Case+Study+5+Schizophrenia


 * NUR 154/SP2010: Case Study #5: Schizophrenia**


 * Read the following case study and fill in the blanks with the description of the information that is underlined and numbered in the text. Content submitted after 0840 on March 3, 2010 will not be considered for grading.**

Sandra, a 37-year-old woman was picked up by the police after she ran away from her parents’ home. Sandra has a 17 year history of paranoid schizophrenia. She has had numerous hospitalizations.

Police were called when Sandra began wandering through a local park and screaming at everyone. “I know you are possessed by the devil.” During her initial interview, she is __very guarded and suspicious of the nurse__ (1). __“I can read your mind, you know.”__ (2),

Sandra is assigned to a room and oriented to the unit. At 5:00PM, the nurse says to Sandra, “Sandra it’s time for dinner.” __Sandra responds, “time for dinner; time for dinner; time for dinner.”__ (3) __The nurse notices that each time she wipes her mouth__ __with her napkin at dinner, Sandra does the same.__ (4)

Sandra’s mother reports that Sandra stopped taking her medicine about a month ago, stating, “__When you don’t have a brain__, (5) you don’t need medicine.” Shortly afterward, she became totally despondent, __taking no pleasure in activities she had always found enjoyable.__ (6) She stayed in her room, sitting on the bed __moving back__ __and forth in a slow, rhythmic fashion.__ (7) Sometimes she would not even get up to go the bathroom, __instead soiling herself in an infantile manner__. (8) She seemed to experience a total __lack of energy for usual activities of daily living__. (9) On the unit Sandra __appears disinterested in everything around her__. (10) She sits alone, __talking and laughing to herself.__ (11). At one point she hears a laugh track on TV and states, “__They’re laughing at me. I know they are__.” (12)

1. 7. This demonstrates positive symptom, paronia ( i.e. persecutory) 7 The rocking in a rhythmic fashsion is a repetitive behavior, bizarre behaviors ( i.e.positive symptom)

2. 8. This demonstrates a negative symptom of schizophrenia: lack of hygiene. 2- This is an example of hallucination, sandra is percieving a sensory experience, but no external stimuli exists, she thinks she can read minds. jr.

3. 9. This demonstrates a negative symptom of schizophrenia called anergia. It is a lack of energy, passivity, lack of persistence at work or school. 3. This is an example of Echolalia- the pathological repeating of another persons words, a positive symptom of Schizophrenia, often seen with catatonia. jr

4. 10. This is a cognitive symptom ie: Difficulties attending to and processing of information around her.This shows a positive symptom (ie, bizarre behavior) . 4- This ia an example of Exchpraxia, mimicking the movements of another person, also seen in catatonia. jr 5 11 5- This is a somatic delusional thought, thinking a body part doesnt work anymore. jr 11- A positive symptom, bizarre behavoir for a social setting. jr 6. 12. This is an example of an alteration in thinking which occurs with everyone to some extent, however, people with schizophrenia are unable to correct this thinking with reasoning and become fixated with the delusion. 6- taking no pleasure in activities that used to be enjoyable is a negative symptom of Schizophrenia, Sandra lacks motivation and has Andedonia (the inability to experience pleasure). jr