Schizophrenia - Diagnosing SZ

Question 2

what are positive symptoms?

Answer 2

symptoms that are added and that ‘normal’ people do not have

Question 3

what are negative symptoms?

Answer 3

symptoms that are deficits - something ‘lost’ from a ‘normal’ person

Question 4

what are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

hallucinations

delusions of paranoia/grandeur

disorganized speech

disorganized / catatonic behaviour

Question 5

what are hallucinations?

Answer 5

seeing / hearing and sometimes feeling things that are not really there

Question 6

what are delusions?

Answer 6

false cognitions where a person believes false information

Question 7

what is a delusion of paranoia?

Answer 7

believing that the world is out to harm a person, and that anyone/anything is a threat

Question 8

what is a delusion of grandeur?

Answer 8

feeling overconfident (eg above the law)

Question 9

what is disorganized speech?

Answer 9

when a person cannot produce speech properly so it sounds like they are drunk / words are mixed up and said randomly

Question 10

what is disorganized / catatonic behaviour?

Answer 10

where a person ‘freezes’ up and cannot move, they are stuck in a state of catatonia

Question 11

what are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 11

avolition

alogia / speech poverty

affective flattening

anhedonia

Question 12

what is avolition?

Answer 12

reduced motivation when options are present

Question 13

what is alogia / speech poverty?

Answer 13

loss of fluency in speech - they don’t know less just produce less over a period of time

Question 14

what is affective flattening?

Answer 14

reduced range and intensity of emotions, including body language

Question 15

what is anhedonia?

Answer 15

loss of interest and pleasure in things that used to be pleasurable

includes physical anhedonia

Question 16

what are the criteria for diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 16

individual must show two of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behaviour for at least one month continously, or episodes that make up a month over a 6 month period.

symptoms must cause failure to function adequately and not overlap completely with symptoms of other disorders

Question 17

which symptoms of schizophrenia overlap with other disorders?

Answer 17

anhedonia (except physical) - depression and bipolar

affective flattening - schizoaffective disorder

Question 18

what are the issues with diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 18

symptoms overlap

gender and culture bias

comorbidity

Question 19

what is comorbidity?

Answer 19

when patients have multiple disorders, eg schizophrenia and depression

Question 20

what was the procedure of Rosenhan’s original study into diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 20

covert participant observation

sent volunteer students into GPs in 4 different US states and to report hearing ‘dull thud’ only - not an actual symptom of SZ

Question 21

what were the results of Rosenhan’s original study into diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 21

all students diagnosed with SZ and hospitalised

given meds / treatment and not allowed to leave until university intervened after 2 months

Question 22

what does Rosenhan’s original study show about the reliability and validity of the method of diagnosing schizophrenia at the time?

Answer 22

good inter-rater reliability as all GPs came to same conclusion

very bad internal validity

Question 23

what was the procedure of Rosenhan’s follow up study on diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 23

he phoned the hospitals from the original study and said he was sending over more fake patients

he never sent any more fake patients

Question 24

what were the results of Rosenhan’s follow up study into diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 24

1/5 of real patients labelled ‘pseudopatients’ and discharged over the next 2 weeks

Question 25

how can cultural bias affect diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 25

some symptoms are seen as more acceptable in different cultures

eg hearing voices is more acceptable in african cultures than in english culture

Question 26

how can gender bias affect diagnosing schizophrenia?

Answer 26

women are less likely to be diagnosed due to masking symptoms