SCHIZOPHRENIA

Coverage:

• What is schizophrenia• Symptoms of schizophrenia• Types of schizophrenia• Some of the more common treatments for

schizophrenia

What is schizophrenia?

• A chronic severe brain disorder; often they hear voices, believe media are broadcasting their thoughts to the world or may believe someone is trying to harm them.

• In men it usually develops in teen years and early 20s; in women it usually develops in 20s and 30s.

Emil Kraepelin

• Dementia precox• (cognitive process) + ( early onset)

– Long term mental deterioration– Common clinical symptoms of hallucinations

and delusions

Eugene Bleuler

• Schizophrenia• Need not have a deteriorating course• Schisms between:

– thought, emotion and behavior

Four A’s

• Association• Affect• Autism• Ambivalence• Secondary symptoms:

– Hallucinations– Delusions

Diagnosis

• Currently there is no physical or lab test that can absolutely diagnose schizophrenia.

• A psychiatrist usually comes to the diagnosis based on clinical symptoms.

Misdiagnosis

• This is a common problem since schizophrenia shares a significant number of symptoms with other disorders.

Disorders that may appear like Schizophrenia

• Schizoid personality• Schizophreniform disorder• Schizotypal personality• Bipolar Disorder• Asperger’s syndrome

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

• Profound disruption in cognition and emotion, affecting the most fundamental human attributes: – Language– Thought– Perception– Affect– Sense of self

Positive Symptoms

• Those that appear to reflect an excess or distortion of normal functions.

Positive Symptoms

• Hallucinations. Distortions or exaggerations of perception in any of the senses.

• Often they hear voices within their own thoughts followed by visual hallucinations.

• Hallucinations = perceptual experiences that occur in absence of actual sensory stimuli; involves the 5 senses.

Positive Symptoms

• Delusions. Those where the patient thinks he is being followed or watched are common; also the belief that people on TV, radio are directing special messages to him/her.

• Delusion = fixed beliefs that usually involve a misinterpretation of experience. “Client believes someone is reading his thoughts”

• Several types: grandiose, persecutory, somatic

• Illusions = person misperceives or exaggerates stimuli that actually exist in the external environment.

Positive Symptoms

• Disorganized thinking/speech.

• AKA loose associations; speech is tangential, loosely associated or incoherent enough to impair communication.

Positive Symptom

• Grossly disorganized behavior.

• Difficulty in goal directed behavior (ADLs), unpredictable agitation or silliness, social disinhibition, or bizarre behavior.

• There is a purposelessness to behavior.

Positive Symptom

• Catatonic behavior.

• Marked decrease in reaction to immediate environment, sometimes just unaware of surroundings, rigid or bizarre postures, aimless motor activity.

Summary of Positive Symptoms

• Hallucinations• Delusions• Disorganized thinking/ speech• Disorganized behavior/ • Inappropriate responses• Catatonic behavior

FYI: Positive Symptoms

• Positive symptoms are those that have a positive reaction from some treatment.

• In other words, positive symptoms respond to treatment.

Negative Symptoms

• Those that appear to reflect a diminution or loss of normal functions.

• May be difficult to evaluate because they are not as grossly abnormal as positive symptoms.

Negative Symptoms

• Affective flattening.

• Reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact and body language.

Negative Symptom

• Alogia (poverty of speech)

• Lessening of speech fluency and productivity, thought to reflect slowing or blocked thoughts; often manifested as short, empty replies to questions.

Negative Symptom

• Avolition

• The reduction, difficulty or inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed behavior. Often mistaken for apparent disinterest.

Examples of Avolition

• No longer interested in going out with friends

• No longer interested in activities that the person used to show enthusiasm

• No longer interested in anything• Sitting in the house for hours or days

doing nothing

Disorganized Symptoms

• This one is somewhat new and may not be considered valid.

• It is thought disorder, confusion, disorientation and memory problems.

Summary of Negative Symptoms

• Lack of emotion• Low energy• Lack of interest in life• Affective flattening• Alogia• Inappropriate social skills• Inability to make friends• Social isolation

Cognitive Symptoms

• Difficulties in concentration and memory:– Disorganized thinking– Slow thinking– Difficulty understanding– Poor concentration– Poor memory– Difficulty expressing thoughts– Difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings,

behaviors

Types of Schizophrenia

• Paranoid• Disorganized• Catatonic• Residual• Undifferentiated

Paranoid Schizophrenia

• Persons are very suspicious of others and often have grand schemes of persecution at the root of their behavior.

• During this phase they may have hallucinations and frequent delusions.

Disorganized Schizophrenia

• characterized by emotionless, incongruous, or silly behavior, intellectual deterioration, frequently beginning insidiously during adolescence.

• May be verbally incoherent and may have moods and emotions that are not appropriate to the situation.

• Hallucinations not usually present.

Catatonic Schizophrenia

• Person is extremely withdrawn, negative and isolated.

• May have marked psychomotor disturbances.

Residual Schizophrenia

• Lacks motivation and interest in day-to-day living.

• Person is not usually having delusions, hallucinations or disorganized speech.

Undifferentiated Schizophrenia

• Conditions meeting the general diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia but not conforming to any of the previous types.

• Exhibits more than one of the previous types without a clear dominance of one.

Summary

• Before a diagnosis the psychiatrist must make a thorough evaluation including a physical/medical exam, a mental status exam, appropriate labs, and a full history.

• History includes changes in thinking, behavior, movement, mood, etc. as seen by the family.

Medications

• In general it may take up to 6 months for medications to show consistent effects.

• The newest medication is:– Paliperidone (Invega)

• Atypical antipsychotics: – Abilify, Geodon, Clozapine, Risperidone,

Seroquel, Zyprexa. – [Remember: a giraffe can really see a zebra]

• These medications may have such intolerable side effects that the patient will stop the drugs.

• More commonly seen in treatment with typical antipsychotics– Chlorpromazine Thioridazine– Levomepromazine Fluphenazine– Haloperidol Trifluoperazine

Treatments

• Psychotherapy - an adjunct to meds and is very useful to keep the patient on the meds.

• Group therapy

• Family therapy

• Community support groups

• Early detection and treatment has the best results/response to treatment.

• Per patients, once you have schizophrenia you have it for life. The best you can hope for is control.

Communication Technique

• Confrontation = Presenting the patient with a different reality of the situation.

Ex:

Patient: My best friend never calls. She hates me.

Nurse: I was in the room yesterday when she called.

Communication Technique

• Doubt =Expressing or voicing doubt when a patient relates a situation.

Ex:

Patient: My best friend hates me.

Nurse: From what you have told me, that does not sound like her. When did she last call you?

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