Schizophrenia- characteristics of behaviour Flashcards
What is schizophrenia?
-Profound disruption of cognitive and emotional affecting a persons language, thoughts, perceptions and sense of self
-Includes cognitive, behavioural and emotional dysfunctions
-Can have cluster of signs and symptoms associated with impaired occupational or social functioning
-Life long illness but those affected aren’t coherent nor do they display psychosis all the time
What are positive symptoms?
Atypical additional experiences beyond those ordinary existence
Examples of positive symptoms?
Hallucinations
Delusions
Disordered thinking
Pos- what are hallucinations?
Unusual sensory experiences
Can be related to environment or completely unrelated
Can be visual, auditory, olfactory (smell) and/or tactile (touch)
Auditory are most common
Pos- hallucinations Lewandowski et al?
Treat hallucinations are present in approximately 20% of the SZ cases and individuals can experience formication which is sensations under the skin resembling small insects e.g. spiders, sensations so real that the persons experiencing it initially can’t appreciate the feeling is just hallucinations
Pos- what are delusions?
Delusions are strongly held false beliefs
Delusions persist even when there is evidence against their beliefs
Pos- what are the different types of delusions?
Delusions of grandiosity
Delusions of reference
Delusions of persecution
Pos- what are delusions of grandiosity?
Believing they are important/historical political figure (jesus/neapolitan)
Pos- what are delusions of reference?
Believing people are trying to send messages or make contact via TV/Radio
Pos- what are delusions of persecution?
Paranoid delusions were they believe others are trying to harm them/plotting against them
Positive- disordered thinking?
Result of abnormal thought process
The patient has trouble organising thought processes which then manifests in speech
This can be quickly switching between topics (perailment) sometimes mid sentence or speaking gibberish
People with SZ often report that their thoughts are not their own (thought insertion) and are believed to have been inserted by a third party)
What are negative symptoms?
Negative symptoms SZ involve the loss of unusual abilities or experiences
What are the 5 negative symptoms?
Alogia
Avolition
Anhedonia
Flatness of affect
Catatonic behaviour
Negative- what is alogia?
The focus is on the reduction in the amount and the quality of speech sometimes called poverty of speach
Negative- what is avolition?
Difficulty beginning or keeping up with goal directed activity
Loss of motivation to carry out daily tasks (apathy)
Negative- Avolition Andreason?
3 signs
-Poor hygiene
-Lack of energy
-Lack of persistence in work and education
Negative- what is anhedonia?
An individual does not react appropriately to pleasurable experiences
They experience loss of pleasure from activities
This can include eating, social contact or activates patient used to find pleasure on
Negative- what is flatness of effect?
Individuals appears to have no emotion they show little to no facial expression
Monitone speech e.g. no intonations rise and fall in speech
Negative- what is catatonic behaviour?
Can range from fast, repetitive movements to no movement at all
e.g. echopraxia mimicking movement
of these around them
Immobile for long periods
What are prodromal symptoms?
-A loss of interest in usual activity’s
-Avoiding the company of others
-Staying away from work
-Irritable and oversensitive
-Lack of interest in personal hygiene
-Generalised anxiety
-Mild degrees of depression
Can you get diagnosed with prodromal symptoms?
No
only in retrospect once schizophrenia been diagnosed, symptoms may cost the disorder
Symptoms may be the cost of disorder
What are the 2 classification of schizophrenia?
ICD-10-WHO (International Classification of Disease edition 10)
DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual edition 5)
What is the classification of ICD-10?
Have at least 1 month of symptoms
At least 1 symptom that positive
Or 2 negative symptoms
What is DSM-5 classification?
Occur at least 1 month
6 months of delusions of function
Two or more of
-Delusions
-Hallucinations
-Diagnostic thinking
-Catatonic behaviour
-Negative symptoms
Critic of the classifications of schizophrenia?
Lacks reliability as there is 2
