Clinical classifications and explanations of schizophrenia.

Classifications (psychopathology- dominated by biology approach)- it assumes that mental disorders is similar to physical disorders, so it suggests that mental disorders should be treated, diagnosed and classified as physical disorder.
When a disorders is being classified, clinicians used the symptoms and signs to identify the group the disorder is classified into.

Positive symptoms
these are the Symptom, Explanation and Example
* Delusions- False beliefs that the sufferer thought to be true.
* Persecution – having special knowledge or a belief that powers, thought or actions are being controlled by an external force.
* Hallucinations- Imagined sensory perceptions.
* Auditory – hearing imagined voices (And holding prolonged conversations with these voices)
* Thought Disorder- Confused thinking that is evident in what they say and how they say it.
* Incoherent speech – jumping from one subject to another with little or no logical connection. The grammar may be strange and only makes sense to the speaker. They may claim that thoughts are being broadcast or stolen from them or are being controlled or influenced by an alien, demon, or foreign power.
* Bizarre Behaviour- Strange and inappropriate behaviour (Contravening social norms). Undressing in public or making odd faces, body gestures and postures for no apparent purpose.

Negative Symptoms
these are the Symptom, Explanation and Example
* Blunted Emotional Responses- No emotional involvement in or response to things in their immediate environment
* Unchanging facial expression, gestures, or tone of voice regardless of whether the environment would require a happy or sad response, or an inappropriate response e.g. laughing at a funeral.
* Loss of drive- Has little interest or motivation to work or enjoy leisure activities
* Inability to wash and feed to take decisions and being entirely passive, which leads to social withdrawal from the individual causing a lack of friends or the difficulty making and keeping friends acquaintances or more intimate relationships. Also relates in a reluctant and negative way towards social interaction.
* Poverty of Thought- Considerable reduction in cognitive activity: Thinking limited to immediate concerns. As well as, a limited amount of speech and may answer questions with ‘yes’ ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know’.

	Created by chidi_cut about 10 years ago

Schizophrenia

Psychology PSYA3