13.1.6

(2027 Exams) Issues in Diagnosis

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Issues in Diagnosis – Comorbidity and Symptom Overlap

Diagnosing schizophrenia is challenging due to overlapping conditions and social biases that affect accuracy across groups.

Issues in diagnosis

Issues in diagnosis

  • The issues in diagnosis of schizophrenia include:
    • Co-morbidity.
    • Symptom overlap.
    • Gender bias.
    • Cultural bias.
Comorbidity

Comorbidity

  • Comorbidity is the extent to which two or more conditions occur together, calling into question the validity of diagnosis.
  • Buckley et al. (2009) found that around half of all patients diagnosed with schizophrenia also had a diagnosis of depression. This factor called into question the ability to tell the difference between the two conditions and diagnose accurately.
    • It could be that very severe depression can present as schizophrenia because it looks a lot like it.
Symptom overlap

Symptom overlap

  • Symptom overlap refers to the extent to which the symptoms of one disorder are also present in a different disorder.
    • For example, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder both include symptoms such as delusions and avolition (lack of motivation to do tasks with an end goal).
Symptom overlap cont.

Symptom overlap cont.

  • Symptom overlap also calls into question the ability to accurately diagnose specific conditions.
  • Under ICD, a patient might be diagnosed with schizophrenia; while under DSM, they might be classified with bipolar disorder.
  • This might even mean that the two are actually the same disorder.

Validity of Diagnosis - Gender Bias

Gender bias is defined as an inclination towards, or prejudice against a particular gender.

__Longenecker et al. (2010)__

Longenecker et al. (2010)

  • According to Longenecker et al., (2010), schizophrenia diagnosis might suffer from gender bias because of the disproportionate number of men diagnosed with disorder in comparison to women.
__Cotton et al. (2009)__

Cotton et al. (2009)

  • While it could be that more men are diagnosed because they are more genetically vulnerable, it could also be because women are able to function better with the disorder than men.
  • According to Cotton et al. (2009), female patients appear to be more able to continue in work and have good family relationships. This better interpersonal functioning might lead to practitioners under-diagnosing schizophrenia in women.

Validity of Diagnosis - Cultural Bias

Cultural bias refers to the process of judging someone against your own cultural norms.

Cultural bias - illustrative example

Cultural bias - illustrative example

  • Cultural bias might account for higher numbers of African American and others of Afro-Caribbean descent being diagnosed with schizophrenia compared to in Africa and the West Indies, where rates are not particularly high.
Different cultural attitudes

Different cultural attitudes

  • Some African cultures have different attitudes to some positive symptoms, such as hearing voices, which can be more acceptable because of their beliefs about communicating with ancestors.
    • This would mean that some symptoms seen as acceptable in some cultures would be seen as atypical in others.
Supporting study - __Escobar (2012)__

Supporting study - Escobar (2012)

  • Escobar (2012) has suggested that, because the psychiatric profession is dominated by white people, psychiatrists might be over-interpreting symptoms and distrusting the honesty of black people during diagnosis.
Jump to other topics
1

Social Influence

2

Memory

3

Attachment

4

(2026 Exams) Psychopathology

5

(2027 Exams) Clinical Psychology & Mental Health

6

Approaches in Psychology

7

Biopsychology

8

Research Methods

8.1

Research Methods

8.2

Scientific Processes

8.3

Data Handling & Analysis

8.4

Inferential Testing

9

Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)

10

Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)

10.1

Relationships: Sexual Relationships (A2 only)

10.2

Relationships: Romantic Relationships (A2 only)

10.3

(2026 Exams) Relationships: Virtual (A2 only)

10.4

(2027 Exams) Relationships: Online (A2 only)

11

Option 1: Gender (A2 only)

12

Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)

13

Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)

14

Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)

15

Option 2: Stress (A2 only)

16

Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)

17

Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)

18

Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)

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