Classification of schizophrenia Flashcards
(16 cards)
What is the nature of schizophrenia?
Type of psychosis, a sever mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality
What percentage of people are affected by schizophrenia in their lifetime?
1%
What ages is schizophrenia typically diagnosed?
15 -35
What is used to diagnose schizophrenia?
The DSM-V
What are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
Hallucinations
Delusions
Disorganised speech
Catatonic behaviour
What is the definition of positive symptoms?
Appear to reflect an excess or distortion of normal functioning
What are hallucinations?
Distortions/exaggerations of perception in any of the senses (most notably auditory hallucinations- hearing voices)
What are delusions?
Bizarre beliefs and misinterpretations that seem real to the person with schizophrenia - often paranoid in nature (e.g. being spied on)
What is disorganised speech?
Result of abnormal thought processes = shows up in speech (often speech is incoherent and sounds like gibberish)
What is catatonic behaviour?
Inability/motivation to initiate a task or to complete it once its started - leads to difficulties in daily living - decreased interest in personal hygiene - dress or act in ways that seem bizarre to others
Catatonic behaviours are characterised by reduced reaction to immediate environment
What is the definition of negative symptoms?
Appear to reflect a diminution or loss of interest in normal functioning
What are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
Speech poverty
Avolition
Affective flattening
Anhedonia
What is speech poverty?
Characterised by the lessening of speech fluency and productivity, thought to reflect slow/blocked thoughts
- produce fewer words in a given time (find it difficult to produce them spontaneously)
What is avolition?
A reduction of interests and desires as well as an inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behaviours - often mistaken for disinterest
What is affective flattening?
Reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression including facial expressions, voice tone, eye contact and body language
Also show a deficit in prosody i.e. paralinguistic features e.g. tempo, loudness, pausing, that typically provide extra info to listener
What is anhedonia?
A loss of interest or pleasure in all/almost all activities + lack of reactivity to normally pleasurable stimuli (also experience physical anhedonia = no pleasure form food or bodily contact is a distinct characteristic of schizophrenia)
