எண்ணம், செயல் ஆகியவை மாறுபட்டு செயல்படும் மன கோளாறு
What Is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and debilitating mental illness. It is considered one of the psychotic mental disorders and is characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. The thought problems associated with schizophrenia are described as psychosis, in that the person's thinking is completely out of touch with reality at times.
What Is the History of Schizophrenia?
The term schizophrenia has only been in use since 1911. Soon before that, it was deemed a separate mental illness in 1887 by Emil Kraepelin. Despite that relatively recent history, it has been described throughout written history. Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Greek, and Roman writings described symptoms similar to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. During medieval times, schizophrenia, like other illnesses, was often viewed as evidence of the sufferer being possessed by spirits or evil powers.
Who Is Affected?
Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the population, corresponding to more than 2 million people in the United States and 100,000-200,000 newly diagnosed people every year. Other statistics about schizophrenia include that it affects men about one and a half times more commonly than women and that 50% of people in hospital psychiatric care have schizophrenia. Diagnosis is usually in people aged 17-35 years with the illness appearing earlier in men (in the late teens or early 20s) than in women (who are affected in the 20s to early 30s)
How Common Is Schizophrenia in Children?
Although there have been fewer studies on schizophrenia in children compared to adults, researchers are finding that children as young as 6 years old can be found to have all the symptoms of their adult counterparts and continue to have those symptoms into adulthood.
Types of Schizophrenia
There are five types of schizophrenia, each based on the kind of symptoms the person has at the time of assessment:
- Paranoid schizophrenia
- Disorganized schizophrenia
- Catatonic schizophrenia
- Undifferentiated schizophrenia
- Residual schizophrenia
We'll take a look at each type .
Paranoid Schizophrenia
Paranoid-type schizophrenia is characterized by delusions and auditory hallucinations but relatively normal intellectual functioning and expression of affect. The delusions can often be about being persecuted unfairly or being some other person who is famous. People with paranoid-type schizophrenia can exhibit anger, aloofness, anxiety, and argumentativeness.
Disorganized Schizophrenia
Disorganized-type schizophrenia is characterized by speech and behavior that are disorganized or difficult to understand, and flattening or inappropriate emotions. People with disorganized-type schizophrenia may laugh at the changing color of a traffic light or at something not closely related to what they are saying or doing. Their disorganized behavior may disrupt normal activities, such as showering, dressing, and preparing meals.
Catatonic Schizophrenia
Catatonic-type schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances of movement. People with catatonic-type schizophrenia may keep themselves completely immobile or move all over the place. They may not say anything for hours, or they may repeat anything you say or do senselessly. Either way, the behavior is putting these people at high risk because it impairs their ability to take care of themselves.
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
Undifferentiated-type schizophrenia is characterized by episodes of two or more of the following symptoms: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or behavior, catatonic behavior or negative symptoms, but the individual does not qualify for a diagnosis of paranoid, disorganized, or catatonic type of schizophrenia.
Residual Schizophrenia
Residual-type schizophrenia is characterized by a past history of at least one episode of schizophrenia, but the person currently has no positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or behavior). It may represent a transition between a full-blown episode and complete remission, or it may continue for years without any further psychotic episodes.
What Are Causes of Schizophrenia?
There is no single cause for schizophrenia. Rather, it is the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors. Genetically, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have much in common, in that the two disorders share a number of the same risk genes. However, the fact is that both illnesses also have some genetic factors that are unique. Environmentally, the risks of developing schizophrenia can even occur before birth. For example, the risk of schizophrenia is increased in individuals whose mother had one of certain infections during pregnancy. Difficult life circumstances during childhood, like the early loss of a parent, parental poverty, bullying, witnessing parental violence; emotional, sexual, or physical abuse; physical or emotional neglect; and insecure attachment have been associated with the development of this illness.
Is Schizophrenia Hereditary?
One frequently asked question about schizophrenia is if it is hereditary. As with most other mental disorders, schizophrenia is not directly passed from one generation to another genetically, but it is known to run in families. Thus, the risk of illness in an identical twin of a person with schizophrenia is 40%-50% and a child of a parent suffering from schizophrenia has a 10% chance of developing the illness.
Schizophrenia Symptoms
A person with schizophrenia may not have any outward appearance of being ill. In other cases, the illness may be more apparent, causing changes in behavior as well as bizarre behaviors. These may include social withdrawal, depersonalization (intense anxiety and a feeling of being unreal), loss of appetite, loss of hygiene, delusions, hallucinations, and a sense of being controlled by outside forces. In order to better understand schizophrenia, the concept of clusters of symptoms is often used. Thus, people with schizophrenia can experience symptoms that may be grouped under the following categories shown in the slides that immediately follow.
Positive (More Overtly Psychotic) Symptoms
- Beliefs that have no basis in reality (delusions)
- Hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, or tasting things that have no basis in reality (hallucinations)
- Disorganized speech
- Disorganized behaviors
- Catatonic behaviors
Negative (Deficit) Symptoms
- Social withdrawal
- Difficulty in expressing emotions
- Difficulty in taking care of themselves
- Inability to feel pleasure
- Cognitive Symptoms
- Cognitive symptoms include difficulties attending to and processing of information, in understanding the environment, and in remembering simple tasks.
- Affective (or Mood) Symptoms
- The most notable affective symptom is depression, which accounts for a very high rate of attempted suicide in people suffering from schizophrenia.
- Schizophrenia?
- Individuals with schizophrenia have more than twice the rate of death than those without the disorder. Almost half of people with schizophrenia will suffer from a substance-use disorder (for example, alcohol, marijuana, or other substance) during their lifetime. Research shows that people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder have a better quality of life if their family members tend to be more supportive and less critical of them.
Dr.சின்னசாமி அவர்களை சந்தியுங்கள்.
