Summary
A* AQA A Level Psychology Summary Notes on Classification and Diagnosis of schizophrenia
- Module
- Schizophrenia
- Institution
- AQA
A* quality notes Perfect notes for a hard topic! :)
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Schizophrenia – Diagnosis and ClassificationClassification of mental disorder is the process of organising into categories based on which
symptoms frequently cluster together.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder where contact with reality and insight are impaired, an
example of psychosis.
- Experienced by 1% of world population
- More commonly diagnosed in men, city dwellers and lower socio-economic groups
- Symptoms can interfere with severely everyday tasks, so many people end up homeless or
hospitalised
- Usually occurs in late adolescence or early adulthood (18-30)
Positive symptoms (atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences)
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
Negative symptoms (atypical experiences that represent the loss of a usual experience or ability)
- Speech poverty
- Avolition
Co-morbidity is the occurrence of two disorders or conditions together. Where two conditions are
frequently diagnosed together it calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders
separately.
Symptom overlap occurs when two or more conditions share symptoms. Where conditions share
many symptoms, this calls into question the validity of classifying the two disorders separately.
AO1 Diagnosis and classification – interlinked
According to medical approach, to diagnose a specific disorder, need to distinguish one disorder
from another. We do this by identifying clusters of symptoms that occur together and classifying this
as one disorder. Diagnosis is then possible by identifying symptoms and deciding what disorder a
person has.
Two major systems for classification of mental disorder: ICD-10 and DSM-5
- Differ slightly in classification for schizophrenia
- DSM-5 system says one of positive symptom of schizophrenia must be present for diagnosis
but ICD-10 say two or more negative symptoms are sufficient for a diagnosis
Previous editions of ICD and DSM recognised subtypes of schizophrenia (eg paranoid schizophrenia).
Both DSM-5 and ICD-10 have dropped subtypes as they rended to be inconsistent (eg someone with
a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia would not necessarily show the same symptoms a few years
later.
Positive symptoms
Hallucinations
- Unusual sensory experiences
- Some related to events in environment, others bear no relationship to what the senses are
picking up in from environment
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