Schizophrenic Disorders
Exam 4 Review
• Schizophrenia-In their own words
o Based on interview with 7 people, average age 44
o Accepting diagnosis
▪ “It was like a relief in a way that at least they knew now what I a
...
Schizophrenic Disorders
Exam 4 Review
• Schizophrenia-In their own words
o Based on interview with 7 people, average age 44
o Accepting diagnosis
▪ “It was like a relief in a way that at least they knew now what I already knew
that I'd got this schizophrenia”
▪ However, researchers found that an emphasis on the biological nature of
schizophrenia undermined hope and risked leading “individuals to become
passive recipient of care”
o Stigma fear
▪ “i was too scared to tell the doctors what my realsymptoms were so they could
treat me”
▪ “People are always afraid of saying that word to me... because it is a dirty word.”
▪ “Nobody likes rejection, so I just don’t put myself in that position”
▪ “... to have people treat me like that, you want to say, ‘Look, I'm not that bad”
• Schizophrenia
o An umbrella term for a group of psychotic disorders involving disturbances of behavior,
thinking, emotions and perceptions
o Typical onset is during late adolescence
o Affects about 1% of the population
▪ Rate seems similar across cultures
▪ Rates vary by SES: 1.9% for lower to 0.4% for upper
o Affects more men than women, affects men earlier in life than women, and tends to be
less severe in women
o Onset may be gradual, or may be sudden
▪ Gradual includes prodromal phase of decreasing social engagement
▪ After acute episodes, person may return to a residual phase of behavior similar
to that of the prodromal
• Schizophrenia- History
o Emil Kraepelin: Dementia Praecox
▪ Loss of inner unity of thought, feeling and acting
▪ Believed it arose out of a body-level problem
o Eugen Bleuler
▪ Coined word ‘schizophrenia’, meaning ‘split brain’
▪ Split is between aspects of personality, not a split into different personalities
▪ Symptomology of four A’s
• Disconnected associations
• Flat or inappropriate affect
• Ambivalence towards others
• Autism- living in a private fantasy world
o Kurt Schneider
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