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Of all the categories of mental illness, schizophrenia has been one that has intrigued mental health professionals the most. With so many diverse symptoms, it is a fascinating world of study. Let's take a closer look at this area of mental health below.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, sometimes called a brain disorder, typified by an abnormal interpretation of reality that affects how a person feels, thinks, and behaves.
The age of onset of this disorder is usually in adolescence or early adulthood, with males tending to show symptoms earlier than their female counterparts. Initially thought to affect males and females roughly equally, newer research has consistently shown a slightly higher incident rate among males.
Each type of schizophrenia is categorized by the nature of its symptoms which can be positive or negative.
Positive symptoms are seen as additions to the typical human experience, like seeing or hearing things that are not there.
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia take away from the human experience and express themselves as emotionlessness, physical slowing, or a withdrawal from the world.
Face in profile opening to a colorful cloud, pixabay.com
Schizophrenia can be broken into five types: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual schizophrenia.
Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized by strong delusional thoughts of persecution. It is the most common among the five types. People suffering from this type of disorder often feel like others are conspiring against them or trying to hurt them. They find relevance to support their beliefs in seemingly benign situations or interactions.
Due to these beliefs, those suffering from this type of schizophrenia can often choose to isolate themselves or refuse to go outside, further exacerbating their delusions of persecution.
This type of schizophrenia, sometimes referred to as Hebephrenic schizophrenia, is typified by disorganized speech or behavior and inappropriate or erratic emotional expression.
Disorganized speech may manifest as:
Rapid and disjointed shifting in topics of conversation
Repetition of words in a mantra-like fashion
Regular use of invented nonsense words
Arbitrarily speaking in rhyme.
Disorganized behavior may present as:
Behavior that appears senseless or without purpose
Poor control of basic impulses
Emotional responses that appear erratic or inappropriate
A general decline in basic tasks like personal hygiene or dressing oneself.
This type of schizophrenia is characterized by bizarre motor behavior. People who suffer from this type of disorder exhibit a striking reduction in motor behavior, at times interrupted by episodes of unpredictable hyperactivity.
Reduction in motor behavior can look like this:
Stupor or complete immobility for extended periods
Waxy flexibility, or allowing the body to be moved into and remain in new positions
Negativity, or absence of response to stimuli
Mutism, absence of verbal response
Rigid grimacing for extended periods
The catatonic type of schizophrenia is considered a rare form of schizophrenia, with new research suggesting that this form is a consequence of the schizophrenic condition going untreated. Early intervention can contribute to reducing later symptoms of this type.
When patients exhibit two or more of the five defined subtypes of schizophrenia, they can be diagnosed with undifferentiated schizophrenia. Lately, this term has been considered outdated as our understanding of psychotic disorders progresses. Nonetheless, the subtypes are still used to classify a patient’s experiences and symptoms. In this subtype, a patient exhibits symptoms across multiple types of schizophrenia.
In this type of disorder, the positive symptoms of schizophrenia are absent or significantly reduced. On the other hand, negative symptoms often remain. These patients most often have had a whole schizophrenic experience of pronounced symptoms but currently are only experiencing mild, mostly negative symptoms. Delusions and hallucinations are no longer present. Patients may experience mildly distorted thinking, lack of motivation and concentration, blunt affect, and slower motor behavior.
Wooden dominos representing cause and effect, pixabay.com
Bipolar Schizophrenic DisorderSome patients who present with certain personality disorders, like bipolar personality disorder, also exhibit symptoms of schizophrenic disorder. Although patients with bipolar disorder do not typically exhibit schizophrenic symptoms, the two conditions can co-exist, nonetheless.Although Borderline Schizophrenic Disorder is not an official diagnosis in the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual (DSM5), the term is occasionally used to refer to someone who exhibits a few symptoms of schizophrenic disorder, but not enough to confirm a full diagnosis. It is also used when there is a comorbidity of Borderline Personality Disorder and Schizophrenic Disorder.
While the precise cause of schizophrenia is unknown, current research suggests that a combination of five main factors can make someone more likely to develop the condition.
Genetic factors that contribute to schizophrenia are chromosomal variations, specific duplications or deletions of genetic material, and slight variations across many genes that work together. Strong evidence of familial clustering shows that a child of a parent with schizophrenia is ten times more likely to develop the disorder.
Chemical changes in the brain can occur from accidental or repetitive exposure to certain toxins or drug and alcohol abuse.
Examples of structural changes in the brain include differences in the regions of the brain and how they connect and work together, such as the enlargement of the ventricles, reduced size of the medial temporal lobes, or a loss of cortical grey matter.
Significant and prolonged childhood trauma can lead to the development of psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. Trauma can take the form of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, extreme poverty, or living in a conflict zone.
Complications or infections during pregnancy, maternal health and nutrition, low birth weight, and lack of oxygen to the brain during delivery can develop marked mood disturbances or schizophrenia.
A formal diagnosis of schizophrenia is given when a patient experiences two or more of the following symptoms over one month. Also, there can be some level of disturbance persisting for six months or more.
Hallucinations, seeing or hearing things that are not there
Delusions, distorted or false beliefs
Disorganized or illogical speech or behavior
Stupor or catatonic state
A decline in basic tasks like personal hygiene
Illustration of a doctor's office, flaticon.com
Schizophrenia is diagnosed after careful assessment by a mental health professional. There is no single hard and fast test to determine the condition. Doctors perform a medical exam, psychological assessment, and a complete family medical and psychological history. Mental health professionals may use a variety of tests and assessments to be sure that something else isn’t causing the symptoms. These can be blood and urine tests and brain imaging tests like brain scans and MRIs.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, sometimes called a brain disorder, typified by an abnormal interpretation of reality that affects how a person feels, thinks, and behaves.
The five types of schizophrenia are paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual schizophrenia.
The five causes of schizophrenia are genetics, chemical changes in the brain, structural changes in the brain, trauma, and complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
A formal diagnosis of schizophrenia is given when a patient experiences two or more symptoms over one month, with some level of disturbance persisting for six months or more.
Schizophrenia is the name of the group of disorders. Schizophrenic disorders refers to the five subtypes of schizophrenia.
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