Schizophrenia

From Psy3241

Schizophrenia (from the Greek roots schizein "to split" and phrēn "mind") is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that affects about 1.1 percent of the U.S. population in their lifetime. This mental illness is characterized by impairments in perception that include hallucinations, delusions, and behavior can be disorganized. Schizophrenia affects both men and women, men usually earlier than women, anywhere from the late teens to early thirties. Rare cases of schizophrenia have also been reported in children.

At the beginning, schizophrenia was characterized in three ways which were disorganized, catatonic and paranoid. Now there are 5 sub-classifications that include: disorganized (hebephrenic), catatonic, paranoid, residual, and undifferentiated. For

Symptoms & Signs

There are positve (productive) and negative (deficit) symptoms of schizophrenia. Positive symptoms include the following: psychotic episodes, which is a displacement from what is real and unreal, delusions, or false judgements or beliefs, hallucinations, which are strong subjectiv perceptions of an object or event which is non-existent that may affect any or all sensory perceptions, disorganized speech or behavior, and thought disorder or cognitive dysfuntion. Negative symptoms on the other hand include: social and occupational dysfunction, lack of motivation, withdrawl, and loss of concentration, loss of emotional tone or reaction, and the inability to articulate. For schizophrenia to be taken into consideration, symptoms should be evident for about 6 months. Eugen Bleuler, who originated the term schizophrenia, referred to it as a split between subjective feeling, or affect, and the thought being experienced.