Schizophrenia

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-Schizophrenia is a mental illness that usually occurs in late adolescence or early adulthood, but it can occur at any time in life.

-It is classified as a psychosis, as the sufferer has no concept of reality.

-Approximately 1% of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime. Universal. Over 2 million Americans suffer with it every year.

-Schizophrenia can cause ‘positive symptoms’, which are symptoms that are not usually present in a neurotypical person. 

-Delusions are false beliefs that are firmly held despite being completely illogical or lacking evidence. 

-Delusions of persecution: The belief that others want to harm, threaten or manipulate you. eg. kill you, spy on you, spread rumours about you. 

-Delusions of grandeur: This is the idea that you are an important individual, even god-like and have extraordinary powers eg. you are a King/Queen, a God, great inventor. Protect from low self esteem and depression (coping mechanism). Found more commonly in people with bipolar than SZ. Related to lesions in the frontal lobe.

-Delusions of reference: Thoughts that a certain book, movie, TV show, newspaper has a special message intended just for you.

-Hallucinations involve disturbances in perception. Visual and auditory. May see things/people that aren't there, hear voices that are not their own telling them to do things, feel a certain way, third person commentary etc.

-Thought disturbances: thought insertion, thought withdrawal, thought broadcasting

-Disorganised thought and speech: Inability to keep to the point, can't filter out unnecessary information, loose associations, neologisms

-Disturbances of affect: Displays of inappropriate emotion (inappropriate affect), fluctuating sensitivity (emotional disturbances)

-Psychomotor disturbances: Catatonia, stereotyping (purposeless, repetitive movements), sudden movements

-Negative symptoms appear to reflect a loss of normal function.

-Speech poverty is the inability to speak properly, characterised by lack of ability to produce fluent words; this is thought to reflect slowing or blocked thoughts. 

-Avolition is the reduction, difficulty, or inability to start and continue with goal-directed behaviour. Lack of motivation. Lower activity in the part of the brain that controls motivation. 

-Reliability is the extent to which a finding is consistent.

-In order for a classification system to be reliable, the same diagnosis should be made each time. 

-Validity is the extent to which we are measuring what we are intending to measure. Do different assessment systems eg. DSM-5 (US) and ICD-10 (UK) arrive at the same diagnosis for the same patient? Rosenhan: Are diagnoses of SZ always valid?

-Cooper 1972: US and UK psychologists were shown videos of clinical sessions where a patient describes their symptoms. US psych’s were 2x more likely to diagnose SZ even though the same symptoms were being described.

-Comorbidity refers to more than one disorders or diseases that exist alongside a primary diagnosis, which is the reason a patient gets referred and/or treated. 

-Buckley et al. (2009) concluded that around half of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also have a diagnosis of depression (50%) or substance abuse (47%). Post-traumatic stress occurred in 29% of cases

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