Schizophrenia - Exam Review

Question 1

Positive symptoms

Answer 1

the introduction of new features to a person’s mind.

• includes hallucinations and delusions.

Question 2

Delusions

Answer 2

false beliefs held in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary.

Question 3

Categories of Delusions

Answer 3

1. ) thought control
2. ) self-reference
3. ) self-importance
4. ) guilt

Question 4

Thought Control

Answer 4

Involves:

• thought insertion
• thought broadcasting
• thought withdrawal: (someone is taking thoughts out of your head).

Question 5

Self-reference

Answer 5

Involves:

• Delusions of persecution: person feels punished by god/government.
• Delusions of reference: impression that an ordinary event has special meaning.

Question 6

Self-importance

Answer 6

Involves:

• Grandiose delusions: person feels that they are Jesus, etc.
• Erotomanic delusions: thinking that someone important has a crush on them.

Question 7

Guilt

Answer 7

Delusions of harming others: people thinking they have hurt others just by thought.

Question 8

Hallucinations

Answer 8

sensory experiences without sensory stimulation.

Question 9

Type of Hallucinations

Answer 9

• auditory.
• visual.
• olfactory.
• tactile.
• gustatory.

Question 10

Bizarre vs non-bizarre delusion

Answer 10

bizarre –> belief in question cannot be true given what we know about the physical laws of the universe.

non-bizarre –> can be true within the limits of our physical laws, but has virtually no evidence.

Question 11

Auditory hallucinations

Answer 11

• most common.

- activate primary auditory cortex which suggests that they may be subjectively experienced as a true sound stimulus.

Question 12

Source monitoring confusion

Answer 12

says that hallucinations arise when a person mistakenly attributes internally generated precepts to an external origin.

Question 13

Effect on behaviour

Answer 13

hallucinations and delusions often guide:

• isolation, self harm, and suicide.

Question 14

Cognitive Symptoms

Answer 14

1. ) disorganized thought: thought processes are non-linear.
2. ) disorganized speech: jumping from one idea to the next.

Question 15

Aspects of disorganized thought & speech

Answer 15

1. ) Loose associations: joining words together that are only vaguely related in meaning.
2. ) Clang associations: making words connections based on rhyming.
3. ) Thought blocking: stopping mid sentence/thought.
4. ) Neologisms: making new words while forming a sentence.

Question 16

Negative Symptoms

Answer 16

the removal of certain features from a person’s mind & behaviour.

Include:

• social withdrawal
• anhedonia
• flat affect

Question 17

Social withdrawal

Answer 17

disengagement from the social world.

Question 18

Anhedonia

Answer 18

decrease in anticipated pleasure.

Question 19

Flat affect

Answer 19

decreased expression of emotion.

Question 20

Catatonia

Answer 20

Dysfunction in bodily movement. Can present as:

• agitated movement
• catatonic immobility (body remains still for a long time).
• waxy flexibility (body posture can be altered by someone else).

Question 21

Prevalence & Course

Answer 21

• 1% of population develops schizophrenia.
• men have earlier onset.
• 1/3 recover completely, 1/3 recurring problems, 1/3 severely affected.

Question 22

Diathesis of schizophrenia

Answer 22

• genetic: (50% chance for identical twins).

- experiential: (pre-natal exposure to maternal stress or virus).

Question 23

Stress of schizophrenia

Answer 23

• life stressors –> poverty, discrimination, lack of social support.
• expressed emotion –> how family members react to diagnosis.
• drug use

Question 24

Val/Met or Val/Val gene

Answer 24

If you have the val/met or val/val gene, marijuana use predicts vulnerability to developing schizophrenia.

Question 25

Duration

Answer 25

symptoms must be present for at least 1 month.

Question 26

Enlarged ventricles

Answer 26

• ventricles hold CSF.

- patients with schizophrenia have enlarged ventricles.

Question 27

Enlarged ventricles are linked to:

Answer 27

Less brain matter in:

• thalamus
• striatum
• temporal lobes (hippocampus & auditory cortex).

Question 28

Thalamus and schizophrenia

Answer 28

• smaller thalamus size predicts positive symptoms.

- damage to the thalamus can produce schizophrenia-like positive symptoms.

Question 29

Sensory Gating

Answer 29

processes of filtering out irrelevant stimuli in the brain from environmental stimuli.

• thalamus is involved.
• people with schizophrenia have weaker filtering ability.

Question 30

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

Answer 30

Brain area involved in inhibiting unwanted cognition.

• schizophrenics have 20% lower dendritic spine (impaired) density in the DLPFC.

Question 31

Sensory Filtering & Creativity

Answer 31

• strong link between deficit in P50 filtering and creativity.
• the same factor that seems to predispose people to schizophrenia, also underlies creativity.

Question 32

How does urban living affect schizophrenia?

Answer 32

living in urban environments is associated with higher risk of developing schizophrenia.