psychotic disorders Flashcards
what is the Key Features in psychotic disorders
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Disorganized speech/thinking
- Grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior
- Other symptoms
describe Delusions
- Fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in
light of conflicting evidence. - Themes:
– Persecutory (most common)
– Referential (second most common)
– Erotomanic
– Grandiose
– Etc
describe Persecutory Delusions
Belief that one is going to be harmed, harassed,
and so forth by an individual, or organization.
describe Referential Delusions
- False belief that certain gestures, comments,
environmental cues, and so forth are directed at oneself. - The person falsely believes that insignificant remarks, events or objects in one’s environment
have personal meaning or significance
describe Erotomanic Delusions
- False belief that another person is in love with
the individual. - That person is usually of higher status (e.g., a
famous individual or a superior at work), but
can also be a complete stranger.
describe Grandiose Delusions
- Belief that one has exceptional abilities, wealth,
fame, or a special destiny. - Conviction of having some great (but
unrecognized) talent or insight or having made
some important discovery.
describe Delusion of false identification
(Capgras’ Syndrome)
False belief that a person is an impostor.
“My mother is not my mother, I know”.
describe Cotard delusion (delirium of negation)
False belief that people are already dead, do no
exist or have lost internal organs or blood.
describe Delusion of doubles (Fregoli’s delusion)
Different people are in fact a single person who changes.
describe thought withdrawal
Belief that one’s thoughts have been “removed”
by some outside force
describe thought insertion
- Alien thoughts have been put into one’s mind
describe delusions of control
- One’s body or actions are being acted on or
manipulated by some outside force
what is Hallucinations
- Perception-like experiences that occur without an external stimulus.
- They are not under voluntary control.
- They are vivid and clear.
- They are of any sensory modality (most common auditory).
- They must occur in the context of a clear sensorium:
– Not while falling asleep (hypnagogic)
– Not waking up (hypnopompic)
– Not taking drugs
describe Auditory Hallucinations
- Usually experienced as voices, whether familiar
or unfamiliar. - Perceived as distinct from the individual’s own
thoughts.
what is Disorganized Speech/Thinking
- Mildly disorganized speech
– Switching from one topic to another
(derailment or loose associations).
– Answers to questions may be obliquely
related or completely unrelated
(tangentiality) - (Rarely) nearly incomprehensible (incoherence
or “word salad”)
