Diagnosis and Classification of Schizophrenia

What is Schizophrenia?:

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population. Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. Patients suffering from this disorder cannot distinguish between reality and their own imagination. It is diagnosed mainly using either the ICD, developed by the World Health Organisation, or the DSM, developed by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM is currently in its 5th edition.

Positive and Negative symptoms of Schizophrenia:

Positive symptoms of Schizophrenia are those that appear to reflect and excess or distortion of normal functions. These include the following:

Hallucinations- These can take many forms. They are defined as a sensory experience that has no place in reality. They are bizarre and unreal perceptions of the environment that are usually auditory, such as hearing voices, but may also be visual, olfactory or tactile.
Delusions- These are thoughts that have no place in reality. They are bizarre beliefs that seem real to the schizophrenic but are not. These delusions cause paranoia as some patients may believe that they are being followed or spied upon.

Negative symptoms of Schizophrenia are those that appear to reflect a reduction or loss of normal functions, which often persist even during periods of low or absent positive symptoms. These include the following:

Speech poverty- This is the inability to produce clear and coherent speech. A person with schizophrenia will be difficult to understand as a result of this. They may change topic of conversation suddenly without there being a clear reason for it.
Avolition- This is a distinct lack of motivation and can involve the patient failing to wash themselves regularly, failing to attend work/education and generally showing a lack of energy.

	Created by Hannah Pear over 9 years ago

AQA Schizophrenia revision notes