Schizophrenia Spectrum & Other Psychotic Disorders

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and definitions related to schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders.

Schizophrenia

Serious psychiatric disorder characterized by psychotic episodes consisting of perceptual disturbances (hallucinations), fixed false beliefs (delusions), disorganized thinking & communication, and disorganized behaviour

Positive Symptoms

Overt, productive symptoms; Active manifestations of abnormal behaviour; Symptoms around distorted reality like delusions and hallucinations

Delusions

Disorder of thought content; Fixed false belief, unshakable through reasoning and out of keeping with a person’s cultural or religious context, maturity and intellect; Occurs in clear consciousness.

Delusions of persecution

A belief that others have it in for you or wants to harm you

Delusions of grandeur

A belief that you are special or have certain powers

Delusions of reference

A belief that neutral or unrelated things have specific reference to you

Hallucinations

Perceptual disturbance; Experience of sensory events without environmental input

Auditory hallucinations

Hearing voices or sounds in the absence of external stimulation (e.g. voices discussing the patient or giving instructions)

Visual hallucinations

Seeing things in the absence of external stimulation (e.g. people, animals, objects, flashes or blobs)

Tactile hallucinations

Having skin sensations when not being touched (e.g. sensation of insects crawling under the skin)

Somatic/bodily hallucinations

Unexplained feelings in the body (e.g. heat in the spleen or cutting sensation in the bone marrow)

Negative Symptoms

Absence or insufficiency of normal behaviour

Avolition/apathy

Inability to initiate and persist in activities

Alogia

Deficiency in the amount and content of speech

Affective flattening

Apparently emotionless demeanour when a reaction is expected or a lack of emotional expression

Asociality

Lack of interest in social interactions

Anhedonia

Inability to experience pleasure

Disorganized Symptoms

Include a variety of erratic behaviours that affect speech, motor behaviour and emotional reactions predicting a poorer prognosis and is associated with marked cognitive deficits

Schizophreniform Disorder

Similar symptoms than that of schizophrenia; symptoms last at least 1 month, but less than 6 months

Schizoaffective Disorder

Criteria for schizophrenia is met and at the same time symptoms of a major mood episode (major depressive or manic) are also present

Delusional Disorder

Presence of 1/more delusions for at least 1 month; delusions are usually non-bizarre (compared to bizarre delusions in schizophrenia); Other criteria for schizophrenia has never been met

Brief Psychotic Disorder

At least one/more of the following symptoms: Delusions, Hallucinations, Disorganized speech, Grossly disorganized or catatonic behaviour; Duration of an episode is at least 1 day, but less than 1 month; Eventual full return to premorbid level of functioning