CH-13-Schizophrenia Spectrum & Other Psychotic Disorders – Comprehensive Study Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering major concepts, symptoms, causes, and treatments of schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders.

A chronic mental disorder marked by a broad range of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dysfunctions including delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech/behavior, and negative symptoms.

Schizophrenia

Severe abnormal behavior involving loss of contact with reality, typically including delusions and/or hallucinations.

Psychotic Behavior

Excesses or distortions of normal functioning in schizophrenia, such as delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech.

Positive Symptoms

Deficits or losses of normal functioning, including avolition, alogia, anhedonia, and flat affect.

Negative Symptoms

Erratic behaviors affecting speech, motor activity, or emotional reactions—e.g., incoherent speech, inappropriate affect, bizarre postures.

Disorganized Symptoms

A firmly held, false belief that is resistant to evidence and not shared by others in the same culture (e.g., delusions of persecution or grandeur).

Delusion

A sensory perception without external stimulus, most commonly auditory voices in schizophrenia.

Hallucination

A negative symptom involving lack of motivation or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities.

Avolition

A negative symptom characterized by poverty of speech—brief, empty replies and slowed responses.

Alogia

Diminished ability to experience pleasure from normally enjoyable activities.

Anhedonia

Restricted, emotionless facial and vocal expression despite self-reported feelings.

Flat (Blunted) Affect

Motor disturbances ranging from immobility and waxy flexibility to excessive, purposeless activity.

Catatonia

Catatonic feature in which a person maintains limbs in positions placed by another person.

Waxy Flexibility

1–2-year period before full psychosis when milder, odd behaviors (e.g., magical thinking) first appear.

Prodromal Stage

Group of related psychotic disorders—including schizophrenia, schizophreniform, schizoaffective, delusional, brief psychotic, and schizotypal personality disorders.

Schizophrenia Spectrum

Schizophrenic symptoms lasting at least 1 month but less than 6 months, after which full recovery often occurs.

Schizophreniform Disorder

Combination of schizophrenia symptoms with mood episode(s); psychosis persists for ≥2 weeks without mood symptoms.

Schizoaffective Disorder

Persistent non-bizarre delusions for ≥1 month without other active‐phase schizophrenia symptoms.

Delusional Disorder

One or more positive symptoms lasting between 1 day and 1 month, followed by full return to functioning.

Brief Psychotic Disorder

Proposed condition involving mild psychotic-like symptoms with intact reality testing; considered high risk for schizophrenia.

Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome

Delusional beliefs transferred from one individual to another in close relationship; now a specifier within delusional disorder.

Shared Psychotic Disorder (Folie à Deux)

Family communication style marked by criticism, hostility, and emotional over-involvement linked to higher relapse rates.

Expressed Emotion (EE)

Medications that reduce psychotic symptoms, primarily by antagonizing dopamine D2 receptors.

Neuroleptic (Antipsychotic) Drugs

Older dopamine-blocking drugs such as haloperidol and chlorpromazine; effective on positive symptoms but cause extrapyramidal side effects.

Typical (First-Generation) Antipsychotics

Newer agents (e.g., risperidone, olanzapine) affecting dopamine and serotonin; fewer motor side effects but risk metabolic issues.

Atypical (Second-Generation) Antipsychotics

Late-onset, often irreversible involuntary movements (lip smacking, tongue protrusion) from long-term antipsychotic use.

Tardive Dyskinesia

Drug-induced motor disturbances resembling Parkinson’s disease, including akinesia and tremors.

Extrapyramidal Symptoms

Theory that hyperactivity of dopamine (especially D2 receptors in striatum) contributes to schizophrenic psychosis.

Dopamine Hypothesis

Reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex observed on neuroimaging in many patients with schizophrenia.

Hypofrontality

Measurable trait (e.g., abnormal eye-tracking) believed to reflect genetic vulnerability for a disorder.

Endophenotype

Difficulty steadily tracking moving objects; considered an endophenotype for schizophrenia.

Smooth-Pursuit Eye Movement Deficit

Behavioral inpatient program where desired behaviors earn points exchangeable for privileges or goods.

Token Economy

Therapy teaching conversation, assertiveness, and relationship skills to improve community functioning.

Social Skills Training

Structured program educating relatives about schizophrenia and teaching communication & problem-solving to reduce EE.

Family Psychoeducation

Multidisciplinary team approach delivering medication, psychosocial, and vocational services in the patient’s community.

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)

Non-invasive brain stimulation using magnetic fields; briefly reduces auditory hallucinations in some patients.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Therapy using practice drills and strategies to improve attention, memory, and executive functions in schizophrenia.

Cognitive Remediation

Outdated theory that contradictory family messages cause schizophrenia; largely unsupported by research.

Double Bind

Early treatment (e.g., low-dose antipsychotics, CBT) for individuals showing early warning signs to prevent full psychosis.

Prodromal Intervention

Strategies include lowest effective antipsychotic dose, regular side-effect monitoring, and using atypical agents when possible.

Tardive Dyskinesia Prevention