Download Psychotic disorders A psychosis is a condition that afects the brain

Psychotic disorders
under outside control) seem utterly real to
the person experiencing them. People with
A psychosis is a condition that afects the
brain, causing changes in thinking, emotion
schizophrenia may believe that they have
and behaviour.
People with psychotic disorders lose
contact with reality and oten have irrational
ideas (delusions involving false beliefs of
persecution, guilt or grandeur) or distorted
perceptions (hallucinations where they see,
hear, smell, taste or feel things which are not
there).They may be depressed, losing interest
in life, or elated out of all proportion to their
life circumstances.
To those around them, these episodes can
be threatening and perplexing. People who
are not familiar with this behaviour may find it
difficult to understand the fear and confusion
with which people with these conditions live.
Efective medication and support from
disorganised speech), neologisms (common
words used in uncommon ways) or clang
associations (connected by similar sounds, not
by logical meaning).
Disorganised behaviour may appear bizarre
or frightening to others, including inappropriate
gestures or emotions (laughter or tears),
mental health professionals mean that most
people who experience a psychotic illness are
able to live productive and rewarding lives.
agitated pacing or unpredictable violence.
Negative symptoms involve an absence
or reduction of normal behaviour, including
blunted or flat emotions, expressionless
Schizophrenia
faces, social withdrawal, toneless or repetitive
language or a lack of speech, rigid bodies,
dificulty making decisions and a lack of
motivation.
Sub-types of schizophrenia are paranoid,
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and
disabling illness that alters the normal
functioning of the brain.This disorder is
characterised by disorganised and delusional
thinking, disturbed perceptions, and
inappropriate emotions, language and actions.
Literally translated as 'split mind',
schizophrenia is not 'split personality', as in
cases of dissociative identity disorder, but,
rather, a splitting apart of mental functions
that cause a loss of contact with reality.
People with schizophrenia have a wide
range of symptoms, which can be classified
into positive or negative symptoms.
Positive symptoms involve the presence
of altered behaviours. Examples of positive
symptoms include hallucinations, delusions,
disorganised speech and disorganised
behaviour.
Hallucinations can involve hearing, seeing,
feeling, smelling or tasting something that
isn't actually there and that the suferer is
unable to distinguish from reality. A person
with schizophrenia oten hears disembodied
voices that no one else can hear.
Similarly, delusions (unfounded beliefs
of persecution, guilt or grandeur, or of being
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special gits and powers or that other people
are reading their minds, controlling their
thoughts, tormenting or ridiculing them or
plotting to harm them.
Disorganised speech can take many forms.
A person with schizophrenia may produce
word salad, which consists of disconnected
words and sentences strung together in an
illogical and incoherent way. Other forms
include loose associations (fluent but
A+ Psych Notes VCE Unit 4
disorganised, catatonic, undiferentiated and
residual types.
A patient with paranoid schizophrenia
experiences frequent auditory hallucinations
and is preoccupied with delusions, oten
with themes of persecution or grandeur.
Persecutory delusions involve a belief that
an individual is being oppressed, pursued or
harassed in some way. Grandiose delusions
involve the belief that an individual is very
important or famous.
Disorganised type comprises disorganised
behaviour and incoherent speech with highly
unusual verbalisation, along with flat or
inappropriate afect and complete neglect of
their appearance.
Catatonic schizophrenia is typified by
unusual motor symptoms ranging from rigid,
unmoving posture to continual, purposeless
movements, extreme negativism and
unnatural speech patterns, such as absence
of speech or parrot-like repetition of other
people's speech or movements.
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