schizophrenia symptoms and features

• nature of schizophrenia:

  • Characterised by a profound disruption of cognition and emotion which affects a person’s language, thought, perception, affect and even sense of self.​
  • Media often links to violence. However only 8% of diagnosed with Schizophrenia in a year will commit a serious act of violence. ​

  ​

  This is less than the percentage of depressives or people with personality disorders who will commit an act of violence
• symptoms vs features:

  • Features of a mental health disorder usually involve statistics about the disorder, or aspects of it such as how the illness develops or how other factors such as age and gender link.​
  • Symptoms are what categorise the disorder with regard to how the person thinks, feels or behaves.​
• positive symptoms:

  • Hallucinations – HEARING OR SEEING THINGS (in some cultures positive) that are not there​
  • Delusions – FALSE BELIEFS – thinking their movements are controlled by someone else e.g. paranoid delusion –the suffer thinks that someone is trying to mislead, manipulate or even kill them. Someone who suffers from delusions of grandeur may think they are in a prominent position of power, such as a king or think they can cure cancer.
• postitive symptoms:

  • Thought disorders – make someone's speech hard to follow.​
  • They might loose concentration at work, or complain of muddled thinking, they may become disorganised.​
  • They make up words that have no meaning these are called ‘neologisms.’​
  • ‘Thought insertion’ (a person thinks their own thoughts are put there by someone else) or ​
  • ‘thought broadcasting’ (thinking others can hear their thoughts.
• evaluation of positive symptoms:

  • These tend to have greater weight when diagnosing schizophrenia but they can be affected by cultural differences so perhaps should not be weighted as strongly as negative symptoms, which might be more objectively measured. ​
  • Which positive symptoms do we know that are influenced by culture?​
  • ​
  • Delusions of grandeur - USA​
  • Auditory hallucinations - Mexico
• negative symptoms:

  • Often start before positive ones, sometimes years before the diagnosis. This is known as the prodromal period.​
  • They include:​
  • Avolition - Lack of energy and apathy – no motivation to do daily chores ​
  • Social withdrawal - avoiding family, not going out​
  • Affective flattening - Flatness of emotions – face becomes emotionless, voice dulls​
  • not looking after appearance and self – generally not adhering to expectations with regard to preserving a sense of self.​
  • Alogia – lack of speech
• evaluation of negative symptoms:

  • Seem less effected by cultural factors so they can be more objectively measured​
  • Lack of energy etc can be easy measured but hearing voices or not is impossible​
  • Prodromal features have been found to be present in many adolescents and cannot be taken to indicate the onset of schizophrenia on their own
• cognitive symptoms:

  • Issues with concentration and memory​
  • Hard to pay attention and become easily distracted.​
  • Issues with executive functioning (decision making).
• diagnosis: blood test:

  • Perkins et al (2004)​
  • looked at 32 patients with symptoms supposedly showing psychosis and 35 controls​
  • Looked for biomarkers of inflammatory oxidative stress, metabolism and hormones (all of which have been found to be abnorma)​
  • They identified those 32 who went on to develop psychosis.​
  • Blood test may not be far off!
• What are the different types of schizophrenia based on research?

  There are different types of schizophrenia.
• diagnosis: eye tracking-

  • Sweeney et al (94)​
  • Matched pairs showed people with schizophrenia were slow and different in their eye movements​
  • ​
  • Benson et al (2012) was partly successful. Comparing the eye movement of people with schcizophrenia to a control.
• What percentage of people who have had a schizophrenic episode recover and never have another?

  About ¼ of people recover and never have another episode.
• What happens to another quarter of people with schizophrenia?

  Another quarter have schizophrenia without breaks.
• What is the situation for about 50% of sufferers of schizophrenia?

  About 50% have periods of symptoms and periods of recovery.
• How do positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia differ?


  Positive symptoms come and go, whereas negative symptoms tend to be constant.
• What is psychosis in the context of schizophrenia?

  Psychosis is a separation from reality, also referred to as a psychotic break.
• What percentage of the population suffers from schizophrenia?

  1. 1% of the population suffers from schizophrenia.
• How does schizophrenia affect life expectancy?

  It reduces life expectancy on average by 10 years.
• What are the reasons for the reduced life expectancy in schizophrenia patients?

  Reduced life expectancy is due to physical issues or a higher risk of suicide.
• According to Duerr (2013), how much more likely are teenagers with schizophrenia to attempt suicide?

  Teenagers with schizophrenia are 70 times more likely to attempt suicide.
• At what age range does the diagnosis of schizophrenia typically occur?

  Diagnosis tends to be between adolescence and around 30 years old.
• In what circumstances is schizophrenia more common?

  Schizophrenia is more common in people experiencing stressors such as unemployment and homelessness.
• What is paranoid schizophrenia characterized by?

  Suspicion of others and delusions of grandeur, often accompanied by hallucinations.
• How does disorganized schizophrenia manifest in a person's behavior?

  It is characterized by disorganized speech and inappropriate moods for the situation, without hallucinations.
• What is a key feature of catatonic schizophrenia?

  Extreme withdrawal and isolation with little physical movement.
• What does residual schizophrenia indicate?

  It indicates low-level positive symptoms while psychotic symptoms are still present.
• What defines undifferentiated schizophrenia?

  It is when the person does not fit into any of the other types of schizophrenia.