Schizophrenia and Dissociative Disorders: Crash Course Psychology #32

CrashCourse
29 Sept 201411:43
EducationalLearning
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TLDRThis video discusses schizophrenia spectrum disorders and dissociative disorders like Dissociative Identity Disorder. It covers symptoms of schizophrenia including delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking. The possible causes are explored, like genetics, brain abnormalities, and environmental factors. The story of Sybil, a famous case of what was thought to be multiple personality disorder, is revealed to have been a fabrication. Though dissociative disorders still spark debate on whether they are real clinical diagnoses, some studies have found measurable physical differences between identities.

Takeaways
  • 😧 Schizophrenia is a challenging disorder to live with and one that's hard for outsiders to understand.
  • 👥 Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the population and causes more anxiety than other mental illnesses due to stigma and misunderstandings.
  • 🧠 Schizophrenia involves abnormalities in several parts of the brain and their connections.
  • 😞 Symptoms include disorganized thinking and speech, inappropriate emotions, disturbed perceptions like hallucinations, and loss of contact with reality.
  • 🤯 Stress combined with genetic vulnerability likely contributes to schizophrenia onset (the diathesis-stress model).
  • 😵‍💫 Dissociative disorders like Dissociative Identity Disorder involve interruptions in consciousness and changes in memory or identity.
  • 👪 Having a close family member with schizophrenia increases your odds of developing it.
  • 📈 Reported cases of dissociative disorders skyrocketed after the book and movie Sybil popularized the idea of multiple personalities.
  • 🔬 The famous "Sybil" case turned out to be a lie, causing doubt about the legitimacy of dissociative disorders.
  • 🏥 Antipsychotic medications, therapy, coping skills and social support can help manage schizophrenia.
Q & A
  • What percentage of the population is affected by schizophrenia?

    -Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the population.

  • What does the term 'schizophrenia' literally mean?

    -The word 'schizophrenia' literally means 'split mind', but it does not actually refer to split personality or multiple personalities.

  • What are some examples of delusions that people with schizophrenia may experience?

    -Some examples of delusions are: beliefs of grandeur (e.g. believing you are the queen of England), narratives of persecution or paranoia (e.g. believing you are being spied on or followed), or bizarre delusions (e.g. believing you are infested with parasites).

  • What are positive, negative and disorganized symptoms in schizophrenia?

    -Positive symptoms add something abnormal (hallucinations, delusions), negative symptoms subtract normal behavior (lack of emotion, withdrawal), and disorganized symptoms are jumbles of thought/speech (word salad, attention problems).

  • What is the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia?

    -The diathesis-stress model proposes that schizophrenia results from a combination of biological/genetic vulnerabilities (diathesis) and environmental stressors (stress).

  • What was the Sybil book/case and why was it controversial?

    -Sybil was a 1973 book about a woman with 16 personalities. It sparked interest in dissociative disorders, but was later found to be fabricated - the patient admitted her multiple personalities were not real.

  • How common are dissociative identity disorder cases compared to schizophrenia?

    -Dissociative disorders like DID are much more rare than schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the population, while DID is extremely rare.

  • What are some key differences between schizophrenia and dissociative disorders?

    -Schizophrenia involves psychosis/breaks from reality, while dissociative disorders involve interruptions in consciousness and memory/identity. Schizophrenia is more well-understood while dissociative disorders remain controversial.

  • What brain abnormalities are associated with schizophrenia?

    -Brain imaging shows schizophrenia patients tend to have dopamine abnormalities and unusual activity in areas like the thalamus, amygdala and other regions related to sensory processing and emotion regulation.

  • What positive impacts have some people with schizophrenia made on the world?

    -Some people with schizophrenia, through proper treatment, have made fantastic creative contributions, like Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd) and John Nash (Nobel prize-winning mathematician profiled in A Beautiful Mind).

Outlines
00:00
🤯 Understanding schizophrenia and its symptoms

Paragraph 1 introduces schizophrenia, describes misconceptions about the disorder, explains the origin of the term and how it differs from multiple personality disorder. It discusses the challenges in relating to symptoms of schizophrenia and dissociation and the role of psychologists in demystifying mental illnesses.

05:02
😵 Explaining positive, negative and disorganized schizophrenia symptoms

Paragraph 2 provides an overview of the positive, negative and disorganized symptoms commonly associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. It also discusses related physiological and brain abnormalities, genetic predispositions, and the diathesis-stress model of schizophrenia onset.

10:03
😮‍💨 The doubtful case of Sybil and dissociative identity disorder

Paragraph 3 examines dissociative disorders, with a focus on the questionable veracity of the iconic Sybil multiple personality case. It discusses debates around whether dissociative identity disorder is a legitimate diagnosis, along with associated research.

Mindmap
Keywords
💡Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental health condition that causes distorted thinking and perceptions. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior. It is often misunderstood and stigmatized. The video discusses common misconceptions about schizophrenia and provides an overview of its symptoms, brain abnormalities, and potential causes.
💡Psychotic symptoms
Psychotic symptoms refer to severe mental disturbances that involve losing touch with reality, such as hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disorganized thinking/behavior. They impair normal functioning and are a core feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
💡Delusions
Delusions are fixed, false beliefs not based in reality, which are a common symptom of schizophrenia. Delusions can involve grandiose ideas, paranoia, thought control, etc. The video gives examples like believing you won an Olympic medal or that you're the queen of England.
💡Hallucinations
Hallucinations involve perceiving things that are not really there. Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) are most common in schizophrenia. They involve misattributing internal thoughts as coming from an external source. Hallucinations demonstrate a break from reality.
💡Dopamine
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to schizophrenia. Many patients show excess dopamine activity, which may cause hallucinations and other positive symptoms by amplifying brain signals. Antipsychotic meds often target dopamine.
💡Diathesis-stress model
This model posits schizophrenia results from a combination of biological/genetic vulnerabilities (diathesis) and environmental stressors (stress). It explains differences in onset and severity across patients with genetic risks.
💡Dissociative disorders
These rare disorders involve disruptions in consciousness, memory, and sense of identity. Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) manifests as two or more distinct personalities. The video covers the infamous, fabricated "Sybil" case.
💡Dissociation
Dissociation refers to becoming detached from thoughts, feelings, memories, or even sense of identity. Minor dissociation is common, but pathologic dissociation is seen in disorders like DID. The video contrasts normal and clinical dissociation.
💡Positive/Negative symptoms
Psychologists categorize schizophrenia symptoms as positive (additions like hallucinations), negative (deficits like no emotions), or disorganized (confused thoughts/speech). Understanding differences guides treatment.
💡Brain abnormalities
Schizophrenia has been linked to several brain irregularities - excess dopamine receptors, overactivity in parts of the brain, connectivity issues between regions. This offers clues to biological underpinnings of symptoms.
Highlights

Schizophrenia is a chronic condition that usually surfaces for men in their early to mid-20s, and for women in their late 20s.

Once thought of as a single discrete condition, schizophrenia is now included in the DSM-5 as a point on a spectrum of disorders that vary in how they're expressed and how long they last, but they share similar symptoms.

When someone's experiencing psychotic symptoms, their thinking and speech can become disorganized, rambling and fragmented.

Unfortunately maybe the most memorable examples of people suffering from severe delusions come from serial killers and yeah, while Son of Sam did claim that he was taking orders from his neighbor's dog, that kind of stuff is in the tiny, tiny, tiny minority.

Maybe people with schizophrenia also suffer from perceptual disturbances, or sensory experiences, that come without any apparent sensory stimulation, like hallucinations.

Auditory hallucinations, or hearing voices, are the most common form, and these voices are often abusive.

Psychologists call this the 'diathesis-stress model.' This way of thinking involves a combination of biological and genetic vulnerabilities -- diathesis -- and environmental stressors -- stress -- that both contribute to the onset of schizophrenia.

One recent landmark seven year study looked at genetic samples across 35 countries, examining more than 35,000 people with schizophrenia, and another 110,000 without the disorder. The study identified more than 100 genes that may increase the risk of schizophrenia.

Clearly, schizophrenia is a challenging disorder to live with and one that's hard for outsiders to understand, but maybe even more rare and more elusive are the dissociative disorders.

This has long been known as Multiple Personality Disorder and, yes, it is a thing. It's a rare and flashy disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating identities...

The Sybil case is a powerful reminder that we really don't understand dissociative disorders very well or even know if they're always real.

But some studies have shown distinct body and brain states that seem to appear in different identities, things like one personality being right handed while the other is left handed, or different personalities having variations in their eye sight that ophthalmologists could actually detect.

In these cases, dissociations of identity may be in response to stress or anxiety, a sort of extreme coping mechanism.

Either way, the debate and the research continue.

You also learned about dissociative disorders, and Dissociative Identity Disorder in particular, and the scandal that was the Sybil case.

Transcripts
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