Symptoms of schizophrenia

Question 1

Facts about schizophrenia

Answer 1

• its more common in: men, cities and working class populations
• it cost £2 billion in Britain in treatment and care costs
• suffered by 1% of the worlds population

Question 2

Schizophrenia

Answer 2

disturbances in thought, emotion and behaviour
* its a brain illness resulting from a combination of genetic and environmental factors
* results in more hospital stays and consumes more hospital beds than any other illness
* usually begins sometime in adolescence or early adulthood
* 25% of people who are homeless may be living with schizophrenia or psychosis

Question 3

Positive symptoms

Answer 3

characteristics that schizophrenia adds to people
* hallucinations
* delusions

Question 4

Hallucinations

Answer 4

bizzare, unreal perceptions of the environment that are usually auditory but may also be olfactory, visual or tactile

Question 5

Delusions

Answer 5

irrational and false beliefs/paranoia. these can take a range of forms. one might believ they possess superior qualities such as being. one might believe that outside forces are controlling their thoughts/actions

Question 6

Negative symptoms

Answer 6

features that are taken away as a result of schizophrenia
* avolition
* speech poverty
* flat affect
* catatonic behaviour
* asociality

Question 7

Avolition

Answer 7

lack of motivation and lack of interest or inability to keep up with routine activities

Question 8

Speech poverty

Answer 8

reduction in the amount and quality of speech
* person has trouble organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically they may talk in a garbled way that is hard to understand

Question 9

Flat affect

Answer 9

lack of outward expression of emotions

Question 10

Catatonic behaviour

Answer 10

lying rigidly and not mivng for long periods of time (frozen)

Question 11

Asociality

Answer 11

impairments in social relationships. having very few friends, poor social skills and very little interest in being with others

Question 12

Type 1 schizophrenia

Answer 12

positive symptoms

Question 13

Type 2 schizophrenia

Answer 13

negative symptoms
(some patients may have both positive and negative and this may change over the coure of the illness)

Question 14

Classification

Answer 14

• ICD 10 (International classification of the causes of diseases and death), WHO - recognises that range of subtypes
• DSM - V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder), American Psychiatric Association - used to recognise the subtypes