Outline and Evaluate the Issues Associated with the Classification and/or Diagnosis of Schizophrenia (24 Marks)

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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. Validity, reliability and cultural relativism are three examples of issues. Validity is seen as the system of classification and diagnosed through reflecting the true nature of the problem, accurate reflection of the prognosis and if the prediction is successful of the treatments. Because schizophrenia shares many symptoms with other disorders, Schneider (1959) argues that the content of the symptom is more important than the symptom itself eg the type of hallucination instead of the individual having them. 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%,

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