introduction to schizophrenia

Question 1

Define schizophrenia

Answer 1

a severe mental disorder where contact with reality and insights are impaired

an example of psychosis.

1% of the world have this disorder.

Question 2

where is schizophrenia commonly diagnosed

Answer 2

cities, men and lower socio-economic groups.

Question 3

how are disorders identified

Answer 3

by clusters of symptoms that occur together and classifying this as one disorder.

Diagnosis is then possible by identifying symptoms and deciding what disorder a person has.

Question 4

what are the two major classification systems.

Answer 4

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual edition 5 (DSM-5).

The World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Disease (ICD-10).

Question 5

how dose the DSM-5 and the ICD-10 differ in schizophrenia classification

Answer 5

DSM-5: one positive symptom must be present for diagnosis.

ICD: two or more negative symptoms are sufficient for diagnosis.

Question 6

define positive symptoms

Answer 6

atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences.

Question 7

two examples of positive symptoms.

Answer 7

hallucinations

delusions-paranoia.

Question 8

define hallucinations

Answer 8

unusual sensory experiences.

have either no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are there.

positive symptom

Question 9

example of hallucinations

Answer 9

hearing voices. often related to senses.

distorted facial expressions

Question 10

define delusions- paranoia.

Answer 10

involve irrational beliefs
may believe they are under external controls
positive symptom

Question 11

example of delusions.

Answer 11

person believes that they are someone else of they are a victim of conspiracy.

under external control.

Question 12

define negative symtpoms.

Answer 12

atypical experiences that represent the loss of usual experience.

such as a loss of clear thinking or a loss of motivation

Question 13

two examples of negative symptoms

Answer 13

speech poverty

avolition-apathy

Question 14

define speech poverty

Answer 14

reduced frequency and quality of speech

delay in verbal responses.

DSM-5: speech disorganisation.
speech becomes incoherent or the speaker changed topic mid sentence.

Question 15

define avolition

Answer 15

involves loss of motivation to carry out tasks: results in lowered activity levels.

Question 16

example of avolition

Answer 16

Nancy Anderson: 3 signs of avolition- poor hygiene and lack of persistence.

Question 17

One strength of the diagnosis of schizophrenia

Answer 17

good reliability.

A reliable diagnosis is consistent between clinicians (inter-rater) and between occasions (test-retest).

Osorio et al. (2019) ; report excellent reliability for schizophrenia diagnosis (DSM-5)

Question 18

one limitation

Answer 18

low validity

One way to assess validity is criterion validity,

involves seeing whether different procedures used to assess the same individuals arrive at the same diagnosis.

Cheniaux et al. (2009):
two psychiatrists independently assess the same 100 clients.

68:diagnosed with schizophrenia with ICD compared to 39: under DSM.

Question 19

Another limitation of schizophrenia

Answer 19

co-morbidity with other conditions.

Schizophrenia is commonly diagnosed with other conditions.

Buckley et al. (2009): 50% of individuals with schizophrenia also have depression.

47% have co morbidity with substance abuse and for OCD it is 23%

Question 20

define co morbidity

Answer 20

the occurrence fo two disorders or conditions together.
eg: person has both schizophrenia and personality disorders.

Question 21

A further limitation

Answer 21

cultural bias.

Some symptoms : hearing voices are accepted in some cultures. for example : some people in Afro-Caribbean societies ‘hear voices’ from their ancestors.

Afro-Caribbean men are up to ten times more likely to receive a diagnosis as white British men: due to overinterpretation of symptoms by UK psychiatrists

Question 22

final limitation

Answer 22

symptom overlap with other conditions.

overlap between the symptoms of schizophrenia and other conditions

schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may be the same condition Schizophrenia is hard to distinguish from bipolar disorder.