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Page 1 of 4 Comprehensive info on schizophrenia. Symptoms of schizophrenia, what causes schizophrenia, schizophrenia treatment, antipsychotic medications and more.
The term "schizophrenia" refers to one of the most debilitating and baffling mental illnesses known. Though it has a specific set of symptoms, Schizophrenia varies in its severity from individual to individual, and even within any one afflicted individual from one time period to another.
The symptoms of schizophrenia generally can be controlled with treatment and, in more than 50 percent of individuals given access to continuous schizophrenia treatment and rehabilitation over many years, recovery is often possible. Though researchers and mental health professionals don't know what causes schizophrenia, they have developed treatments that allow most persons with schizophrenia to work, live with their families and enjoy friends. But like those with diabetes, people with schizophrenia probably will be under medical care for the rest of their lives.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Generally, schizophrenia begins during adolescence or young adulthood. The symptoms of schizophrenia appear gradually and family and friends may not notice them as the illness takes initial hold. Often, the young man or woman feels tense, can't concentrate or sleep, and withdraws socially. But at some point, loved ones realize the patient's personality has changed. Work performance, appearance and social relationships may begin to deteriorate.
As the illness progresses, the symptoms often become more bizarre. The patient develops peculiar behavior, begins talking in nonsense, and has unusual perceptions. This is the beginning of psychosis. Psychiatrists diagnose schizophrenia when a patient has had active symptoms of the illness (such as a psychotic episode) for at least two weeks, with other symptoms lasting six months. In many cases, patients experience psychotic symptoms for many months before seeking help. Schizophrenia seems to worsen and become better in cycles known as relapse and remission, respectively. At times, people suffering from schizophrenia appear relatively normal. However, during the acute or psychotic phase, people with schizophrenia cannot think logically and may lose all sense of who they and others are. They suffer from delusions, hallucinations or disordered thinking and speech.
Delusions are thoughts that are fragmented, bizarre and have no basis in reality. For example, people suffering from schizophrenia might believe that someone is spying on or planning to harm them or that someone can "hear" their thoughts, insert thoughts into their minds, or control their feelings, actions or impulses. Patients might believe they are Jesus, or that they have unusual powers and abilities.
People suffering from schizophrenia also have hallucinations. The most common hallucination in schizophrenia is hearing voices that comment on the patient's behavior, insult the patient or give commands. Visual hallucinations, such as seeing nonexistent things and tactile hallucinations, such as a burning or itching sensation, also can occur.
Patients also suffer disordered thinking in which the associations among their thoughts are very loose. They may shift from one topic to another completely unrelated topic without realizing they are making no logical sense. They may substitute sounds or rhymes for words or make up their own words, which have no meaning to others.
These symptoms don't mean people with schizophrenia are completely out of touch with reality. They know, for example, that people eat three times a day, sleep at night and use the streets for driving vehicles. For that reason, their behavior may appear quite normal much of the time.
However, their illness does severely distort their ability to know whether an event or situation they perceive is real. A person with schizophrenia waiting for a green light at a crosswalk doesn't know how to react when he hears a voice say, "You really smell bad." Is that a real voice, spoken by the jogger standing next to him, or is it only in his head? Is it real or a hallucination when he sees blood pouring from the side of the person next to him in a college classroom? This uncertainty adds to the terror already created by the distorted perceptions.
Psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia may lessen--a period during which doctors say the patient is in the residual stage or remission. Other symptoms, such as social withdrawal, inappropriate or blunted emotions, and extreme apathy, may continue during both these periods of remission and periods when psychosis returns--a period called relapse, and may persist for years. People with schizophrenia who are in remission still may not be mentally able to bathe or dress appropriately. They may speak in a monotone and report that they have no emotions at all. They appear to others as strange, disconcerting people who have odd speech habits and who live socially marginal lives.
There are many types of schizophrenia. For example, a person whose symptoms are most often colored by feelings of persecution is said to have "paranoid schizophrenia;" a person who is often incoherent but has no delusions is said to have "disorganized schizophrenia." Even more disabling than the delusions and hallucinations are the symptoms of "negative" or "deficit" schizophrenia. Negative or deficit schizophrenia refers to the lack or absence of initiative, motivation, social interest, enjoyment and emotional responsiveness. Because schizophrenia can vary from person to person in intensity, severity and frequency of both psychotic and residual symptoms, many scientists use the word "schizophrenia" to describe a spectrum of illnesses that range from relatively mild to severe. Others think of schizophrenia as a group of related disorders, much as "cancer" describes many different but related illnesses.
continue: Causes of Schizophrenia
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