The person’s patterns of thinking and behaviour differ from the expectations in society and they interfere with the persons normal functioning. Examples of this are paranoid personality disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Anxiety disorders – People with anxiety disorders respond to certain objects or situations with fear and dread. This can be mild or severe. The person may suffer with responses that are un appropriate in certain situations as well as the usual signs (rapid heartbeat, sweating and nervousness.
In some cases the person with schizophrenia may believe their thoughts are being broadcasted so that others can hear them. Incoherent or loosely associated speech is also used as an indicator of thought disorder. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia include affective flattening and alogia and avolition. Affective flattening is a reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact and body language. Alogia is the poverty of speech.
Additionally a schizophrenic person may have hallucinations that can include hearing voices or feeling things such as bugs crawling on them but these are unreal perceptions. Another positive symptom is disordered thinking. They may have loosely associated speech or be incoherent and the person feels as though their thoughts have been inserted or withdrawn from their mind. Negative symptoms usually consist of a loss of normal functions such as a reduction in range and intensity of emotional expressions which can be the tone of voice or facial expressions. Similarly, alogia is a negative symptom of schizophrenia.
Even some physical illnesses can cause symptoms that appear to be those of schizophrenia, for example temporal lobe epilepsy can have symptoms that can be mistaken for schizophrenia, and this can lead to misdiagnosis and a patient could end up being treated for the wrong illness completely. There are issues of reliability with classification of schizophrenia, because for a classification system to be useful, it must produce consistent results. Because schizophrenia has so many symptoms and can be easily mistaken for other illnesses, it is highly unlikely that studies will come out with completely consistent results, therefore making the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia unreliable and almost useless. Schizophrenia is diagnosed using the DSMIV and the ICD 10. These are the most
People with this illness might develop delusions or experience hallucinations. Examples of this type of illness include schizophrenia and some types of depression. Non-psychotic illnesses are group of mental illnesses where people’s feelings can become so disturbing and overwhelming that they have difficulty coping with day-to-day activities. This type of mental illness is a common experience for many people. Examples include: phobias, anxiety, some forms of depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and etc.
Schizophrenia cannot be diagnosed if an existing mood disorder or developmental disorder has been diagnosed, or if there are organic origins. Diagnosis is complicated by having to rule these things out. However, some individuals do not fit within the categories created. Schizophrenia has a strong co-morbidity with mood disorders that it is considered a fundamental characteristic. Buckley et al (2009) identified the following co-morbidities with schizophrenia and suggested that they might represent sub types of schizophrenia: panic disorder 15%, post traumatic stress 29%,
Night terrors and nightmares may arise from different sources too. Poor sleep, extreme stress,
Discuss the psychological explanations for schizophrenia. (8+16 Marks) One psychological explanation for schizophrenia is the psychodynamic explanation. The perspective suggests that schizophrenia is caused by an inability to test reality, for example: being unable to distinguish between the internal and external world. The psychodynamic approach suggests that this inability comes from childhood experiences. The explanation suggests that the primary caregiver is responsible for helping the infant overcome its anxieties and if the care is inadequate then a child will not develop a proper sense of self.
There are three main symptoms of schizophrenia, delusions, hallucinations, and thought disorder. Delusions are false beliefs in which the person cannot change, such as believing they are a fictional character, or icon. Hallucinations are usually voices, sights, or visions that only the patient can hear, see, or even smell. These voices can make demands by ordering their victim to do things, or sometimes giving warnings. When a patient has a thought disorder, this usually means he or she has difficulty organizing thoughts.
Today I am going to talk to you about Schizophrenia and a closer look into my experiences of being diagnosed with it. When a doctor describes schizophrenia as a psychotic disorder, it means that, in their view, the patient can’t tell their own intense thoughts, ideas, perceptions and imaginings from reality. There are different types of schizophrenia. The most common one is paranoid schizophrenia which if generally a manifestation on multiple symptoms. Different patients will have different symptoms which will indicate what type of schizophrenia they have.