Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is an illness that is biogically based. You inherit a predisposition for the disorder which is generally triggered by stress. The typical age of onset is in the late teens to early 20's (the college years).
The general characteristics include both "positive" (acute) symptoms and "negative" (residual) symptoms and there is a prodromal phase, acute phases and residual phases. There are a lot of technical aspects to the correct diagnosis which I won't elaborate, but in general the characteristic signs are any combination of the following:
"Positive" signs:
-Hallucinations (primarily auditory, less often visual and rarely tactile, gustatory or olfactory)
-Delusions (fixed or variable, paranoid/persecutory and grandiose, somatic, erotomanic, nihilistic, etc.-they run the gamut of various types, "ideas of reference" where a person believes that random events have a special meaning meant just for them, delusions of thought control or thought insertion)
-Disorganized Thinking ("Loose associations" where thoughts are strung together with little cohesiveness, "perseveration" where a person gets stuck on the same thought or theme over and over like a needle that skips on a record and keeps replaying )
-Disorganized Behavior (catatonic excitement, catatonic stupor which is like posturing-usually only seen in extremely severe cases and rarely any more)
-Poor Concentration and inability to focus on a thought, sometimes "blocking" where a thought becomes interrupted in midstream)
-Disorganized speech (incoherence, rambling or circumstantial speech-lots of fancy terms like echolalia, word salad, verbigeration, clanging)
-Inappropriate Affect (inappropriate giggling, tears, silliness, etc. that is out of context to the situation)
"Negative" signs:
-social withdrawal and preference to isolate
-flattened or blunted affect (emotional expression)
-Amotivation (lack of motivation, apparent apathy)
There are 5 distinct types:
1-Paranoid: most organized thinking of the types-prominent delusions and hallucinations
2-Disorganized (Hebephrenic): Grossly disorganized thinking and behavior predominates and inappropriate affect
3-Catatonic: catonia, rarely seen any more
4-Undifferentiated: no clear predominant symptoms
5-Residual: Primary negative symptoms-often seen as a "burned out" version where there are fewer positive or acute symptoms
Schizophrenics often are able to maintain jobs in low stress environments with minimal interpersonal demands once they are stabilized. Others may work in sheltered employment with support and guidance. Social skills are greatly impaired and schizophrenics often have great difficulty reading the social cues most of us take for granted and thus they misjudge or misread social situations which reinforces their tendency to self-isolate as do paranoid symptoms. Intimacy is exceptionally difficult as well and they rarely form close or deep bonds with others, making it difficult to function as husbands and parents. They tend to appear aloof and distant emotionally, although often this is a way of coping with feelings of being overwhelmed by other people's emotional expression and demands.
Medication often serves to either completely control the acute symptoms or dampen their impact, but tends to have minimal impact on the negative symptoms. The side effects are often horrendous and intolerable and this leads to a familiar pattern of stopping medication, beginning the trend of repeated courses of decompensation leading to re-hospitalization.
The ineffectiveness of meds and the emotional blunting they can cause often leads to attempts to self-medicate with alcohol or marijuana (usually) which often increase symptoms.
Schizophrenics often perceive the world in unigue and idiosyncratic ways which can cause them difficulty in complying with social norms and expectations, even simple things like generally accepted standards for cleanliness or hygiene. It can also lead them to exceptional creativity and expression in arts and abstract disciplines. Examples of famous schizophrenics are the poet and artist, William Blake (I have many of his works in my office for inspiration) and John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner featured in the movie "A Beautiful MInd".
2007-03-21 15:59:50
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answer #1
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answered by Opester 5
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It's a psychiatric disorder. In Schizofrenia, a person becomes dillusional, start seeing hallusinations, hear voices, and they have disorderly thinking. That's just a summary. I have some websites below that you can go to to learn more.
2007-03-21 14:05:12
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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first it is spelled as schizophrenia. crazy, crackpot in other words. it is a disorder where people lost track of the reality, can't organize their thoughts.
search the web for more.
2007-03-21 15:22:50
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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