Thought Disturbance Disorders

Schizophrenia

a split from reality

Psychosis

a state where a person loses touch with reality

• see things that aren’t there

• believe things that aren’t there

Hallucinations

false sensory perceptions with no external source

• visual, auditory, olfactory, or somatosensory

Delusions

false beliefs based on incorrect inferences about reality

• delusions of grandeur and of persecution

Disorganized Behavior

strange behaviors, such a as unpredictable agitations, childish silliness, or inappropriate emotions

Catatonia

disordered movement

Catatonic Excitement

extreme restlessness and purposeless movement

Disorganized thinking or speech

speech that is incoherent

• fails to follow normal conversational structure and often included apparently tangential irrelevant info

Word Salad

extremely disorganized speech

Positive Symptoms

presence of inappropriate behaviors

• hallucinations

• delusions

• disorganized behaviors

• disorganized thinking/speech

• treated with antipsychotics

Negative Symptoms

absence of appropriate behaviors

• Apathy: lack of interest/motivations

• avoiding eye contact

• flat effect: lack of emotions even when discussing emotional speech

• speech monotone and slow

• movement may be slow → catatonic stupor

• less responsive to medication

Catatonic Stupor

a state of rigid immunity

• unusual positions

• lasts hours

Genetics- run in families, gene mutation resisted to brain development and function

Brain- enlarged ventricles, less brain tissues, extreme dopamine receptors, fewer symptoms in frontal lobe → excessive synaptic pruning

What biological factors correlate with schizophrenia?

Dopamine Hypothesis

the idea that excess dopamine cause schizophrenia

pregnant women exposes to viruses are more likely to have children with schizophrenia

What environmental factors correlate with schizophrenia?

Diathesis-stress model

environmental stress facilitates development

• growing up in dysfunctional household increases odds if genetically at risk

Dissociative Disorders

conscious splits off from immediate surroundings/experiences, causing us to lose memories

• extreme versions: sudden loss of memory/change in identity, often in response to extreme stress

Dissociative Amnesia

A person loses a chunk of autobiographical memory for a block of time

• triggered by extreme stress

• forget personal facts and residency

• may not remember what happened during dissociative state

Dissociative Fugue

• rarest and most extreme case of dissociative amnesia

• total loss of identity

• travel to new location

• assumption of new identity

Dissociative Identity Disorder

2 or more identifies alternate within the same person along with large memory gaps

• usually women who were abused as children

• pretending abuse happened to someone else

• dissociated state takes on its own identity

• many researchers doubt existance

• very rare cases