Schizophrenia
← a syndrome characterized by distorted and bizarre thoughts, perceptions, emotions, movements, e behavior
← “schizo”- “split”; problems c wholeness in the personality e phrenia- “mind”
← a chronic e progressive form of dementia but fxnal in nature- an organic change in brain fxn
← dementia praecox- Morel (French); Kraepelin (Latin; founder of organic thought of schizophrenia) defined as a disturbance in the cognitive process (judgment, abstract, thoughts, communication) a adolescence
← Kraepelin’s 3 Forms of Schizophrenia:
o Paranoid
o Catatonia- mov’t d/o, catatonic/ abN posturing
o Hebephrenia- gr. god of youth; bizarre behavior, problem c hygiene, disorganized
o was due to neuropathology, irreversible, organic/structural changes in the brain (negative outlook)
← 1900s- Eugene Bleuler
o not structural rather fxnal; Fxnal Theory
o 4 Central Features:
▪ Associative Loosening- failure to establish causal relationships among concepts; no logical relationship; (cognitive)
▪ Affective Disturbance- emotion/affect, incongruence c thoughts e actions (inappropriate affect), labile affect, flattening/ blunting of affect
▪ Ambivalence- presence of 2 opposite feeling tones
▪ Autism- retreating to own fantasy world; cognitive/ social relationships; withdrawn
o influenced by Sigmund Freud’s psychotherapy
CLASSIFICATIONS
I. Category accdg. to sx (TJ Crow)
A. Positive/ Hard Symptoms
← dopamine receptor antagonist, frontal lobe
← postulated cause: hyperdopaminergic theory (overproduction/ oversensitivity) – mesocortical (thought process/cognition), mesolimbic (desire, emotions, memories, drives), extrapyramidal (gross/ fine motor mov’t), pyramidal (muscle coordination) e tuberoinfundibular tract (hypothalamus – thermoregulation, endocrine
← excessive mental activity
← more pronounced in mesocortical and mesolimbic:
o hallucinations, labile affect, inappropriate affect, disorganized behavior
o loose associations,...