schizophrenia: symptoms and features Flashcards
you are definitely diagnosed with SZ if you experience….?
delusions
hallucinations
disorganised speech/thought
AND , experience a month of active symptoms and experienced disturbance to everyday life for at least 6 months
what are the 4 key symptoms?
thought insertion
hallucinations
delusions
disordered thinking
what is thought insertion?
when a person doesn’t believe their thoughts belong to them and are from an external force.
experience blurring between self and others > lead to belief thoughts and feelings can pass from one person to another
what are hallucinations?
involuntary and clear experiences that appear to be real but are created in the mind.
can be visual, olfactory and auditory (most common)
often voices clearly distinct from ones own
what are delusions?
fixed beliefs that are not changeable in the light of conflicting evidence
EG. movements monitored by police or bizarre- aliens after you
what is disordered thinking?
jumbled and unrelated thoughts leading to incoherent speech
features of SZ?
-onset earlier in males (early 20’s) than females (late)
-males poorer prognosis than females and hard to predict
minority recover completely and most show chronic impairment
-positive symptoms reduce, negative remain
can SZ be reliably diagnosed?
-high degree of consistency with diagnosis with DSM and ICD
DSM kappa values- 0.45 (Reigers) whilst others found 0.85
only 4% lacked confidence with their diagnosis of SZ with ICD
IMPORTANT- suggests descriptors of SZ are detailed enough to allow clinicians to distinguish this condition form others
BUT…?
diagnosing SZ is not easy as it shares symptoms with other disorders
EG. hallucinations > depression, PTSD and drug withdrawal
another issue with diagnosis?
-diagnosis can be difficult if individual is from different cultural background to clinician
EG. Rastafarians use neologisms which are often a play on English words (overstand> understand, downpress>opress)
if clinician is unaware they may see it as sign of disorganised thinking
SO, accurate diagnosis requires awareness to cultural and linguistic approaches
