Schizophrenia Classification / Diagnosis 16m Flashcards
What Is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which affects around 1% of the population.
It is also more commonly found in men in urban areas of the working class.
What Is Schizophrenia Classified Into?
Schizophrenia is classified into DSM-5 and ICD-10.
DSM states that only one positive symptom needs to be present.
ICD states that two negative symptoms need to be present.
Therefore showing the difference in classification.
What Are Positive Symptoms
Positive symptoms are behaviour which are added.
Hallucinations consist of seeing / hearing things.
Delusions are irrational beliefs such as the thought of being watched by the government through the television.
What Are Negative Symptoms?
Negative symptoms are a loss of usual functioning.
Avolition is a lack of motivation and loss of goal directed behaviour.
Speech poverty is the reduction in quality of speech.
What Is Reliability To The Diagnosis Of Schizophrenia?
Reliability refers to the consistency to the diagnosis.
If schizophrenia is diagnosed inconsistently this can result is someone being schizophrenic when they are not.
They can also be labelled as not schizophrenic when they are causing them to miss out on crucial treatment.
What Does Validity Mean In Terms Of Classifying Schizophrenia?
Validity refers to the extent that the classifcation measures what it intends to measure.
What Is Co-Morbidity?
Co-morbidity is where the prescence of two different disorders occurs at the same time.
This is where one condtion can be seen as two, eg schizophrenia and depression.
What Is Symptom Overlap?
Symptom overlap is when two or more disorders share symptoms, eg schizophrenia and bipolar.
They share symptoms such delusions and avolition.
This can result in the patient receiving two disgnosis which is negative.
What Did Cheniaux et al Find?
Cheniaux et al found that inter-rater reliability amongst two psychiatrists was low.
One diagnosed 26/100 patients using the DSM and diagnosed 44/100 using the ICD for schizophrenia.
The other diagnosed 13/100 using the DSM and 24/100 using the ICD for shizophrenia.
This shows that the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia lacks reliability and validity.
What Did Buckley et al Find?
Buckley et al found that 50% of schizophrenia patients also had a diagnosis of depression, 29% had a post traumatic stress diagnosis and 23% had a OCD diagnosis.
This supports that there are problems with the validity in particular co-morbidity.
Gender And Culture Bias In The Diagnosis Of Schizophrenia.
Men are more likely to be diagnosed potentially due to the fact that women are able to cope better with the symptoms.
People of an African origin are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia due to the cultural significance of ‘hearing voices’ which may be seen as unusual to white psychiatrists.
These factors then also support that the classification of schizophrenia lacks validity and reliability.
