Classification Of Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia

  A type of psychosis, a severe mental disorder characterised by a profound disruption of cognition and emotion so that contact with external reality and insight are impaired
• Schizophrenia

  • Affects a person's language, thought, perception, emotions and even their sense of self
• Schizophrenia is the most common psychotic disorder, affecting 1% of the population at some point in their lifetime
• The symptoms can interfere severely with everyday tasks, so that many sufferers end up homeless or hospitalised
• No more than 1 in 5 individuals recover completely, even with treatments available that can relieve many symptoms
• Peak of incidence onset for schizophrenia

  Late in adolescence or early adulthood
• •Classification = organising symptoms into categories based on which symptoms cluster together in sufferers i.e. categorising the symptoms of schizophrenia.•
• •Diagnosis = deciding whether someone has a particular mental illness using the classifications.
• •Positive symptoms = atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences (an excess or distortion of normal functioning). These include hallucinations and distortions.
• •Negative symptoms = atypical experiences that represent the loss of a usual experience (a diminution or loss of normal functioning).
• Positive Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

  •Hallucinations = disturbances of perception in any of the senses. They are false perceptions that either have no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of things that are. The most common are auditory hallucinations (hearing voices). Many schizophrenics report hearing voices or seeing people, telling them to do something (e.g. harm themselves or others) or commenting on their behaviour.•
• Positive Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

  • Delusions
  • Delusions of persecution
  • Delusions of grandeur
  • Delusions of control
  • Delusions of reference
• Delusions


  Firmly held irrational beliefs that have no basis in reality
• Delusions of persecution


  • The belief that others want to harm, threaten or manipulate you e.g. the government, aliens
• Delusions of grandeur


  • The belief that they are an important individual, even god-like and have extraordinary powers e.g. the belief that they are Jesus Christ
• Delusions of control

  • The belief that their body is under external control e.g. being controlled by aliens or the government (e.g. have implanted radio transmitters)
• Delusions of reference


  • The belief that events in the environment appear to be directly related to them e.g. special personal messages are being communicated through the TV
• Negative Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

  •The major negative symptoms of schizophrenia are avolition and speech poverty.
• Negative Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

  •Avolition = a lack of purposeful, willed behaviour. It is the reduction, difficulty or inability to start and continue with goal-directed behaviour i.e. actions performed to achieve a result. People with schizophrenia often have a sharply reduced motivation to carry out a range of activities and results in lowered activity levels. E.g. no longer being interested in going out and meeting friends, poor hygiene and grooming, lack of persistence in work or education, sitting in the house every day doing nothing.
• Negative Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

  •Speech poverty = limited speech output with limited, often repetitive content. It involves reduced frequency (amount) and quality of speech. This is sometimes accompanied by a delay in the sufferer’s verbal responses during conversation. It’s not that they don’t know the words, but that they have a difficulty in spontaneously producing them.