Schizophrenia Flashcards
Schizophrenia- defined
- “Split mind”
- Fundamental break with reality that is out of the range of normal experience
- not multiple personality
- not destined to be violent
a psychotic disorder in which personal, social, and occupational functioning deteriorate as a result of unusual perceptions, odd thoughts, disturbed emotions, and motor abnormalities.
DSM criteria for schizophrenia
- 6 mo with 1+ mo of active phase
- 2 or more of the following:
- delusions
- hallucinations
- disorganized speech
- abnormal motor activity
- negative symptoms
- social/occupational dysfunction
Positive schizophrenia symptoms
- delusions
- jealousy
- persecution
- grandeur
- reference (attaching special meaning to a person, place, object)
- control
- hallucinations
- auditory is most common
- disorganized speech
- loose associations, tangentiality, derailment
- neologisms (new words)
- bizarre/disorganized behavior
- appearance
- affect
- actions
Types of delusions
jealousy, persecution, grandeur, reference, control
Negative schizophrenia symptoms
- alogia (poverty of speech)
- affective flattening
- avolition
- anhedonia
- social withdrawal
Other deficits common in schizophrenia
- attention
- dysphoria
- memory
- poor emotion recognition
- absence of insight
- sleep disturbance
- suicide attempts
Course of schizophrenia
Prodromal, active, residual
Prodromal phase of schizophrenia
peculiar behavior, social isolation/withdrawal, decreased role function, not unlike social phobia
Residual phase of schizophrenia
decrease positive symptoms, negative symptoms remain
Brain differences in schizophrenic brain
- increase in size of ventricles
- decrease in size of subcortical structure
- asymmetry
- interconnectivity theory
- hallucinating brain
- activity in visual and auditory areas of brain
Neurochemistry in schizophrenics
- dopamine
- increase in number of D2 receptors, also release is more prominent
- positive symptoms result from D2
- negative symptoms result from underactive dopamine (D1) in prefrontal cortex
- other neurochemical hypotheses
- serotonin: well supported
- glutamate- explains cognitive deficits and developmental changes, provide causal mechanism for DA
- GABA- explains glutamate dysfunction
- Glycine- explains glutamate dysfunction and offer potential environmental agitator
- neurotensin- master modulator
Synaptic pruning
- process occurring in adolescence where number of synapses decrease based on use, 30-40% in frontal lobes
- in schizophrenia, excessive and/or inappropriate synaptic pruning may take place
- frontal lobes- problem solving, organized thought
- temporal lobes-auditory hallucinations
- thalamus- sensory gating
Environmental influences on etiology of schizophrenia
- viral infection
- birth complications
- major life stressors/trauma?
- parental influences? (expressed emotion)
- high levels of expressed emotion are bad (parents expressing resentment, hostility toward their children, yet being over involved)
Schizophrenia symptom relapse
- social withdrawal early warning sign, isolation as precipitant
- increase in psychosocial stressors
- dramatically increased risk with alcohol and other substance use
- can be effectively managed (meds) to avoid hospitalization and other fallout
Typical antipsychotics
- chlorpromazine (1952), Thioridrazine, Haldol
- Mechanism of action: Block DA receptors in CNS- only act on dopamine
- Reduce positive symptoms, ignore or exacerbate negative symptoms
- Side effects
- difficulty initiating movement
- tardive dyskinesia- involuntary facial movements
- used in severe cases and for crisis intervention