Schizophrenia: Symptoms and Features A03 Flashcards
What is a strength of the diagnosis of schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia can be reliably diagnosed and is highly consistent.
Regier et al (2013) reported Kappa Values were 0.46 (good) in field trials of the DSM.
Sartorius et al (1995) found a very high Kappa value of 0.86.
What is a weakness of the diagnosis of schizophrenia?
Cultural differences can make diagnosis difficult.
E.g Rastafarians use neologisms in their everyday speech.
What are the four key positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Thought Insertion
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Disordered Thinking
What are the three key negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Poverty of speech/Alogia
- Social Withdrawal
- Flattening Effect
Give three features of Schizophrenia.
- Episodes of psychosis can appear between late adolescence and mid thirties. With males having it slightly earlier than females.
- People that have psychosis before late adolescence tend to have a worse prognosis than those that develop it later. Their symptoms tend to be more severe and last longer.
- About 50% of people with Schizophrenia have times where they don’t have symptoms and times when they do.
What is the mark scheme definition of Delusions of Grandeur?
The person believes themselves to be a famous person, wealthy or powerful. The delusions tend to have a religious, supernatural or scientific theme.
What is the mark scheme definition of Visual Hallucinations?
Where the person experiences events that are not really happening. They are vivid, real and separate from the person receiving them.
What is the mark scheme definition of Auditory Hallucinations?
Where the person hears voices talking to them. The hallucinations are powerful and the person sees them as separate to themselves.
What is the mark scheme definition of poverty of speech/Alogia?
This is when responses use as few words as possible. There is not the usual response given in speech.
What is the mark scheme definition of social withdrawal?
Withdrawing from family and friends and refusing company. The individual may lose interest in life and stay at home.
What is the mark scheme definition of flattening effect?
Showing a lack of expression in face and voice. There is a limited amount of emotions shown, even in situations where you would expect someone to show sadness/happiness.
What is a valid diagnosis?
Where the symptoms match the label for example, if someone is suffering from hallucinations and thought insertion, it would be a valid diagnosis of Schizophrenia.
What makes diagnosis schizophrenia easy for clinicians?
A lot of the symptoms can be seen and are easily recognised.
What did Cooper et al (1972) find when he looked into diagnosis of schizophrenia in the UK and America?
American psychiatrists diagnosed the patients with schizophrenia twice more than the UK psychiatrists (they diagnosed with depression).
This is a weakness of the reliability of the diagnosis due to cultural differences.
What makes diagnosis of schizophrenia difficult in terms of the symptoms shown?
It isn’t the only disorder that includes psychosis. Other illnesses such as brain tumours, dementia and strokes also have signs of psychosis.
This makes the validity of diagnosis difficult.
