schizophrenia Flashcards
(44 cards)
what is the most common psychotic disorder?
schizophrenia
what is schizoaffective disorder?
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
key characteristics of schizophrenia?
- Early onset (late adolescence)
- Prevalent
- Disabling and chronic - chronic relapsing disorder
is schizophrenia a condition to do with mood?
not a condition of mood, but perception of thoughts –
- mental state out of touch with reality, associated with delusions and hallucinations
- abnormalities of perception, thought & ideas
- profound alterations in behaviour (bizarre and disturbing alienation)
prevalence of schizophrenia
1% of population
ethnicity and gender have no effect
schizophrenia – 4 phases?
- The prodrome
- Active phase
- Remission
- Relapse
Cycles between remission and relapse common
what can szn patients tell?
patients can sometimes tell when a relapse is coming
prodrome phase
Late teens/early twenties: often mistaken for depression or anxiety. Can be triggered by stress
active phase
Onset of positive symptoms. Differentiation of what is and isn’t real becomes difficult. Usually lasts for 4-6 weeks
remission
Treatment return to ‘normality’, can last for years
3 classes of schizophrenia symptoms
positive, negative, cognitive
-two or more symptoms must persist for at least 6 months to be classed as schizophrenia
positive symptoms?
present in the onset
Hallucinations (e.g. visual, auditory)
Delusions
Disorganised thought/speech
Movement disorders
negative symptoms?
kick in later, more pronounced
Social withdrawal Anhedonia Lack of motivation Poverty of speech Emotional flatness
cognitive symptoms?
very often present later on in life
Impaired working memory
Impaired attention
Impaired comprehension
what are hallucinations?
when a perception is experienced without stimulus (positive symptoms)
Most commonly auditory - patients hears Voices talking about them (3rd person) Voices talking to them Voices giving a running commentary Voices echoing their thoughts (thought echo)
Patients may engage in a dialogue with the voices or obey their commands
what are delusions?
fixed, unshakable belief - not consistent with cultural/ social norms
-often paranoid or persecutory
Motor, volitional and behavioural disorders in schizophrenia
-Bizarre postures, strange mannerisms
-Altered facial expression – grimacing
-State of catatonia – motionless, mute, expressionless, uncomfortable or contorted postures
-extreme hyperactivity (destructiveness, walk round naked)
Impulsive behaviour – violent acts; murder w/o reason
schizophrenia - killing?
people can become violent, and they often do not feel regret after killing due to their emotional flatness
Formal thought disorder
- Disturbances in thinking → unintelligible speech
- Derailment of speech
- Loosening of associations; failure to follow train of though to its conclusion
- Poverty of speech (speech fails to convey sense/information)
- Manifests as distorted or illogical speech - neologisms, new words formed
social withdrawal
Patients withdraw from their families and friends, spend a lot of time on their own.
- Lack of initiative or motivation
- Do not want to do anything
- No longer interested in things that used to interest them
cognitive deficits
- Deficits in SELECTIVE attention, problem solving and memory
- Blunted affect
- Decreased responsiveness to emotional issues
- Expression is inappropriate to circumstances
lack of insight
no/lack of understanding what’s wrong.
-patients usually do not accept that any thing is wrong or that treatment is necessary
The aetiology of schizophrenia
genetics
-SCZ isn’t directly inherited, but can ‘run in families’
‘Candidate’ risk genes:
Gene deletions
Gene mutations
environmental factors
- Pregnancy/birth complications
- Stress
- Drug use
-current thinking is that a person needs both to manifest the disease
what do twin studies show?
shows that there is a genetic component to the disease
Not inherited, but there IS a risk
50% chance of developing schizophrenia if one twin diagnosed
