Schizophrenia

• Symptoms of Schizophrenia:

  • Delusions
  • Disorganised thinking/derailment
  • Affective flattening
  • Alogia (poverty of speech)
  • Social/Occupational dysfunction
  • Avolition
  • Hallucinations
  • Catatonic behaviour
  • Anhedonia
• For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset
• Avolition refers to the reduction of, or inability and persistence in goal-directed behaviour, like sitting in the house for hours every day, doing nothing
• Hallucinations are unreal perceptions of the environment that are usually auditory (e.g. hearing voices), but may also be visual, olfactory, or tactile
• Catatonic behaviour refers to bizarre and abnormal motor movements, like holding the body in a rigid stance or moving in a frenzied way
• Delusions are bizarre beliefs that seem real to the person with schizophrenia, but they are not real; they can be paranoid or involve inflated beliefs about their own importance
• Alogia is characterised by the lessening of speech fluency and productivity, reflecting slowing or blocked thoughts
• Affective flattening is a reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact, and body language
• Anhedonia is a loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities, or lack of reactivity to normally pleasurable stimuli
• Symptoms include delusions (false beliefs), hallucinations (hearing voices or seeing things that aren't there), disorganized speech, grossly disorganized behavior, negative symptoms such as lack of emotion, motivation, and social withdrawal
• What is the typical onset for schizophrenia for men and women

  Men onset late teens - early 20s

  Women - late 20s
• How many people are statistically affected by schizophrenia

  1 in 100
• What is Schizophrenia?

  A severe mental disorder characterised by a profound disruption of cognition and emotion. Such impairments cause a disconnect from reality.
• How common is schizophrenia?

  1% of population affected
• When does schizophrenia occur most often for men?

  Late teens to early 20s
• When does schizophrenia occur most often for women?

  20s
• What are positive symptoms?

  They add an excess or distortion of normal functions.
• What are negative symptoms?

  They subtract from normal behaviour, through reduced ability.
• List 4 positive symptoms

  1.Delusions

  2.Halluctinations

  3.Disorganised speech

  4.Gross disorganisation/catatonic behaviour
• List 3 negative symptoms

  1.Alogia

  2.Avolition

  3.Affective flattening
• What is deficit syndrome?

  Enduring negative symptoms where you have 2 symptoms for more than 12 months.
• What type of illness is schizophrenia described as?

  An episodic illness
• What does ‘episodic illness’ mean?

  Means there are periods of psychotic disturbance interspersed with more normal functioning.
• What percentage of schizophrenia sufferers commit suicide?

  10-15%
• How is schizophrenia clinically categorised?(5 answers)

  1.Psychotic disorder

  2.distorted thinking

  3.impaired emotional responses

  4.poor interpersonal skills

  5. distortion of reality
• How are mental disorders diagnosed?

  With reference to classification systems such as DSM-5 and ICD 11 which are based on the idea that group of symptoms can be classed together as a syndrome.
• What are limitations of the DSM-5 and ICD 11?

  Subjectivity and lack of operationalisation.
• What is reliability?

  Results of the study can be repeated and get consistent results each time.
• What is validity? 


  The test measures what it set out to measure
• What is inter-rater reliability?

  Inter-rater reliability is the degree of agreement or consistency between different raters or observers when assessing the same phenomenon or data.
• How is inter-rater reliability measured?

  ‘Kappa score’ where 1= perfect, 0= no agreement
• What is test-retest reliability?

  Test-retest reliability is the consistency of test scores when the same test is administered to the same individuals on two different occasions.
• What is reliability?

  The results of the study are repeatable and consistent
• What is validity?


  The test or classification system measures what it sets out to measure.