Question | Answer |
Schizophrenia | A disorder with a range of symptoms involving disturbances in content of thought, form of thought, perception, affect, sense of self, motivation, behavior, and interpersonal functioning. |
Dementia Praecox | Original name for schizophrenia. A degeneration of the brain that began at a relatively young age ultimately led to the disintegration of the entire personality. |
Active Phase | 6-month period of symptoms, such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disturbed behavior, and negative symptoms (eg., speechlessness, or lack of initiative). |
Prodromal Phase | Period prior to the active phase which the individual shows progressive deterioration in social and interpersonal functioning. |
Residual Phase | Active phase is followed by this phase, in which there are continuing indications of disturbance similar to the behaviors of the prodromal phase. |
Positive Symptoms | Exaggerations or distortions of normal thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Viewed as direct lead-ins to the full expression of psychosis. |
Negative Symptoms | Those that involve functioning below the level of behavior regarded as normal (eg. affective flattening, alogia, and avoliton). |
Affective Flattening | An individual seems unresponsive with relatively motionless body language and facial reactions and minimal eye contact. |
Alogia | Loss of words or notable lack of spontaneity or responsiveness in conversation. |
Avolition | Lack of initiative and unwillingness to act (eg. stares out window instead of doing something pleasant). |
Anhedonia | Loss of interest in or ability to experience pleasure from activities that most people find appealing. |
Schizophrenia, Catonic Type | Prominent symptom is bizarre motor behaviors. |
Schizophrenia, Disorganized Type | Characterized by a combination of symptoms, including disorganized speech, disturbed behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. |
Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type | Are preoccupied with one or more bizarre delusions or have auditory hallucinations related to a theme of being persecuted or harassed, but without disorganized speech or disturbed behavior. |
Schizophrenia, Undifferentiated Type | Mixed symptoms. Person shows a complex of schizophrenic symptoms, such as delusions, hallucinations, incoherence, and disturbed behavior, but does not meet the criteria for catonic, disorganized, or paranoid. |
Schizophrenia, Residual Type | No longer have prominent psychotic symptoms but still show some lingering signs. May not be delusional, hallucinating, incoherent, or disorganized, they may retain some symptoms such as emotional dullness, social withdrawal, eccentric behavior. |
Brief Psychotic Disorder | Characterized by a sudden onset of psychotic symptoms that lasts less than a month |
Schizophreniform Disorder | Have psychotic symptoms that are essentially the same as those found in schizophrenia, except for duration. Active symptoms last 1-6 months. |
Schizoaffective Disorder | Applies to people who experience either a major depressive episode, a manic episode, or a mixed episode at the same time that they meet the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia. |
Delusional Disorders | Have a single striking psychotic symptom- an organized system of nonbizarre false beliefs. |
Cortical Atrophy | Often accompanied by ventricular enlargement. A wasting away of brain tissue. |
Dopamine Hypothesis | The delusions, hallucinations, and attentional deficits found in schizophrenia can be attributed to over-activity of neurons that communicate with each other via the transmission of dopamine. |
Endophenotypes | Biobehavioral abnormalities that are linked to genetic and neurobiological causes of mental illness. |
Expressed Emotion (EE) | Provides a measure of the degree to which family members speak in ways that reflect criticism, hostile feelings, and emotional over-involvement or over-concern. |
Neuroleptics | Antipsychotic medication that is a major tranquilizer. |