Chapter 13 - Schizophrenia Spectrum and other Psychotic Disorders

Abnormal Psychology

Psychosis

Loss of contact with reality; involves delusions and/or hallucinations.

Schizophrenia

Chronic disorder with positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms causing social and occupational dysfunction.

Delusion

Fixed false belief that persists despite evidence to the contrary (e.g., grandeur or persecution).

Hallucination

Perception without external stimulus; auditory hallucinations are most common.

Positive Symptoms

Additions to normal experience such as delusions and hallucinations.

Negative Symptoms

Deficits in normal functioning such as avolition, alogia, anhedonia, and flat affect.

Disorganized Symptoms

Disordered thinking, speech, or behavior (e.g., tangentiality, loose associations, inappropriate affect).

Avolition

Lack of motivation or inability to initiate tasks such as work or hygiene.

Alogia

Poverty of speech or limited verbal output.

Anhedonia

Loss of pleasure or interest in previously enjoyable activities.

Affective Flattening

Minimal emotional expression.

Catatonia

Motor immobility or excessive movement; may involve waxy flexibility, mutism, or repetitive behaviors.

Schizophreniform Disorder

Schizophrenia-like symptoms lasting 1–6 months; often better prognosis.

Schizoaffective Disorder

Schizophrenia symptoms plus a mood episode, with psychosis occurring outside the mood disturbance.

Delusional Disorder

Persistent delusions without other major schizophrenia symptoms; types include erotomanic, grandiose, jealous, persecutory, and somatic.

Brief Psychotic Disorder

Psychotic symptoms lasting less than 1 month, usually stress-related, with full recovery.

Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome

Subthreshold psychotic symptoms in individuals at high risk for schizophrenia.

Dopamine Hypothesis

Theory that schizophrenia results from overactive dopamine transmission; overly simplistic but influential.

Hypofrontality

Decreased activity in the frontal lobes seen in many individuals with schizophrenia.

Expressed Emotion (EE)

Family environment marked by criticism, hostility, or overinvolvement; predicts relapse.

First-Generation Antipsychotics

Dopamine-blocking drugs effective for positive symptoms but often cause extrapyramidal side effects and tardive dyskinesia.

Second-Generation Antipsychotics

Dopamine and serotonin antagonists; fewer motor side effects and sometimes help with negative symptoms.

Psychosocial Interventions

Social-skills training, family therapy, community support, and CBT for psychosis to reduce relapse.

Prodromal Phase

Early, subtle symptoms that precede a full psychotic episode (e.g., magical thinking, social withdrawal).