PSYCHOLOGY Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar? Resources for Courses Overview The aim of this activity is for students to consider the validity of classifying and diagnosing schizophrenia, by looking at the symptom overlap between schizophrenia and other disorders, namely depression and bipolar. This activity will also provide a good opportunity to revise the depression topic, in particular the behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of depression, studied in Year 1. Resources Required Symptom Word Bank Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar Venn Diagram (either one per student, or one A3/2 version per group) Validity of Classifying and Diagnosing Schizophrenia Handout Teacher Instructions Teaching and Learning Strategy A Research Task There are different ways to use this activity depending on how much time you have, and your ability to access to other resources (e.g. a computer lab). Two great websites that provide the criteria for schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder, include: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk64063/ - Depression & Bipolar http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/1/133.long - Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar? Resources for Courses If you want to run this activity as a research task. Idea 1: 1 Firstly, provide the students with a copy of the Symptom Word Bank handout. This task works well individually or in pairs. Then, ask the students to decide which of the symptoms belong to schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder or more than one. They may wish to annotate the word bank handout first, before completing their Venn Diagram. 2 Secondly, once you and the students are happy that they have correctly assigned the symptoms to one, two or all three disorders, they can complete their Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar Venn Diagram. 3 Finally, students should consider the questions on the Validity of Classifying and Diagnosing Schizophrenia Handout individually or in groups, before you discuss the answers as a class. Teaching and Learning Strategy B In Class If you do not have access to a computer lab/other resources, you may wish to print the pages from the above websites and use these in class. You would then run the activity, as outlined above. Stretch & Challenge There are many opportunities to stretch and challenge on this task. As the students are exploring the symptoms of depression, you could also ask the students to categorise their symptoms of depression into cognitive, behavioural and emotional characteristics to revise some Year 1 content.
possible answers Below is a possible structure (based on various pieces of research) of the symptom overlap for these three disorders. Schizophrenia Affective flattening Avolition Delusions Easily distracted (difficulty Hallucinations Inflated self-esteem Lack of interest of pleasure Psychomotor agitation/ disturbances Speech poverty Depression Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain) Depressed mood Easily distracted (difficulty Inability to concentrate Lack of interest of pleasure Loss of energy Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia) Bipolar Disorder Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain) Delusions Easily distracted (difficulty Full or ideas/thoughts Hallucinations Highly talkative Increased involvement in pleasurable activities Inflated self-esteem Lack of interest of pleasure Periods of depression (low mood) Periods of mania (elevated mood) Psychomotor agitation / disturbances Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia Schizophrenia & Bipolar Delusions Hallucinations Psychomotor agitation / disturbances Bipolar & Depression Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain) Depressed mood Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia) Schizophrenia, Depression & Bipolar Difficulty concentrating Lack of interest or pleasure (anhedonia)
Schizophrenia Word Bank Affective flattening Avolition Changes in appetite (leading to weight loss / gain) Delusions Depressed mood Easily distracted (difficulty Full or ideas/thoughts Hallucinations Highly talkative Inability to concentrate Increased involvement in pleasurable activities Inflated self-esteem Lack of interest or pleasure Loss of energy Periods of depression (low mood) Periods of mania (elevated mood) Psychomotor agitation / disturbances Sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia) Speech poverty
Schizophrenia, Depression or Bipolar Venn Diagram Schizophrenia hrenia depression ession bipolar
Validity of Classifying and Diagnosing Schizophrenia Once you have completed you Venn Diagram, consider the following questions: 1 Which symptoms overlap in all three disorders? Validity is the extent to which we are measuring what we intended to measure. 2 If there are numerous symptoms that exist for schizophrenia, depression and bipolar, how might this affect the validity of diagnosis? Comorbidity is when one disorders exist alongside another disorder. So in this context it is the occurrence of two illnesses or conditions together, for example a person has both schizophrenia and depression. 3 How might the issue of comorbidity affect the validity of diagnosing schizophrenia? (Hint: Consider the issue from the point of view of psychologists and psychiatrists). Buckley et al. (2009) concluded that around half of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also have a diagnosis of depression (50%) or substance abuse (47%). Post-traumatic stress occurred in 29% of cases and OCD in 23%, showing that schizophrenia commonly occurs alongside other mental illnesses and the disorders are co-morbid. 4 Using the above research, answer the following question: Discuss one issue with the validity associated with classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia (4 marks).