classification of schizophrenia

• P: a limitation of schizophrenia diagnosis is the existence of gender bias. Men have been diagnosed with sz more commonly than women.

  E: One possible explanation for this is that women are less vulnerable than men, perhaps because of genetic factors. It seems more likely that women are underdiagnosed because they have closer relationships and get support. This leads to women with schizophrenia often functioning better than men

  L: this underdiagnosis is a gender bias and means women may not therefore be receiving treatment that might benefit them
• P: a limitation of sz diagnosis is the existence of culture bias. Some symptoms of sz, particularly hearing voices, have different meaning in different cultures

  E: in Haiti, some people believe that voices actually are communications from ancestors. British people of african-caribbean origin are up to nine times more likely to receieve diagnosis as white british people. the most likely explanation for this is culture bias in diagnosis of clients by psychiatrists from a different cultural background. This appears to lead to an overinterpretation of symptoms in black british people
• link for culture bias

  L: this means that british african-caribbean people may be discriminated against by a culturally biased diagnostic system
• P: A limitation of sz diagnosis and classification is symptom overlap with other conditions.

  E: there is overlap between symptoms of sz and the symptoms of other conditions, for example, both sz and bipolar disorder involve positive symptoms, such as delusions and negative symptoms, such as avolition. This suggests that sz and bipolar disorder may not be two different conditions but variations of a single condition.
• link for symptom overlap

  L: This means that sz is hard to distinguish from bipolar disorder. Symptom overlap means that sz may not exist a sz distinct condition and that even if it does its hard to diagnose. So both its classification and diagnosis are flawed.
• A03