Schizophrenia

Question 1

What can schizophrenic symptoms be categorised into?

Answer 1

Positive symptoms
Negative symptoms

Question 2

What are positive symptoms?

Answer 2

Additional experiences beyond those of the ordinary

Question 3

What are negative symptoms?

Answer 3

Loss of usual abilities and experiences

Question 4

Give me examples of positive symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 4

Hallucinations
Delusions
Speech Disorganisation

Question 5

Give me examples of negative symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 5

Avolition
Speech poverty

Question 6

Explain each symptom of schizophrenia?

Answer 6

Hallucinations - sensory experiences that have no basis in reality
Delusions - False beliefs about self or others
Speech disorganisation - Speech becomes incoherent or speaker changes topic mid sentence
Avolition - Loss of motivation to carry out activities
Speech poverty - A reduction in the amount and quality of speech

Question 7

What are the three signs of avolition?

Answer 7

Poor hygiene and grooming
Lack of energy
Lack of persistence in work/education

Question 8

How does the DSM-V categorise schizophrenia?

Answer 8

Two or more primary symptoms should be present for a significant portion of a one month period
One or more secondary symptoms
Continuous signs for 6 month period

Question 9

How does the ICD-10 categorise schizophrenia?

Answer 9

Two or more negative symptoms
ICD-10 recognises subtypes of schizophrenia such as paranoid schizophrenia

Question 10

Classification of Schizophrenia
GRAVE
R

Answer 10

P - Classification has poor inter-rater reliability
E - Two psychiatrists diagnose 100 patients using both DSM and ICD criteria
E - DSM - 26 patients to 13
L - ICD - 44 patients to 24 this is a huge problem as inconsisitency limits diagnosis

Question 11

Classification of schizophrenia
GRAVE
V

Answer 11

P - Lacks concurrent validity
E - Cheniaux - patients more likely to be diagnosed using ICD than DSM-V
E - This is because DSM requires one ore more positive but ICD needs 2 or more negative symptom
L - Therefore either over-diagnosed with ICD or under-diagnosed with DSM

Question 12

Classification of classification
System overlap

Answer 12

P = Considerable overlap between schizo symptoms and bipolar disorder
E - Both involve positive symptoms such as delusions and negative symptoms like avolition
E - Patient may be diagnosed with schiz under ICD but Bipolar under DSM
L - If the wrong diagnosis is given the treatment will be ineffective

Question 13

Classification of schizophrenia
Co-Morbidity

Answer 13

P - Another problem of classification of schiz is co-morbidity
E - Schiz has been shown to commonly occur with other conditions
E - Buckley showed half shiz patients had depression (50%) or substance abuse (47%)
L - When two conditions are frequently diagnosed together it questions the validity of classifying the two disorders seperately

Question 14

Classification of schizophrenia
Gender bias

Answer 14

P - Gender bias in diagnosis
E - Longnecker revealed that in 1980s men had been diagnosed more that women
E - Cotton highlighted that female patients typically function better than men being more likely to work
L - Therefore this could be preventing women from getting the help they need

Question 15

Classification of schizophrenia
Culture bias

Answer 15

P - Culture bias
E - Shown that African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed
E - Rates of schiz in Africa are not particularly high, this is not due to genetic vulnerability but instead due to differences in culture
L - Hearing voices is acceptable in African cultures, therefore this reduces the validity of diagnosis