Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar?

PSYCHOLOGY

Resources for Courses

OverviewThe aim of this activity is for students to consider the validity of classifying and diagnosing schizophrenia, by looking at the symptom overlap between schizophrenia and other disorders, namely depression and bipolar.

This activity will also provide a good opportunity to revise the depression topic, in particular the behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of depression, studied in Year 1.

Resources Required • Symptom Word Bank

• Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar Venn Diagram (either one per student, or one A3/2 version per group)

• Validity of Classifying and Diagnosing Schizophrenia Handout

Teacher InstructionsTeaching and Learning Strategy A – Research Task There are different ways to use this activity depending on how much time you have, and your ability to access to other resources (e.g. a computer lab).

Two great websites that provide the criteria for schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder, include:www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64063/ - Depression & Bipolar

http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/1/133.long - Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar?

Resources for Courses

If you want to run this activity as a research task. Idea 1:

1 Firstly, provide the students with a copy of the Symptom Word Bank handout. This task works well individually or in pairs. Then, ask the students to decide which of the symptoms belong to schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder or more than one. They may wish to annotate the word bank handout first, before completing their Venn Diagram.

2 Secondly, once you and the students are happy that they have correctly assigned the symptoms to one, two or all three disorders, they can complete their Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar Venn Diagram.

3 Finally, students should consider the questions on the Validity of Classifying and Diagnosing Schizophrenia Handout individually or in groups, before you discuss the answers as a class.

Teaching and Learning Strategy B – In Class If you do not have access to a computer lab/other resources, you may wish to print the pagesfrom the above websites and use these in class. You would then run the activity, as outlined above.

Stretch & Challenge There are many opportunities to stretch and challenge on this task. As the students are exploring the symptoms of depression, you could also ask the students to categorise their symptoms of depression into cognitive, behavioural and emotional characteristics to revise some Year 1 content.

possible answers

Below is a possible structure (based on various pieces of research) of the symptom overlap for these three disorders.

Schizophrenia

• Affective flattening

• Avolition

• Delusions

• Easily distracted (difficulty in concentrating)

• Hallucinations

• Inflated self-esteem

• Lack of interest of pleasure

• Psychomotor agitation/ disturbances

• Speech poverty

Schizophrenia, Depression & Bipolar

• Difficulty concentrating

• Lack of interest or pleasure (anhedonia)

Bipolar & DepressionSchizophrenia & Bipolar

• Delusions

• Hallucinations

• Psychomotor agitation / disturbances

• Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain)

• Depressed mood

• Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia)

• Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain)

• Depressed mood

• Easily distracted (difficulty in concentrating)

• Inability to concentrate

• Lack of interest of pleasure

• Loss of energy

• Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia)

• Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain)

• Delusions

• Easily distracted (difficulty in concentrating)

• Full or ideas/thoughts

• Hallucinations

• Highly talkative

• Increased involvement in pleasurable activities

• Inflated self-esteem

• Lack of interest of pleasure

• Periods of depression (low mood)

• Periods of mania (elevated mood)

• Psychomotor agitation / disturbances

• Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia

Depression Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia Word Bank

Affective flatteningAvolition

Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain)

DelusionsDepressed mood

Easily distracted (difficultyin concentrating)

Full or ideas/thoughtsHallucinations

Highly talkativeInability to concentrate

Increased involvement in pleasurable activities

Inflated self-esteemLack of interest oR pleasure

Loss of energy Periods of depression (low mood)Periods of mania (elevated mood)

Psychomotor agitation / disturbances

Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia)Speech poverty

Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar Venn Diagram

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depressiondedepeprpred

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bipolarbipolalararbipo

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Validity of Classifying and Diagnosing Schizophrenia

Once you have completed you Venn Diagram, consider the following questions:

1 Which symptoms overlap in all three disorders?

Validity is the extent to which we are measuring what we intended to measure.

2 If there are numerous symptoms that exist for schizophrenia, depression and bipolar, how might this affect the validity of diagnosis?

Comorbidity is when one disorders exist alongside another disorder. So in this context it is the occurrence of two illnesses or conditions together, for example a person has both schizophrenia and depression.

3 How might the issue of comorbidity affect the validity of diagnosing schizophrenia? (Hint: Consider the issue from the point of view of psychologists and psychiatrists).

Buckley et al. (2009) concluded that around half of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also have a diagnosis of depression (50%) or substance abuse (47%). Post-traumatic stress occurred in 29% of cases and OCD in 23%, showing that schizophrenia commonly occurs alongside other mental illnesses and the disorders are co-morbid.

4 Using the above research, answer the following question: Discuss one issue with the validity associated with classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia (4 marks).