Diagnosing and Classifying

• Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder suffered by about 1% of the world population. It is most commonly diagnosed in men, cities and in working-class people. The symptoms of schizophrenia can interfere severely with everyday tasks, so that many sufferers end up homeless or hospitalised.
• Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness in which contact with reality and insight are impaired.
• Psychosis means a loss of contact with reality
• Paranoid sz is characterised by powerful delusions and hallucinations but few other symptoms
• Hebephrenic sz is characterised by primarily negative symptoms
• Catatonic sz is characterised by a disturbance of movement - immobile or overactive
• There are two major systems for the classification of Sz: ICD and DSM
• What does DSM stand for?


  DSM stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health
• What does ICD stand for?

  International Classification of Diseases
• Which addition is the DSM in?

  Fifth
• Which addition is the ICD in?

  11th
• Where is the DSM used?

  USA
• Where is the ICD used?

  UK and most of Europe
• What does the DSM diagnose Sz?

  positive symptoms must me present
• How does the ICD diagnose Sz?

  2 or more negative symptoms are sufficient
• The DSM-5 requires 2 or more of the following symptoms: delusions, hallucinations, disorganised speech, grossly disorganised or catatonic behaviour, negative symptoms i.e. affective flattening, alogia or avolition
• The ICD recognises subtypes of the disorder e.g. paranoid Sz, catatonic Sz
• What is meant by positive symptoms?

  additional symptoms that interfere with reality, they are in addition to normal experiences
• What is meant by negative symptoms?

  a loss of abilities
• There are several issues surrounding the diagnosis of Sz that need to be addressed. These include addressing the issues surrounding the reliability and validity of diagnosis. Several studies have suggested that reliability and validity of Sz diagnosis is low.