
A
- Presence of 1 or more delusions for at least a month
- May specify the type of delusion (erotomanic, persecutory, grandeur)
- Lacks other symptoms of schizophrenia
- Very rare
- 30-35 age of onset
- More common in females (55%0
13
Q
Catatonia
A
- Unusual motor responses like immobility or agitation
- Maintaining awkward pose for hours and resiting efforts to be moved
- Waxy flexibility: person can be placed in position and maintain it for long time
- Pacing back and force or wildly moving armand legs
- Meaningless motor behaviors
- Echolalia: Mimicking others speech or movement
- Can be diagnosed alone or present in psychotic disorders
- Severe and rare
14
Q
Schizophrenia overview
A
- Delusions and hallucinations
- Disorganized speech and behavior
- Problems in self-care and life functioning
- Inappropriate emotions
- Heterogeneous: many possible presentations
- Affects 1% population
- Emerges late teens or early 30s then individual deteriorates quickly
15
Q
History of term schizophrenia and misunderstandings
A
- schizophrenia = split mind
- splitting from reality as well as various functions of mind (emotion occurs separately from thought)
- Recognized heterogenity of disorder
- Misunderstandings
- Some confuse with DID but schizophrenics do not experience distinct identities
- Overuse of term “schizophrenic” minimize struggles associated with the illness
