Issues in diagnosing schizophrenia

Today we started to discuss some of the reasons why schizophrenia is so difficult to diagnose. The reasons can be divided into reasons of reliability (whether or not doctors agree on a diagnosis) or validity (are we actually diagnosing schizophrenia?).

Here is the original Rosenhan article (On being sane in insane places); do have a read.

Here is today's powerpoint.

Do ask if you have any questions about anything.

Cake

Unfortunately, we have had to schedule a twilight (3-4pm) lesson onto your timetable, on Tues week A in R23. In order to make the experience more positive I propose a CAKE ROTA, whereby someone brings cake in every week to share. If you don't want to be on the rota, that is fine, but you're not then allowed to eat other people's....... Here is the rota:

30th Sep	Mrs Watson
14th Oct	Curtis
4th Nov	Daisy
18th Nov	Daniel
2nd Dec	Louis
16th Dec	Ciin
13th Jan	Iman
27th Jan	Emily
10th Feb	Mehwish
3rd March	Marco
17th March	Jardel

PLEASE make a note of your date.

See me if you want to be taken off the rota. It's fine to buy a packet of biscuits!

Mrs Watson

Introduction to Schizophrenia

Here is the TED talk I mentioned in class, containing a fascinating first-person account of a journey through starting to hear voices to being diagnosed with schizophrenia and her subsequent experiences. You MUST watch this....it is all too easy to treat schizophrenia as an exercise in academic study, and learn to list the 'symptoms' without really thinking them through - it is a lot harder to look at the patients as individuals with their own histories and experiences.

Here is today's powerpoint. Here is the other one.

DON'T FORGET, your next lesson with me will be on Tues 30th September from 3-4pm in R23