SCHIZOPHRENIA A01 TOPIC 1

TOPIC 1- Schizophrenia (A01)

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder affecting about 1% of the population, it is more commonly found in men, people living in cities and these from lower socio-economic groups.

What is the difference between classification and diagnosis?

Diagnosis and classification are closely linked: classification involves identifying clusters of symptoms that form the disorder whereas diagnosis applies these criteria’s to individuals.

What are the requirements for diagnosis in DSM-5 and ICD-10?

There are 2 main classification symptoms are used. The DSM-5 requires atleast one positive symptom(delusions, hallucinations or speech disorganisation), whereas ICD-10 requires 2 or more negative symptoms(avolition or speech poverty).

What are positive symptoms?

Positive symptoms are additional experiences beyond normal functioning; hallucinations are unusual sensory experiences without a basis in reality(hearing voices or seeing people who aren’t there), whereas delusions are false beliefs ( paranoia or inflated sense of power, and speech disorganisation is incoherent or jumbled speech that’s hard to follow.

What are negative symptoms?

Negative symptoms involve a  loss in normal abilities: speech poverty is a reduction in speech fluency and quality, and avolition is a severe loss of motivation, leading to low activity levels and reduced goal-directed behaviour.