Introduction to Schizophrenia Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is Schizophrenia?
Serious mental illness which affects 1% of the population
Type of psychosis disorder
Distorts a persons contact with external reality and impairs their insight.
Up until 1908 known as dementia praecox.
Differences in how Sz affects wider popualtion
~Affects men more than women
~More prevalent in city dwellers
~More prevalent in people in lower economic groups.
What is used to diagnose + classify patients with mental illness?
DSM-5 ~~~ used mostly in UK
ICD-10~~~ used mostly in USA
State difference between feature and symptom
Feature —-> facts about Sz (usually involves statistics)
Symptom —-> characteristics of disorder (emotional/behavioural/cognitive)
What does ‘positive symptom’ refer to?
the addition of an experience
Add characteristics to the illness
Examples of positive symptoms:
~Hallucinations
~Delusions
~Disorganised speech
~Grossly disorganised behaviours
What are hallucinations?
Unreal perceptions of the environment.
Usually auditory but can be visual, olfactory or tactile.
What are delusions?
Irrational beliefs that appear true to a person suffering with Sz.
May be fuelled by paranoia or delusions of grandeur.
Belief that bizzare events in environment in direct correlation to themselves.
What is disorganised speech?
Abnormal thought processes an individual has.
They have problems organising thoughts and is mirrored in their speech.
Derailment ——–> skipping away from OG topic.
Extreme cases = gibberish
What is grossly disorganised speech?
Inability to complete tasks
Lack of motivation
Catonic behaviours —-> reduced reactions to immediate environment.
Rigid posture
Aimless motor activities.
What does ‘negative symptoms’ refer to?
The loss of an experience
Removal of characteristics to ones daily life
What are the negative symptoms of Sz?
~Speech poverty (alogia)
~Avolition
~Affective flattening
~Anhenonia
What is speech poverty?
Lessening of speech fluency/productivity
Accompanied by delay in persons responses in conversation.
What is avolition?
Find it difficult to to keep up with goal-directed activity.
Reduced motivation to carry out range of activities.
Nancy Andreasen (1982)
——> Three signs of avolition:
~Poor hygiene/grooming
~Lack of energy
~Lack of persistence in work/education
What is affective flattening?
Inability to change tone/vocal expression in alternate circumstances.
Deficit in paralinguistic prosody.
Emotional expressions do not show outwardly.
Trouble understanding other people’s vocal cues in conversation.
What is anhenonia?
Loss of interest in all activities.
Lack of reactivity to normally pleasurable stimuli.
Physical —> inability to experience pleasure from food
Social —> inability to experience pleasure from human interactions (hugging)
Pervasive (all embracing) vs confined to certain experience
What are some facts of the positive symptoms of Sz?
Affected by cultural differences
Tend to have greater weight when diagnosing
Hard to measure objectively
What are some facts of negative symptoms of Sz?
