The basics of schizophrenia Flashcards
(4 cards)
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a widely misunderstood disease that can be best appreciated by meeting individuals with the condition.
Historically, Emi
What did Kurt Schneider propose in 1959?
In 1959 he proposed a set of fundamental symptoms for the diagnosis of SZ known as the ‘first rank symptoms’ (Schneider, 1959)
These include symptoms such as-
- auditory hallucinations:
- hearing thoughts spoken aloud
- thought withdrawal, insertion and interruption
- thought broadcasting
- delusional perception
- feelings or actions experienced as made or
influenced by external agents
What are the two types of schizophrenia?
Tim proposed a division of schizophrenia into Type I and Type II. (Crow, 1985)
Type I- consists of positive symptoms based on dopamine dysfunction.
Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder.
this type has a better response to antipsychotic medication.
Type II- consists of negative symptoms based on brain structure.
Negative symptoms include- flat affect, alogia (poverty of speech) and avolition (lack of motivation)
This type is associated with structural abnormalities such as enlarged ventricles.
poorer response to medication.
more chronic course.
Nancy Andreasen further defined these types based on predominantly positive or negative symptoms (Andreasen 1982)
What did Tim Crow theorize?
He theorised that schizophrenia is a disorder of cerebral asymmetry particularly involving language lateralisation and suggested it may be uniquely human due to our reliance on complex language (Crow, 1985)
