Diagnosis

• What are delusions?

  False beliefs or misconceptions that are not based on reality.
• What are hallucinations?

  Unreal perceptions of the environment without external stimuli.

  • These are sensory
• What is disorganised speech?

  • Speech that is difficult to follow (word salad)
  • Speech that is disconnected with incoherent ideas (derailment)
• What is disorganised/catatonic behaviour?

  Inability or lack of motivation to initiate or complete tasks
• What is speech poverty?

  Limited quality and quantity of speech
• What is avolition?

  Lack of motivation and loss of interest and desires
• What is affective flattening?

  Reduced range and intensity of emotional expression - including facial expression.
• What is anhedonia?

  Inability to experience pleasure.
• What are neural correlates in relation to schizophrenia?

  Abnormal brain mechanisms that result in positive and negative schizo symptoms
• What is co-morbidity?

  Presence of two or more medical conditions in a patient.
• Symptom overlap


  • Can lead to problems with diagnosis and/or classification of schizophrenia
• How symptom overlap can lead to problems with diagnosis and/or classification of schizophrenia

  1. Shared symptoms could lead to an unreliable / incorrect diagnosis (not valid)

  2. Because the person may exhibit a symptom typical of schizophrenia (e.g. delusions)

  3. But could instead have another condition with the same symptom (e.g. bipolar disorder)
• Co-morbidity


  Where two conditions co-exist in the same individual at the same time/have a tendency to co-exist alongside each other
• Co-morbidities with schizophrenia


  • Personality disorder
  • Depression
  • Alcoholism