Unit 3 (Final Exam) Flashcards
Chapters 12-14
positive symptoms of schizophrenia
- excesses of thought, emotion, and behavior
- includes delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thoughts/speech, heightened perceptions, inappropriate affect
delusions (schizophrenia)
delusions of persecution, delusions of reference, grandiose delusions
hallucinations (schizophrenia)
- auditory most common, visual, tactile, smell, and taste very rare
- PET scans show heightened activity in corresponding part of the brain during hallucination
- people who are hallucinating seem to hear sounds produced by their own brains, but the brainss cannot recognize the sounds are actually coming from within
disorganized speech (schizophrenia)
- loose association: derailment
- neologisms: made-up words
- preservation: patients repeat their words and statements again and again
- clang: use of rhyme to think or express themselves, sound-alike associations
heightened perceptions (schizophrenia)
feeling that one’s senses are being flooded by sights and sounds, making it impossible to attend to anything important
inappropriate affect (schizophrenia)
emotional response doesn’t “fit” the situation
negative symptoms of schizophrenia
- deficits of thoughts, emotion, and behavior
- included affective flattening, alogia, avolition, anhedonia
affective flattening (blunted affect) (schizophrenia)
severe reduction or complete absence of effective (emotional) response to the environment
alogia (schizophrenia)
severe reduction or complete absence of speech
avolition (schizophrenia))
inability to persist at common, goal-oriented tasks
anhedonia (schizophrenia)
loss of pleasure in everything, indifference, social withdrawal
psychomotor symptoms of schizophrenia
- unusual movements or gestures
- includes awkward movements, repeated grimaces, odd gestures, catatonia
catatonia (schizophrenia)
pattern of extreme psychomotor symptoms which may include catatonic stupor, rigidity, or posturing
core symptoms of schizophrenia (per DSM-5 criteria)
at least two of the following for a period of at least a month
- delusions
- hallucinations
- disorganized speech
- grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
- negative symptoms
social/occupational function of schizophrenia (per DSM-5 criteria)
significant impairment in work, academic performance, interpersonal relationships, and/or self-care
duration of schizophrenia (per DSM-5 criteria)
continuous signs of disturbance for at least 6 months; at least 1 month of this period must include core symptoms
multilevel diagnosis of schizophrenia
involves analysis of symptoms, functioning, and duration, along with elimination/ruling out of other causes
course of schizophrenia
- from childhood past adolescence/young adulthood
- premorbid phase: cognitive motor or social deficits
- prodromal phase: brief/attenuated positive symptoms and/or functional decline, ends in first psychotic episode
- psychotic phase: florid positive symptoms
- stable phase: negative symptoms, cognitive/social deficits, functional decline
onset and prevalence of schizophrenia
- about 0.2-1.5% of the world
- often develops in early adulthood but can emerge whenever
gender differences of schizophrenia
- affects males and females about equally
- females tend to have a better long-term prognosis
- onset differes
do genetics play a role in schizophrenia?
strong genetic component
pre-DSM-5 subtypes of schizophrenia
- paranoid
- disorganized
- catatonic
- undifferentiated (i.e.other)
- residual (i.e. left over)
schizophrenia is chronic
- most suffer with moderate-to-severe lifetime impairment
- life expectancy is slightly less than average
paranoid schizophrenia
- intact cognitive skills and affect
- do not show disorganized behavior
- hallucinations and delusions (Grandeur or persecution)
- best prognosis of all types of schizophrenia
disorganized schizophrenia
- marked disruption in speech and behavior
- flat or inappropriate affect
- hallucinations and delusions (tend to be fragmented)
- develops early, tends to be chronic, lacks remissions
catatonic schizophrenia
- show unusual motor response and odd mannerisms
- examples include echolalia and echopraxia
- “waxy flexibility”
- tends to be severe and quite rare
undifferentiated schizophrenia
- wastebasket category
- major symptoms of schizophrenia
- fail to meet criteria for another type
residual schizophrenia
- one past episode of schizophrenia
- continue to display less extreme residual symptoms
Type I schizophrenia
primarily positive symptoms, responds to drug therapy, better prognosis
Type II schizophrenia
primarily negative symptoms, often not responsive to drugs, prognosis poorer, but some newer drugs do seem more helpful for negative symptoms
schizophreniform disorder
schizophrenic symptoms for one to six months
schizoaffective disorder
- symptoms of schizophrenia together with depression and/or mania
- both disorders are independent of one another
- at least 2 weeks only schizophrenic symptoms
- prognosis is similar for people with schizophrenia
- people do not tend to get better on their own
delusional disorder
- delusions, but not bizarre ones
- types include erotomanic, grandiose, jealous, persecutory
- lack other positive and negative symptoms
- extremely rare
- better prognosis than schizophrenia
brief psychotic disorder
- one or more positive symptoms of schizophrenia for less than 1 month
- usually precipitated by extreme stress or trauma
- tends to remit on its own
family studies of schizophrenia
- inherit a tendency for schizophrenia
- do not inherit specific forms of schizophrenia
- risk increases with genetic relatedness
twin studies of schizophrenia
- monozygotic twins: 48% risk
- fraternal (dizygotic) twins: risk drops to 17%
- adoption studies: risk remains high
- cases where a biological parent has schizophrenia
genetic research for schizophrenia
- risk increases with genetic relatedness
- risk is transmitted independently of diagnosis
- strong genetic component does not explain everything
- likely polygenic
- smooth-persuit eye movement
how can birth complications and prenatal viral exposure lead to schizophrenia?
- particularly those involving loss of oxygen that could damage the brain
- effects of perinatal hypoxia interact with genetic vulnerability
- prenatal viral exposure (second-trimester flu)
neural differences in schizophrenics
- pre-/perinatal insult: genetic and epigenetic factors impair electric, rhythmic activity and lead to the malformation of cortical circuits
- reorganization of cortical networks confers vulnerability: increase in high-frequency oscillations fn long-range synchrony during late adolescence is associated with a transient destabilization of network functions
- large-scale disintegration of network activity leads to emergence of psychosis
dopamine hypothesis for schizophrenia
- excess dopamine in the brain is associated with schizophrenia
- drugs that increase dopamine result in schizophrenic-like behavior
- drugs that decrease dopamine reduce schizophrenic-like behavior
- problems: not everyone not all symptoms respond, and timing of response is delayed
new biological theories for schizophrenia
- excess dopamine activity in mesolimbic system
- unusually low dopamine activity in prefrontal area of the brain
- other neurotransmitters may be important (serotonin, glutamate, GABA)
- likely that imbalances in levels or receptors for dopamine and interactions with other neurotransmitters