Negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia - Essay Example

Negative and Positive symptoms of Schizophrenia Differentiate the differences between negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Illustrate your discussion with a case scenario depicting a client with negative symptoms and another case scenario portraying a client with positive symptoms. Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style. However, you should not be using a lot of direct quotes as they should be paraphrased and cited properly.

A patient 60 years old present with the representation of the following positive signs and symptoms of schizophrenia: initially he had hallucinations, delusions, racing thoughts. paranoid delusion and aggression were of increased intensity; when aripiprazole 15 mg was administered, Two weeks later the positive symptoms, paranoid delusion and aggression appeared. (Ponde MP, Novaes CM.. 2007)He complains of hearing voices talking to him and claims the television is sending special messages to him particularly, called delusions of reference.

He also is so paranoid in the sense of having Somatic Delusions of false body illnesses beliefs the patient convinces himself of including cancer presence.The patient also claims seeing and hearing abnormal voices no one except him can hear, all apparently are auditary and visual hallucinations he strongly believes they actually exists around. Other cognitive symptoms where also present such as disorganized thoughts, difficulty in concentrating and in following instructions given in hand, difficulty in completing tasks and memory retaining problems.

Another patient. 52 years old came with the following negative signs and symptoms of schizophrenia; apathy, lack of emotion, poor or nonexistent social functioning and depression. (Peralta V., Cuesta M. J., Martinez-Larrea A., and Serrano J. F. (2000)The patient apparently has disorganizational issues here is mostly speechless, and when asked a question replies in a short meaningless manner. This is called alogia or poverty of speech fluency, and he probably has psychomotor retardation. He also seems to stare blankly with incoherent body language or lack of it, in addition to attention impairment.

(Potkin S. G., Alva G., Fleming K., Anand R., Keator D., Carreon D., Michael Doo, Yi Jin, Wu J. C., and Fallon J.H. 2002)He also has an affective flattening and diminished motivation representation; anhedonia and apathy, diminished motivation, moodiness with sudden switching from happiness to sadness and exacerbation of emotions in a strange manner. (Mary E. Kelley. Daniel P. van Kammen. and Daniel N. Allen. 1999)The patient is also socially isolated, does not enjoy the company of others, and may sit for hours doing merely nothing.

Also present is grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior.ReferencesKelley M. E., van Kammen D.P. and Allen D.N. (1999). Empirical Validation of Primary Negative Symptoms: Independence from Effects of Medication and Psychosis. Am J Psychiatry 156:406-411 Peralta V., Cuesta M. J., Martinez-Larrea A., and Serrano J. F. (2000). Differentiating Primary from Secondary Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A Study of Neuroleptic-Naive Patients Before and After Treatment, Am J Psychiatry, 157: 1461 - 1466Ponde MP, Novaes CM.(2007) Aripiprazole worsening positive symptoms and memantine reducing negative symptoms in a patient with paranoid schizophrenia.Potkin S. G., Alva G., Fleming K., Anand R., Keator D.

, Carreon D., Michael Doo, Yi Jin, Wu J. C., and Fallon J.H. (2002) A pet Study of the Pathophysiology of Negative Symptoms in SchizophreniaAm J Psychiatry. 159: 227 - 237.