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Cheatography

Schizophrenia (AQA Psychology) Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

What is schizo­phr­enia?

>Ps­ychotic disorder that affects 1% (approx.) of the population
>Su­fferers cannot distin­guish between reality and their percep­tions

Symptoms of schizo­phrenia

Positive
Negative
>an excess or distortion of normal functions
>where normal functions are limited
>e.g. halluc­ina­tions (hearing voices, seeing things that aren't there)
>e.g. speech poverty (inability to produce clear and coherent speech)
>e.g. delusions (unrea­listic thoughts - often of threats)
>e.g. broadc­asting (believing your thoughts are being broadcast to people)
>e.g. psycho­motor distur­bances (repet­itive behavi­ours)
>e.g. avolition (distinct lack of motiva­tion)
>e.g. catatonia (same position for hours/­days)
>e.g. thought disorders (loose associ­ations)

Diagnosis and classi­fic­ation of schizo­phrenia

>using DSM (Diagn­ostic and Statis­tical Manual) or ICD (Inter­nat­ional Classi­fic­ation of Disease)
>ICD has types of schizo­phr­enia, DSM does not
>DSM at least one positive symptom to be diagnosed, ICD only two negative symptoms
Reliab­ility
>di­fferent clinicians using the same system should come to the same diagnosis
>Jakobson et al (2005) tested ICD-10 reliab­ility 100 Danish patients with history of psychosis assesses ~ 98% concor­dance rate
>co­mor­bidity patients can suffer from two or more mental disorders makes it hard to confid­ently identify schizo­phrenia
>sy­mptom overlap e.g. major depression and schizo­phrenia both have low motivation reduces reliab­ility
>gender bias ~ Loring and Pwell (1988) found some behaviour was regarded psychotic in males but not in females
Validity