Schizophrenia & Psychosis

Question 1

What are hypnagogic hallucinations?

Answer 1

Hallucinations that occur as a person is falling to sleep (can occur in normal people)

Question 2

What are hypnopompic hallucinations?

Answer 2

Occur as a person is waking

Question 3

Discuss the epidemiology of Schizophrenia with regards to lifetime risk, age of onset and gender

Answer 3

• Lifetime risk is 1%
• Age of onset is typically between 15 and 45
• Men and women are equally affected but men tend to be affected earlier and more severely than women.

Question 4

What 5 obstetric complications increase the risk of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

• Maternal prenatal malnutrition
• Viral infections
• Pre eclampsia
• Low birth weight
• Emergency c-section

Question 5

What brain changes have been observed in those with schizophrenia?

Answer 5

Smaller lighter brains with enlarged ventricles

Question 6

Explain the ‘dopamine hypothesis’ of schizophrenia

Answer 6

The dopamine hypothesis states that schizophrenia is the result of dopamine overactivity in certain areas of the brain. It is believed that positive symptoms are the result of excess dopamine in the mesolimbic tracts and negative symptoms may result from dopamine underactivity in the mesocortical tracts.

Question 7

Describe what is meant by delusional perception

Answer 7

Delusional perception is the process whereby a real perception is interpreted in a delusional way

Question 8

Describe what is meant by passivity

Answer 8

Passivity is belief that movement, sensation, emotion or impulse are controlled by an outside force

Question 9

What is meant by thought interference? And what are the three presentations of thought interference?

Answer 9

Thought interference is when the patient believes that their thoughts are under the control of something or someone else. This can be in the form of:

• Thought withdrawal
• Thought insertion
• Thought broadcasting

Question 10

Name five negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Answer 10

1) Apathy
2) Blunted affect
3) Anhedonia
4) Social withdrawal
5) Poverty of thought and speech

Question 11

List 5 physical causes of psychosis

Answer 11

1) Substance misuse
2) Dementia
3) Delirium
4) Temporal lobe epilepsy
5) Medication side effects e.g. dopamine agonists used in Parkinson’s