Schizophrenia and Psychotic Disorders Flashcards
What is Psychosis ?
Psychosis is when people lose some contact with reality. A lay person may describe this as “madness”.
The 3 main symptoms of psychosis are:
1- Hallucinations.
2- Delusions – where a person has strong beliefs that are not shared by others; a common delusion is someone believing there’s a conspiracy to harm them
3- Disordered thinking and speaking - a person’s thoughts and ideas come very quickly, which can make their speech fast and confusing
What type of things can cause a psychotic episode ?
Alcohol Hallucinosis
Borderline Personality Disorder
Dementia
Extreme stress
Mania
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Schizophrenia
Severe Depression
Sleep deprivation
Substance Misuse –
Mainly psychoactive drug intoxication or withdrawal. Alcohol, cannabis, hallucinogens, stimulants, barbiturates
What are the psychotic disorders ?
What is schizophrenia?
What is schizo-affective disorder ?
What are the symptoms of schizotypal personality disorder?
ME PECULIAR
What are the different types of hallucination?
What questions should you ask when a patient presents with auditory hallucinations?
What are the types of auditory hallucinations?
What are the voices saying/ who are the voices?
3rd person - Third-person hallucinations are auditory hallucinations in which patients hear voices talking about themselves, referring to them in the third person, for example “he is an evil person”.
Running commentary - Running commentary hallucinations are the second type, and this occurs when the patient hears voices that comment on everything the patient is doing and the environment.
Persecutory - ?
Command - Command hallucinations are auditory hallucinations that instruct a patient to act in specific ways; these commands can range in seriousness from innocuous to life-threatening.
What differentials can you think of for visual hallucinations ?
Charles Bonnet - Charles Bonnet syndrome is a condition where you see things that are not real (hallucinations). It can happen if you’ve lost a lot of your sight. It’s not caused by a mental health problem or dementia.
People with this syndrome may experience distortions in their visual perception of objects, such as appearing smaller (micropsia) or larger (macropsia), or appearing to be closer (pelopsia) or farther (teleopsia) than they are.
What are the types of tactile hallucinations are present ?
Most common auditory and tactile hallucinations include “formication” a feeling that small insects are crawling on your skin. A very unusual variant of this is called Ekbom syndrome.
Ekbom syndrome, also called delusional parasitosis, is a psychiatric disorder characterized by the patient’s conviction that he or she is infested with parasites.
