Chapter 13

Front 1

Schizophrenia

Back 1

A severe form of abnormal behavior in which individuals suffer from psychotic symptoms, indicating that the person has lost touch with reality. They may hear voices that aren't there or make comments that are difficult, if not impossible, to understand. Their behavior may be guided by absurd ideas and beliefs.

Front 2

Prodromal phase

Back 2

A phase of schizophrenia in which an obvious deterioration in role functioning as a student, employee or homemaker is apparent. Symptoms include peculiar behavior, unusual perceptual experiences, outbursts of anger, increased tension, and restlessness.

Front 3

Residual phase

Back 3

A phase of schizophrenia, which occurs after the active phase, and is defined by many of the same signs and symptoms of the prodromal phase. Negative symptoms may remain pronounced during this phase.

Front 4

Positive symptoms

Back 4

Symptoms of schizophrenia characterized by the presence of an aberrant response, including hallucinations and delusions.

Front 5

Negative symptoms

Back 5

Symptoms of schizophrenia characterized by the absence of a particular response, including characteristics such as lack of initiative, social withdrawal, and deficits in emotional responses.

Front 6

Hallucinations

Back 6

Sensory experiences that are not caused by actual external stimuli; most often taking the form of auditory hallucinations.

Front 7

Delusions

Back 7

Idiosyncratic beliefs that are rigidly held in spite of their preposterous nature.

Front 8

Blunted affect

Back 8

A symptom of schizophrenia characterized by a flattening or restriction of the person's nonverbal display of emotional responses.

Front 9

Anhedonia

Back 9

A symptom of schizophrenia characterized by the inability to experience pleasure.

Front 10

Avolition

Back 10

A symptom of schizophrenia characterized by an indecisiveness, ambivalence, and loss of willpower.

Front 11

Alogia

Back 11

A symptom of schizophrenia characterized by poverty of speech.

Front 12

Disorganized speech

Back 12

A set of schizophrenic symptoms which involves the tendency of patients to say things that don't make sense.

Front 13

Inappropriate affect

Back 13

Affective responses that are obviously inconsistent with a person's situation; an incongruity and lack of adaptability in emotional expression.

Front 14

Catatonic type schizophrenia

Back 14

A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by symptoms of motor immobility, including rigidity and posturing, or excessive and purposeless motor activity.

Front 15

Disorganized type schizophrenia

Back 15

A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by disorganized speech, disorganized behavior,and flat or inappropriate affect (all three must be present at once in order for this diagnosis to be made).

Front 16

Paranoid type schizophrenia

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A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by systematic delusions with persecutory or grandiose content and frequent auditory hallucinations.

Front 17

Undifferentiated type schizophrenia

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A subtype of schizophrenia which includes patients who display prominent psychotic symptoms and either meet the criteria for several subtypes or otherwise do not meet the criteria for the catatonic, disorganized, or paranoid subtypes.

Front 18

Residual type schizophrenia

Back 18

A subtype of schizophrenia that includes patients who no longer meet the criteria for active phase symptoms, but nevertheless demonstrate continued signs of negative symptoms or attenuated forms of delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech.

Front 19

Schizoaffective disorder

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A category of people who fall on the boundary between schizophrenia and mood disorder with psychotic features.

Front 20

Delusional disorder

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A disorder in which patients do not meet the full symptomatic criteria for schizophrenia, but are preoccupied for at least one month with delusions that are not bizarre (things that could occur in real life).

Front 21

Brief psychotic disorder

Back 21

A category that includes those people who exhibit psychotic symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior) for at least one day, but no more than one month.

Front 22

Expressed emotion (EE)

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A concept that refers to a collection of negative or intrusive attitudes sometimes displayed by relatives of patients who are being treated for a disorder. If at least one of a patient's relatives is hostile, critical, or emotionally overinvolved, the family environment typically is considered high in expressed emotion.

Front 23

Vulnerability marker

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A specific measure, such as a biochemical assay or a psychological test, that might be useful in identifying people who are vulnerable to a disorder such as schizophrenia.

Front 24

Antipsychotic drugs

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Drugs that are used in the treatment of schizophrenia due to their specific effect on reducing the severity of psychotic symptoms.

Front 25

Extrapyramidal symptoms

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A group of side effects to antipsychotic drugs characterized by neurological disturbances, such as muscular rigidity, tremors, restless agitation, peculiar involuntary postures, and motor inertia.

Front 26

Tardive dyskinesia

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A side effect of prolonged treatment with antipsychotic drugs, characterized by abnormal involuntary movements of the mouth and face, such as tongue protrusion, chewing, and lip puckering, as well as spasmodic movements of the limbs and trunk of the body. This side effect may be irreversible in some patients, even after medication has been discontinued.

Front 27

Atypical antipsychotics

Back 27

New forms of antipsychotic medications that are less likely than the classical antipsychotics to produce unpleasant motor side effects.

Front 28

Social skills training

Back 28

A structured, educational approach to deficits in social and occupational functioning experienced by sufferers of schizophrenia.