Schizophrenia

Question 1

What is schizophrenia?

Answer 1

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness where contact with reality and insight are impaired and example is psychosis

Question 2

What is a classification of a mental disorder?

Answer 2

The process of organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms cluster together in sufferers

Question 3

What is positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 3

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences they include hallucinations and delusions

Question 4

What are hallucinations

Answer 4

Hallucinations are a positive symptom of schizophrenia. They are sensory experiences of stimuli that have either no basis in reality, or are distorted perceptions of things that are there
Examples are: distorted facial expressions or occasionally people or animals that are not there

Question 5

What are delusions

Answer 5

Delusions are a positive symptoms of schizophrenia. They involve beliefs that have no basis in reality(irrational), for example, that the sufferer is someone else or that they are the victim of a conspiracy, believing that they are under external control

Question 6

What is the negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Answer 6

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are atypical experiences that represent the loss of a usual experience such as clear thinking or normal levels of motivation

Question 7

What is speech poverty

Answer 7

Speech poverty is a negative symptoms of schizophrenia. It involves reduced frequency and quality of speech
For example: The speech may become incoherent or the speaker changes topic midsentence

Question 8

What is avolition

Answer 8

Avolition is and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. It involves loss of motivation to carry out tasks and result in lowered activity levels
Examples are: Poor hygiene and grooming, lack of persistence in work or education and lack of energy

Question 9

What is co-morbidity

Answer 9

Comorbidity is the occurrence of two illnesses or conditions together, for example a person has both schizophrenia and a personality disorder. Where to conditions are frequently diagnosed together, it calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately

Question 10

What is symptom overlap

Answer 10

Symptom overlap occurs when two or more conditions share symptoms. Where conditions share many symptoms this calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately

Question 11

How many people of the average global population suffer from schizophrenia

Answer 11

There is about 1% of the global population suffering from schizophrenia

Question 12

Which gender is most commonly diagnosed with schizophrenia

Answer 12

Men are more commonly diagnosed with schizophrenia

Question 13

What are the two major systems for the classification of mental disorder?

Answer 13

There is the International classification of diseases addition 10 ( ICD-10) and the American psychiatric Association diagnostic and statistical manual addition 5 (DSM-5)

Question 14

What must be present for the DSM – 5 to diagnose schizophrenia

Answer 14

The DSM – five look into positive symptoms; for example delusions and hallucinations or speech disorganisation, and there must be one of these symptoms to be able to be diagnosed

Question 15

How does the I CD – 10 diagnose schizophrenia

Answer 15

The ICD – 10 look into negative symptoms and they need two or more to be able to diagnose schizophrenia

Question 16

What is inter-rater reliability

Answer 16

Interrater reliability is the extent to which different assessors agree on the assessments

Question 17

Evaluation of classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia to do with reliability (Cheniaux et al)

Answer 17

Cheniaux et al had to psychiatrist independently diagnose 100 patients using the DSM and ICD criteria.

• found that the inter-rater reliability was poor, one psychiatrist diagnosing 26 with schizophrenia according to the DSM and 44 according to the ICD, and the other diagnosing 13 according to the DSM and 24 according to the ICD.
• reliability it’s a weakness for diagnosis of schizophrenia

Question 18

Evaluation of the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia to do with the validity
(Measuring what we intended to measure)

Answer 18

We can assess validity of diagnosis with criterion validity asking if different assessment systems arrive to the same diagnosis
-Cheniaux study showed that schizophrenia was much more likely to be diagnosed using ICD and DSM, showing that it is either over diagnosed in ICD or under diagnosed and DSM showing poor validity

Question 19

Evaluation of the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia with co-morbidity
(two or more conditions occur together)

Answer 19

• Schizophrenia is commonly diagnosed with other conditions
• Buckley et al found Half of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also have diagnosis of depression at 50% or substance abuse at 47%
• Challenges classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia
• if a very severe depression looks a lot like schizophrenia and vice versa, then they might be better seen as a single condition. This confusing picture is a weakness of diagnosis and classification

Question 20

Evaluation of diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia to do with symptom overlap

Answer 20

• There is overlap between symptoms of schizophrenia and other conditions
• For example schizophrenia and bipolar disorder involve positive symptoms like delusions, and negative symptoms like avolition
• calls to question validity of both the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia
• Under ICD a patient may be diagnosed to be schizophrenic, but some receive diagnosis of bipolar according to the DSM criteria. This is unsurprising given the overlap of symptoms it even suggests that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may not be two different conditions but one

Question 21

Evaluation of diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia to do with gender bias diagnosis

Answer 21

• In the 1980s men more often diagnosed with schizophrenia than women
• Cotton et al says that female patients typically function better than men more likely to work and have good family relationships
• better interpersonal functioning may bias practitioners to underdiagnose schizophrenia, either because symptoms are masked altogether by good interpersonal functioning, or because the quality of interpersonal functioning makes the case seem too mild to warrant a diagnosis

Question 22

Evaluation of the diagnosis and classification of schizophrenia to do with cultural bias and diagnosis

Answer 22

• African Americans and English people of African Caribbean origin are several times more likely than white people to be diagnosed with schizophrenia
• this is because of cultural bias
• positive symptoms such as hearing voices maybe more acceptable an African culture is because of cultural beliefs in communication with ancestors -therefore people I’m already to work at knowledge these experiences
• however this highlights that western cultures are likely to see these experiences as bizarre and irrational

Question 23

What is family dysfunction

Answer 23

Family dysfunction is the abnormal process within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion. These may be risk factors for both the development and maintenance of schizophrenia

Question 24

Define cognitive explanations

Answer 24

Cognitive explanations or explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking, language and attention

Question 25

Define dysfunctional thought processing?

Answer 25

Dysfunctional thought processing is a general term meaning information processing that is not functioning normally and produces undesirable consequences

Question 26

Psychological explanations: schizophrenogenic mother

Answer 26

Schizophrenogenic mother means schizophrenia causing

• According to Reichmann a Schizophrenogenic mother’s are cold, rejecting and controlling, and tend to create a family climate characterised by tension and secrecy.
• This leads to distress that later develops into paranoid delusions, and ultimately schizophrenia

Question 27

Psychological explanations for schizophrenia: double bind theory

Answer 27

Bateson et al (1972) emphasised role of communication style within the family

• child may experience conditional love, of child is as wrong the child is punished by withdrawal of love
• leads to understanding world as confusing and dangerous, reflecting symptoms like disorganised thinking and paranoid delusions
• making communication style within a family a risk factor of schizophrenia

Question 28

Psychological explanations for schizophrenia: expressed emotion and schizophrenia

Answer 28

-Expressed emotion is the level of negative emotion expressed towards a patient by the carers
-this may include: verbal criticism of patient, occasionally accompanied by violence.
Hostility towards the patient, including anger and rejection.
Emotion over involvement in the life of the patient, including needless self-sacrifice
-the stress explains relapse rates for people with schizophrenia, suggesting that it can trigger schizophrenia in a person who is very vulnerable due to genetic make up