issues classification diagnosis

Cards (15)

  • Reliability of diagnosing schizophrenia

    The process of diagnosing (the DSM 5 manual and the psychiatrist) is consistent over time. I.e other psychiatrists would also diagnose the individual
  • Validity of the diagnosing
    Whether or not the diagnosis system actually assesses what it claims to be assessing. I.e that those diagnosed with schizophrenia actually have schizophrenia
  • Classification manuals for schizophrenia
    • DSM-5 and the ICD-11 have slightly different ways of identifying the same condition
    • Different time scales are used in each manual to determine how long the symptoms have to occur for before they are considered schizophrenic
  • Different countries may use different classification systems, meaning the standard for what's considered schizophrenic will vary between countries and psychiatrists
  • Copeland found that 69% of American psychiatrists diagnosed schizophrenia but only 2% of English psychiatrists gave the same diagnosis
  • There isn't a universal method of diagnosing schizophrenia and so some methods may be less reliable than others
  • Research has shown that there is a significant variation in the amount of diagnosed individuals between cultures
  • Cultural differences in what is perceived as abnormal

    • In western countries symptoms like hearing voices is considered mentally ill and the individual should seek help to treat the condition
    • In some cultures 'hearing voices' is seen as a good thing, and the negative hatred filled voices were not an inevitable feature of schizophrenia
  • Many of the symptoms that are used as criteria to diagnose schizophrenics are also found in other mental disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder
  • Most schizophrenics have sufficient symptoms to be diagnosed with at least one other illness
  • People with Dissociative identity disorder actually have more schizophrenic symptoms than people diagnosed with schizophrenia
  • The diagnosis of schizophrenia is thought to be subject to gender bias
  • Clinicians in the U.S equated mentally healthy adult behaviour to mentally healthy men, and consequently this meant women were more likely to be perceived as less mentally healthy
  • The main issue with the diagnosis of schizophrenia is that the classification of the disorder is difficult to determine as symptoms aren't specific to just one illness, and so different psychiatrists use different means to diagnose individuals
  • The diagnoses and classification of schizophrenia are variable based on the judgement of psychiatrists, hence it is less accurate compared to other mental disorders