Classification

• What is Schizophrenia ?

  • A serious mental disorder
  • 1 % of world population
  • More common diagnosed in men
  • More common diagnosed in cities and working-class
• What are the symptoms of Schizophrenia ?

  • Positive symptoms = additional experiences beyond those of ordniary existence e.g. delusions and halluciantions
  • Negative symptoms = loss of usual abilities and experinces e.g. avolition and speech poverty
• What are delusions ?

  • Irrational beliefs about the world, that are firmly held onto
  • Delusions of persecution = believe others want to harm, threaten or manipulate you e.g. plotting to kill you
  • Delusions of grandeur = believe that you are an important individual and have extradionary powers e.g. jesus christ
  • Delusions of control = believe that they are under control of an alien force that has invaded their mind or body e.g. spirits
• What are hallucinations ?

  • Disturbances in perception
  • Auditory (hearing voices), smell, touch, sight
  • Single or many people talking and known or unkown
  • Voices tell them to do something evil e.g. harm themselves or others
• What is avolition ?

  • A persistent lack of motivation or energy to complete normal, everyday takes
  • No longer interested in going and out meeting with friends
  • No longer interested in activities that use to show enthusiasm in
  • Sitting in house for many hours and doing nothing
• What is speech poverty ?

  • Inability to speak properly
  • Lack of ability to produce fluent words - reflect showing or blocked thoughts
  • Short or empty replies to questions
  • Don't speak spontaneously
• How is Schizophrenia diagnosed ?

  • According to DSM-5 someone must have 2 or more of the core symptoms for at least one month (halluciantions, delusions, disorganized speech, gross disorganization, diminished emotional expression)
  • Significant decline in level of work, interpersonal relations and self care
  • 6 months of disturbance that's not caused by substance abuse or other medical condition
  • Ruled out bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms abd schizoaffective disorder
• What is a weakness of the classification of Schizophrenia ?

  • Point = huge issue of culture bias
  • Example = American and English individuals of african American decent are 7 x likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than their white counterparts. Javier Escobar (2012) pointed out that white psychiatrists may tend to over-interpret symptoms and distrust the honesty of Afro-caribbeans during diagnosis
  • Therefore = it is not reliable because hallucinations and talking to the dead is common in their culture
• What is a weakness of the classification of Schizophrenia ?

  • Point = often diagnosed with other conditions
  • Example = Buckely et al (2009) conculded the following co-morbidity rates (two or more conditions occuring together) - depression and schizophrenia 50%, substance abuse and schizophrenia 47 %, PTSD and schizophrenia 29%, OCD and schizophrenia 23%
  • Therefore = lacks validity as schizophrenia-like symptoms make be mistaken for the symptoms that are being displayed in these conditions. Weakness of diagnosis and classification
• What is a weakness of the classification of Schizophrenia ?

  • Point = symptom overlap
  • Example = schizophrenia and bipolar both have positive symptoms such as delusions and negative symptoms such a as avoliton
  • Therefore = a person may be diagnosed with shizophrenia but may also be diagnosed with bipolar when seeing another proffessional. This will lead to treatment issues
• What is the 'being Sane in insane places' study ?

  • David Rosenhan (1973) investigate the reliability and validity of psychiatric diagnoses -if could distinguish between Sane and insane
  • 8 psuedo paintents including Rosenhan feigned auditory hallucinations to gain admission to 12 diff psychiatric hospitals - behaved Normally once admitted
  • 7-52 days with average of 19 days despite displaying no further symptoms
  • Interpret normal behaviours as evidence of schizophrenia
  • Follow up study = hospital informed of impending psuedo patients but none were sent - 41 /193 were suspected imposters
• What were the conclusions of David Rosenhan's study (1973) ?

  • Reliabiltiy issues = mental health professionals struggled to distinguish between genuine and fabricated symptoms suggesting inconsistency in diagnostic practices
  • Validity issues = normal behaviours often misinterpreted as symptoms of mental illness. Indicated that context e.g psychiatric setting, heavily influenced diagnostic judgements - reduces accuracy and trustworthiness