Faces Interactive Schizophrenia Case Study

The Faces Interactive website lets us take a look at what it really means to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, instead of the many misinterpreted beliefs that are associated with this disorder. Under the Diagnostic Overview tab, it is explained that this disorder has positive and negative symptoms. As mentioned in under the tab, the two most common positive symptoms include Delusions and Hallucinations. Often times, we might confuse the two, but they each hold very different definitions. Faces Interactive defines Delusions as, “… a firmly held believe that is not grounded in reality” (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Diagnostic Overview). There are many forms of delusions including delusions of persecution, delusions of reference, and delusions of grandeur. Faces Interactive gives applicable examples that differentiate between the three, “Valerie has expressed a range of delusions including delusions of persecution – that people were plotting to hurt she and her family, delusions of
reference – the television programs were secretly referring to her, and delusions of grandeur – that her actions could help to save the world” (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Case History). On the other hand, a hallucination is defined as a, “… perceptional error in which the person sees or hears something that doesn’t exist” (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Diagnostic Overview). Hallucinations can be experienced in two forms, including visual and auditory. Additionally, this disorder features a key negative symptom, which is when someone shows little response to his or her environments. This behavior differs from that of normal beings. Under the interview tab, we are introduced to Valerie who has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia. She allows us to take a look at what it’s truly like to have this disorder. Valerie described how she had this delusion where, “… all the cars in the United States were plugged into a giant computer system that controlled where they went, and how much traffic was going at any given time at any place in the country” (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Clinical Questions). In this case, I would suggest that she is experiencing delusion of persecution because of the way she describes that people are out to get her. She further goes on to explain that she had this belief that if she did not go out and drive her car for so long daily, that a death would occur in her family (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Clinical Questions). In my opinion, I would consider that this belief she had would relate most to delusions of grandeur because of the fact that she believes that she holds the responsibility for the life of herself and her family. Another delusion she discusses involves her being spied on by her local priest through her television set, which made her feel obligated to watch television all day or else she would be punished, and it ultimately resulted in her destroying the television (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Clinical Questions). I believe that this episode represents delusions of reference because she believes that the priest had this personal connection with her through her television set. In my opinion, I believe that Valerie would benefit from any of the forms of psychological therapy that were mentioned under the treatment tab, including cognitive therapy, social skills training, and Milieu Therapy. I strongly trust that when medication is paired with a form of psychological therapy the effectiveness on treating a disorder is greater. Also, as mentioned on the website, these therapies can overall lessen the risk of relapse and lower stress levels (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Treatment Strategy). After reviewing the DSM criteria for schizophrenia and watching Valerie’s Interview, I believe that as a whole her behavior and symptoms fulfills this criteria. As I explained earlier, she has experienced many delusional occurrences. Along with delusions, she has also experienced hallucinations on two occasions, one being a time when she witnessed two angels and another when she saw Christ. I would consider these hallucinations to be rather positive symptoms. Furthermore, she has experienced active symptoms for longer than six months. Her symptoms interfered with her relationships, including her relationship with her husband and her church, which led to her husband involuntarily admitting her to a mental hospital. Also, with this evidence, I do not believe that these symptoms could be better explained by another medical or psychological effect. Based off of the information provided to us on the Faces Interactive website, I was not able to uncover that she had signs of disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, or a great deal of negative symptoms. As a result, I presume that her symptoms are associated with paranoid schizophrenia. In my opinion, Valerie’s case has a number of factors that determine she is displaying a positive prognosis.
A few factors that support this include that she has no family history of schizophrenia, she has a great deal of knowledge about her illness, she portrays few negative symptoms, a late onset at about the age of 28, and she is a female. She explains how there was no severe change with her onset, “… I kinda slipped from reality into unreality without any real, sharp change. It was kind of a gradual thing” (McGrawHill Higher Education, 2007, Clinical Questions). Also, she discusses that she believes the initial psychotic break originated from her husband confessing that he did not want to have children anymore. Some factors that she experiences which point toward a negative prognosis include that she was not very social before her diagnosis, and that she had a slow onset of her illness. Overall, I believe that so far she has had a rather positive prognosis and will continue
to. Before reviewing this website, I must admit that I definitely held a misinterpreted view of paranoid schizophrenia, mainly because of the way the media continues to portray this disorder. The media likes to show schizophrenia as a disorder where people are completely crazy, by constantly hearing voices in their heads, I’m not saying that this isn’t the possible case for some, but it isn’t for all. This needs to be acknowledged. Furthermore, after going over all the information on the site, I have a different view of this disorder. There are many things that I was surprised to read and hear about this disorder, but the most shocking piece of information was that the average onset for schizophrenia is in the mid to late twenties. Also, I was pleased to see that people with this disorder are able to live a rather normal life with medication and treatment. It seems that there is a lot more hope out there for people who are suffering with this disorder today than there was fifty years ago.