With things like diabetes, cancer and so on, the illness can be diagnosed by scans or blood tests. Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses have to be diagnosed and classified purely based on symptoms the patient is experiencing. Schizophrenia is particularly difficult to diagnose because it has many symptoms, some of which are similar to other mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder. This brings up the issue of differential diagnosis. 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.
Outline and evaluate the issues associated with the classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia (24 marks) Schizophrenia is a severe debilitating psychotic disorder that involves abnormal perceptions and thoughts. It has been described as a disintegration of the personality. The person loses insight and touch with reality thus failing to realise that they have a mental problem. It involves a range of psychotic symptoms where there is a break from reality. Crow (1980) distinguishes between two types of schizophrenia: Type 1 is characterised by positive symptoms were something is added to the sufferer’s personality such as auditory or visual hallucinations; Type 2 is characterised by negative symptoms where something is take away such as there is lack of emotion or limited use of speech.
Explain how issues of validity and/or reliability may affect the classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia [10] Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder. This means it’s a loss of contact with reality, consistent with serious mental illness which typically includes delusions, hallucinations and disordered thinking. The disorder was first identified by Kraeplin(1986) who used the term ‘Dementia Praecox’. Bleuler (1911) later coined the term schizophrenia, which means split (schizo) mind (phrenia). Classification involves identifying groups or patterns of behavioural symptoms that occur together to form a type of mental disorder (e.g.
Jordaan (2013) explains that psychosis refers to a cluster of symptoms, among these disruptions in moods, thoughts, perception, language and behaviour. Jordaan goes on to say that Schizophrenia is the most common psychotic disorder with psychosis being the primary and central set of symptoms, although not all symptoms present in all people. These symptoms can be categorised as positive (active symptoms) and negative symptoms (absence or decline of normal functions) (Jordaan,
Schizophrenia and Its Effects on the Hippocampal Region of the Brain Abstract This paper discusses the effects of schizophrenia on the hippocampal region of the brain. The paper covers schizophrenia symptoms as well as the activity of the hippocampus. Furthermore, the paper addresses the issues such as stress and chronic hyponatremia in regards to stress. Finally, this paper deals with volume reduction in hippocampal that is present with schizophrenia patients and the impact of that reduction to the functioning of the hippocampal region. Schizophrenia and Its Effects on the Hippocampal Region of the Brain Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder, afflicting approximately 1 percent of the world’s population.
In addition to this, some psychologists also argue that the genetic explanation to depression is deterministic as it claims that if an individual’s family members have depression, then they are definitely going to have depression. According to some psychologists, bio-chemicals are the root cause of depression. The bio-chemical explanation suggests that depression is the imbalance of certain chemical, mainly hormones, within the brain. These hormones included noradrenalin, and serotonin . Within the bio-chemical explanations of depression, there are three main theories.
Therefore if there are chemical imbalances abnormality may occur, for example low levels of serotonin are linked to depression and schizophrenia is linked with high levels of dopamine. Moreover the brain itself has no immune response and it relies on keeping bacteria which causes affections out. Infections the get into the brain can cause widespread damage. Torrey (2001) found that mothers of many people with schizophrenia had contracted a particular type of flue
Biomedical therapies- Treatments for psychological disorders that alter brain functioning with chemical or physical interventions such as drug therapy, surgery, or electroconvulsive therapy. 3. Biopsychosocial model- A model of health and illness that suggests that links among the nervous system, the immune system, behavioral styles, cognitive processing, and environmental factors can put people at risk for illness. 4. Clinical ecology- A field of psychology that relates disorders such as anxiety and depression to environmental irritants and sources of trauma.
Substance abuse can cause depression and depression can cause substance abuse. Stress is also associated with deficits in hippocampal functioning, the critical brain structure that inhibits stress reactivity and mediates contextual cues. Moreover, drug withdrawal leads to reduced hippocampal functioning via increased cortisol output (Keith, Roberts, Wiren, & Crabbe, 1995). Severity of declarative memory deficits
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.