The driving force behind this project is the question, “What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?” During this time, I plan to investigate multiple aspects of schizophrenia: symptoms, subtypes, medications, demographics, history, and current applications. I decided to research schizophrenia because one of my relatives had developed the disorder many years previously. Since I had witnessed the effects firsthand, I was more knowledgeable about it than others. Therefore, I was surprised to find that many in the general population possessed wild misconceptions about the condition. By doing this project, I hope to clear up those misconceptions and promote knowledge of schizophrenia to my community. Knowledge leads to understanding and acceptance, …show more content…
The most common is the paranoid subtype. People affected by the paranoid subtype often experience auditory hallucinations or delusional thoughts, which are positive symptoms. Many have a heightened sense of self-importance, leading them to believe in conspiracies against them. It can be difficult to determine if a person has this subtype of schizophrenia. Therefore, their condition is normally revealed after a particularly stressful event that has worsened their symptoms. Because this subtype usually appears later in life, people with it can often function normally and lead a regular life, as long as they receive proper …show more content…
This subtype manifests itself with two extremes; either the patient is completely unable to move or speak, or they become very hyperactive and exhibit echolalia (mimicking of spoken words) or echopraxia (mimicking of movements). The first case is more common, and people with it experience psychomotor disturbances. Occasionally, they will contort themselves into positions that other people find uncomfortable. Nonetheless, they will refuse to be budged from their stance. Catatonic schizophrenia is not found as often today as it was in the past, due to improved medication. Now, catatonia is more likely to be an effect of a disorder other than schizophrenia. Compared to other subtypes, the catatonic subtype is the
Schizophrenia is an ominous word often associated with psychosis, delusions, as well as paranoia. Society supposedly understands how horrible symptoms like these make schizophrenia one of the worst mental diseases that one could live with, and the story of Elyn Saks is definitely no exception. In the memoir The Center Cannot Hold, Elyn R. Saks brings her readers through the harsh realities of living with schizophrenia, while also dealing with the stresses associated with high school, getting a college degree, while still maintaining relationships with family and friends. Saks had inadequate care as a child when her symptoms first began showing, and being transferred through countries following school, and being passed from doctor to doctor
Accessed 10 Feb. 2023. Gulli, Laith Farid, MD, et al. " Schizophrenia. " The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, edited by Tracie Moy and Laura Avery, 4th ed.
Supporting the DSM-5 checklist for a diagnosis of schizophrenia is the fact that the symptoms first began when Randy was in college and these have increased over time. The information provided on Randy’s family history, his school/social history, plus the description of his current lifestyle and the symptoms he now displays, could be used by the biological theorist
According to Mental Health America (n.d), in its article regarding Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia is a serious disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. Someone with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary may be unresponsive or withdrawn; and may have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations. Schizophrenia is considered as a severe mental illness as it can lead to serious injury to the patient or people around them. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects about one percent of the population. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation.
Researchers are uncertain about the causes of schizophrenia
An outline of the causes and effects of schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that is most commonly associated with delusion and hallucinations. It has been estimated that 0.4-0.7% of people develop schizophrenia, with the mental health condition being equally prevalent in both men and women (Saha et al., 2005). It is a particularly expensive illness due to its severity, reportedly costing the U.S. around $62.7 billion in 2002, with unemployment the most significant factor causing this staggering figure (Wu et al., 2005). While there is no known cause for the development of schizophrenia, a number of factors have been attributed to increasing the likelihood of someone developing the mental disorder.
Schizophrenia is one of the most recognizable mental illnesses that the world knows, this comes with benefits as it does with consequences. The benefit being that many people have heard of the term, but a minute group truly know about it. This has led to a society where it is commonplace to ostracize those with the illness, which subsequently leads to negative effects on those diagnosed. It is as if society still has not developed a sufficient system in which Schizophrenia fits in. People with heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s, all receive sympathy and yet people will Schizophrenia seldom receive the same.
Schizophrenia: Who is at Risk? Schizophrenia, the rare and mysterious psychotic disorder afflicting only 1% of Americans, is one of the most misunderstood disorders of all time. Asking someone to describe schizophrenia they might say, “split personalities, hears imaginary voices, or plain crazy.” Symptoms of Schizophrenia actually do include hallucinations and abnormal, “crazy,” behavior, but there is no evidence of multiple personalities being related to Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia contains distortion in thinking, perception, emotion and behavior. Schizophrenia is usually caused by a combination of genetics, brain chemistry and environmental contributes. There are many symptoms of schizophrenia that vary depending on age. Teenagers show symptoms similar to adults, such as withdrawal from friends and family. Bad school performance, sleeping trouble, also depressed moods and lack of motivation.
This article describes a man who has a psychotic break with reality, which can be attributed to schizophrenia. We can see that this man, Todd West, suddenly developed irrational behavior as well as hallucinations of disembodied voices. As Joanne Greenberg explains, people who suffer from schizophrenia often experience compulsive illogical thoughts, which Todd’s behavior constitutes. (Greenberg, 18) There are two hallmarks of schizophrenia: false memories and beliefs that are all-consuming and hallucinations that can affect any of the senses though typically manifests in ones sense of audition(Greenberg, 50). Although these symptoms always appear in a schizophrenic patient, they can appear at different magnitudes and some people experience much more powerful delusions then others (Mendel, 273).
Each person with Schizophrenia is different. Some present Positive cases while others can present negative cases, and both are abnormally present. Most cases are not as violent or as dangerous as many think and people also have the misconception that people with
Different kinds of schizophrenia subtypes are decided by each individual’s characteristics and most defined symptoms. There are currently five different subtypes of schizophrenia. They are the paranoid subtype, disorganized subtype, catatonic subtype, undifferentiated subtype, and residual subtype. The paranoid subtype is by far the most common type of schizophrenia subtype. The paranoid subtype brings about delusional thoughts and hallucinations, people that are affected by this tend to live a fairly decent life.
is an illness in which schizophrenic and manic symptoms are both prominent in the same occurrence of the disease. The irregularity of mood typically takes the form of euphoria, accompanied by grandiose ideas and joined by increased self-esteem, but sometimes irritability or excitement are more apparent and joined by aggressive or forceful behavior and persecutory thoughts. In both cases, there is impaired concentration, overactivity, increased energy and a loss of normal social self-consciousness. Delusions of reference, persecution or grandeur, may be existing (Perry, Alexander, Liskow, & DeVane,
The documentary Schizophrenia: Stolen minds, Stolen lives covers the stories of a few different individuals who have suffered from schizophrenia and talks generally about the disease. Schizophrenia is a disease that evokes psychosis. Many patients experience delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, catatonic behavior, and/or lack of emotion, pleasure, or initiation. The disease effects about 1% of the population and typically begins to effect people in late adolescence—early adulthood.
Literature review Symptom types of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is generally divided according to symptom types. The symptoms of schizophrenia have been divided into three specific complexes (i.e., positive symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive deficits; Buchanan, 2007), while others use a dichotomous model, such as type I and type II Schizophrenia (Crow, 1980) that roughly corresponds to positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia (Andreasen, 1982). Positive symptoms were characterized over the past 150 years by active excesses in normal functioning; while negative symptoms of schizophrenia are characterized by a loss of normal functioning (Berrios, 1985; Rector, Beck & Stolar, 2005). Hence, while there are different symptom types, all typologies and dimensional models acknowledge negative symptoms. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are thought to be a marker of dysfunction and cognitive impairments (Rabinowtiz et al., 2012).