Schizophrenia midterm notes

• Types of disorders


  • Schizophrenia
  • Schizoaffective disorder
  • Delusional disorder
  • Brief psychotic disorder
• Schizophrenia


  • Pervasive type of psychosis characterized by disturbed thought, emotion, behavior
  • Positive symptoms: active manifestations of abnormal behavior, perceptions or exaggerations of normal behavior
  • Negative symptoms: prominent absence of normal behavior (e.g. lack of emotion, persistence, speech)
  • Disorganized symptoms: disorganized speech, emotions, and behavior
• Hallucinations


  • Sensory experiences in the absence of external sensory input (e.g. hearing voices)
• Delusions


  • Inaccurate beliefs that are contrary to reality (e.g. beliefs of persecution, grandeur)
• Positive symptoms


  • Active manifestations of abnormal behavior, perceptions or exaggerations of normal behavior
• Negative symptoms


  • Prominent absence of normal behavior (e.g. lack of emotion, persistence, speech)
• Disorganized symptoms


  • Disorganized speech, emotions, and behavior
• Diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia requires two or more of the following symptoms for a significant period of time: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, negative symptoms
• Schizoaffective disorder


  • Characterized by a mood episode (major depressive or manic) concurrent with the active phase symptoms of schizophrenia
• Diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder requires a mood episode concurrent with schizophrenia symptoms, and schizophrenia symptoms present for the majority of the illness duration
• Delusional disorder


  • Characterized by the presence of one or more delusions that are contrary to reality, without the full positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms of schizophrenia
• Diagnostic criteria for delusional disorder requires the presence of one or more delusions for at least 1 month, without meeting criteria for schizophrenia
• Brief psychotic disorder


  • Characterized by the presence of positive symptoms of schizophrenia (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech/behavior) that last at least 1 day but less than 1 month, with eventual full return to premorbid functioning
• Comorbidities of schizophrenia include substance use disorders and anxiety disorders
• Schizoaffective disorder is characterized by the presence of a mood episode (major depressive or manic) concurrent with the active phase symptoms of schizophrenia
• Delusional disorder is characterized by the presence of one or more delusions that are contrary to reality, without the full positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms of schizophrenia
• Brief psychotic disorder is characterized by the presence of positive symptoms of schizophrenia (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech/behavior) that last at least 1 day but less than 1 month, with eventual full return to premorbid functioning