Schizophrenia: topic 1 ‘classification of SZ’

Question 1

what is schizophrenia?

Answer 1

• a serious mental disorder characterised by a profound disruption of cognition and emotion

Question 2

why is SZ classed as a type of psychosis?

Answer 2

• because thoughts and emotions are so impaired that there is a loss of contact with reality

Question 3

what percentage of the population suffers with SZ?

Answer 3

• 1%

Question 4

what are the two types of symptoms of SZ?

Answer 4

• positive and negative

Question 5

what are positive symptoms + examples?

Answer 5

• appear to represent an excess of normal functioning
• delusions , hallucinations, disorganised thinking and speech

Question 6

what are negative symptoms + examples?

Answer 6

• appear to reflect a loss of normal functions
• poverty of speech (alogia), avolition

Question 7

define delusions

Answer 7

• bizarre beliefs that seem real to the person with SZ, but they are not real
• can make the sufferer behave in ways that make sense to them but are bizarre to others

Question 8

what are delusions of persecution?

Answer 8

• fear they are being harmed (eg the FBI are watching and following them), it is not true

Question 9

what are delusions of grandeur?

Answer 9

• believe they have powers that they don’t have (eg God is talking to them / they are God)

Question 10

define hallucinations

Answer 10

• bizarre, unreal perceptions of the environment

Question 11

what are auditory hallucinations?

Answer 11

• hearing voices that other people cannot hear

Question 12

what are visual hallucinations?

Answer 12

• seeing lights, objects or faces that other people cannot see

Question 13

what are olfactory hallucinations?

Answer 13

• smelling things that other people cannot smell

Question 14

what are tactile hallucinations?

Answer 14

• the feeling that bugs are crawling on your skin

Question 15

what do many schizophrenics report hearing in auditory hallucinations?

Answer 15

• a voice or several voices telling them to do something such as harm themselves or someone else, or commenting on their behaviour

Question 16

define disorganised thinking and speech

Answer 16

• problems with organising thought processes which leads to incoherence
• may also cause the sufferer to have the feeling that thoughts have been inserted or withdrawn from the mind
• disorganised thinking cannot be directly observed but it will show up in their disorganised speech

Question 17

what are the three types of disorganised speech?

Answer 17

• neologisms, word salad, clang

Question 18

define neologisms

Answer 18

• making up new words

Question 19

define word salad

Answer 19

• saying sentences in the wrong order (‘ i am going to the shop’ —> ‘to going shop the i’m’)

Question 20

define clang

Answer 20

• putting words that sound the same / rhyme together even though they mean different things

Question 21

define poverty of speech

Answer 21

• characterised by a reduction in the amount and quality of speech
• sufferers produce fewer words in a given time on a task of verbal fluency (eg name as many animals as you can in 1 minute) due to difficulty spontaneously producing them

Question 22

define avolition

Answer 22

• a reduction of interests and desires as well as an inability to initiate and persist in goal directed behaviour (eg sitting in the house for hours everyday doing nothing)
• to be classified as avolition there must be a reduction in self initiated movement in activities that are available to the patient

Question 23

what is required for a SZ diagnosis

Answer 23

• two or more positive / negative symptoms to persist for at least 6 months
• only one symptom is required if symptoms are considered to be particularly problematic