Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
Phenomenology of Schizophrenia:
Their perception of the world is different than what they have in front of them.
Examples of the characteristics of schizophrenia:
 Delusions
 Paranoia
 Reduced speech
Delusions:
Are false beliefs that are often fixed and hard to change even when the person is presented
with conflicting information.
Often negative false beliefs, but not usually.
Often involved religious delusions
The delusions are often terrifying.
Have sort of like a “magical thinking”
Loose associations, seeing one topic and spanning out to another.
There are types of delusions:
1. Persecutory
2. Grandiose

Believe in themselves are self-importance.

Example: I am the new Jesus/Buddha.
3. Reference

Believe things are special and meant for them.

Example: that song on the radio was meant for them.
4. Thought insertion

Somebody inserts a thought in your head.

Example: you can only turn left because that is the only safe way to go
Phenomenology of schizophrenia:
Hallucinations: are perceptual experiences that occur even when there is no stimulus in the
outside world generating the experiences

There is no external stimulus of the outside world, but you believe there is

Feels like you’re using the 5 senses.
Types of hallucinations:
1. Auditory
2. Visual
3. Olfactory
4. Gustatory
5. Somatic
They are seen to have:
a. Disorganized speech: talking in random direction or random topics in random ways
b. Disorganized behavior: behaving in random ways

Example: wearing whatever or wearing lipstick all around your face.

Catatonia: the notion of a person is seemingly unresponsive to their environment

Waxing flexibility
Negative symptoms (things that are taken away) of schizophrenia:

Anhedonia

Amotivation

Flat affect

Alogia

Reduced amount of speech, long pauses during conversations.
What would people with schizophrenia’s reactions to others’ perceptions of them?
 They would be seen as “crazy”
 They would want them to be more rational and stable.
Do their seemingly bizarre and meaningless sentences meaningless to them?
 No because, to them it could be meaning complete sense and it is a topic of
matter, they don’t talk to talk, they actually want to converse.
Is it frustrations for someone with schizophrenia trying to communicate with others?
 It is frustrating to them because they won’t be understood and people can
perceive them as speaking nonsense.
Common Disturbances

Loose associations

Neologisms

Perseveration

Clanging

Thought insertion/thought withdrawal
o It is a common delusion, so if you feel like you are not making sense to
someone and you are delusional, they try to communicate it.

Delusions of being controlled
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Schizophrenia:
Problems with cognitive function:

Episodic memory

Working memory
o There are different capacities of the working memory in people who are
schizophrenic.

Processing speed
o Lower for people with schizophrenia
 These cognitive deficits are a risk for schizophrenia.
o If someone who presents those risk factors and someone in family also exhibits
these risk factors, then there might be some minor or even a portrayal of
schizophrenia.
Genetics:

There is no schizophrenia gene

But it is a heterogeneous disorder.
o Takes many forms

The genes associated with other mental health conditions.
Risk factors for schizophrenia:
1. Environmental

Problems during pregnancy


Mother being diabetic…
Complications at birth

Hypoxia

Children born to older fathers

Linked with cannabis use

Urban settings

Minority status
Attenuated Psychotic Syndrome: is a diagnosis added to DSM-V (Section III) describing
individuals who show attenuated (milder) symptoms of psychosis.

Developed recently

Distress/Disability
There is no clear treatment for it.
•
Is said to see to watch them, in order to prevent it from fully forming.
Treatments for schizophrenia:
No treatments that treats it all
VN
Cognitive enhancement therapy CET:
Brain games that improve speech, attention, memory, and problem solving.
•
Affects the working memory and attention
•
If they show low cognitive abilities in all types of memory and helps them bring the
cognitive abilities up, this will help them improve.
•
Triangulation: taking pills, brain memories, psychoeducational components, all help the
person.
•
It is a cognitive remediation treatment
•
It improves cognition and social cognition
o Social cognition -> how you deal and perceive others and vice versa.
o Shows to have beneficial effects
•
Prevents gray matter loss
o This therapy helps decrease the loss of gray matter.