Schizophrenia
Mr. Koch
AP Psychology
Forest Lake High School
Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other
Psychotic Disorders
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Schizotypal (Personality) Disorder
Delusional Disorder
Brief Psychotic Disorder
Schizophreniform Disorder
Schizophrenia
Schizoaffective Disorder
Substance/Medication-Induced Psychotic Disorder
Psychotic Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition
Catatonia
Catatonia Associated With Another Mental Disorder (Catatonia Specifier)
Catatonic Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition
Unspecified Catatonia
Other Specified Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorder
Unspecified Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorder
Schizophrenia
• A severe and disabling pattern of
extremely disturbed thinking,
emotion, perception, and behavior
that seriously impairs the ability to
communicate and relate to others
and disrupts most other aspects of
daily functioning
• One of the most serious disorders
• Often involves loss of contact with reality
• Symptoms seen in all parts of world
Schizophrenia
• 1-2% of population
• Appears equally in various ethnic
groups
• Equal rates M/F
• Usually develops in adolescence,
early adulthood
• ~40% improve w/ treatment and
function reasonably well
– Rest have continuous or
intermittent symptoms that
permanently disrupt functioning
– 10-13% of homeless population
have schizophrenia
Case Study in Schizophrenia
(Gerald)
Common Symptoms
• Disorders of thought/language
– Disorganization:
• “neologisms” (“new words”)
» only have meaning to themselves
• “loose associations”
» Tendency for one thought to be unconnected to another
• “Word salad”
– Jumble of words reflecting utterly chaotic thoughts
Schizophrenic Word Salad
Common Symptoms
• Disorders of thought/language
(cont’d)
– Content
• Delusions – false beliefs
– “delusions of influence”
» Believe being controlled (body,
thought, or behavior) by external
forces
– “self-significant delusions”
» Exaggerated beliefs about oneself
(i.e. delusions of grandeur)
– “delusions of persecution”
» Others are out to harass/harm them
Common Symptoms
• Disorders of Perception
– Inability to focus attention (may
feel overwhelmed)
• May feel detached from world or
own body
– Hallucinations – false perceptions
• Very common – often takes form of
voices
• Can also be sights, smells, taste,
touch sensations w/o external
stimuli
Common Symptoms
• Disorders of emotion
– Flat or inappropriate affect
• Other common symptoms
– Some are extremely agitated, others move very little
– Lack motivation/social skills
– Poor personal hygiene
– Inability to function in everyday situations
Subtypes of Schizophrenia
•
•
•
•
•
• Some see this
Paranoid
classification system as
inadequate
Disorganized
– Not always accurate
Catatonic
picture of behavior
(symptoms overlap)
Undifferentiated
– Some show characteristics
symptoms
The subtypes were determinedoftomultiple
have limited
diagnostic
Residual
stability, low reliability, and poor validity. They also have
• Instead some suggest
not shown distinctive patterns of treatment response or
describing
to
longitudinal course. Instead,
the DSM-5 according
is suggesting
rating severity of the core symptoms.
“positive” and “negative”
symptoms
The DSM-5 does list Catatonia separately and allows for
diagnosis as a specifier for depressive, bipolar and
psychotic disorders or as a separate diagnosis.
Causes of Schizophrenia
• Biological
– Seems to be genetic link
– Connected w/ brain
abnormalities
• Shrunken tissue in thalamic regions,
prefrontal cortex, and subcortical
areas – enlarged fluid-filled
ventricles
– Connection to dopamine levels
• Excess? (unclear on specific role)
– Neurodevelopmental problems
• (birthweight, flu exposure, etc)
Causes of Schizophrenia
• Psychological/Sociocultural
– Learned maladaptive behavior
– Disturbed patterns of family communication
(Diathesis-Stress Model)