Schizophrenia : Definition, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis And Treatment (With Videos)

Schizophrenia : Definition, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis And Treatment

Schizophrenia Definition

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric illness, which is accompanied by a loss of contact with reality, delusions and changes in thinking, language and behavior. Patients are often unable to distinguish between reality and their own perception of events.

Schizophrenia should not be confused with multiple personality disorder in which patients believe they are one or more other persons.

Men and women are affected equally but men are affected slightly earlier (between 20 and 25 years) than women (between 25 and 35). Schizophrenia is extremely rare in children.

Schizophrenia Causes

The exact causes are unknown. It is believed that several factors come into play:

• Personal predisposition
• Genetic predisposition
• Imbalance in brain metabolism involving the neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate.
• Serious life events, as a trigger.
• Social factors: poor education can not be offending. However, we assume that the evolution of the disease is influenced by social factors such as models of relationship and communication within the family.
• Patients often come from lower social classes and are often single – but this may also be a consequence of the disease.

Schizophrenia (img : thanks to : psychscoop.wordpress.com)

Schizophrenia Symptoms

The symptoms are many and can vary significantly over time. Overall, there are acute and chronic phase.

Schizophrenia Acute phase:

During this phase, patients often do not recognize their illness. The acute phase is characterized by positive symptoms. The term “positive” means that the subject has symptoms, which are absent in a healthy subject.

Among the positive symptoms include:

• Delusions (often, poisoning or delusions of persecution)
• Hallucinations (usually, hearing voices, rarely, visual hallucinations).
• Motor disorders : repeating uniform movements (clapping, pacing) or very slow movement, the patient no longer speaking (stupor).
• In extreme cases, the patient takes a singular body and a long shelf life (catalepsy). If more of catalepsy, the patient has fever, his life is threatened (medical emergency).

Schizophrenia Chronic phase

The chronic phase is characterized by negative symptoms. The term “negative” means that certain elements are missing from a healthy person. Limitations of certain psychic functions and emotionality are observed.

Among The Negative Symptoms Include:

• Social withdrawal
• Disinterest, eg. for recreation
• Decline of speech
• Lack of emotions
• Physical neglect, etc..

Other Characteristic Symptoms Of The Disease Are:

• Disorder of the ego: personality seems unreal and divorced; the patient does not feel “more themselves”. Subjects consider their own lives and their environment as unreal and foreign.
• Thought disorder and language: the thoughts are disjointed, illogical and interrupt, the words lose their meaning. Patients often have the feeling that other people can read their thoughts or influence them. Language can become grotesque patients and invent new words, more words or mix adopt false sentence constructions.
• Disorders of emotional life: strong mood swings, mood is not always appropriate to the situation (eg. The patient lives a sad situation but he laughs). Of depressive and anxiety disorders are frequently observed.
• Loss of relation to reality (autism): the patient withdraws into his own world. He becomes indifferent, disinterested, dull and unable to feel close to others.

Other mental illnesses such as depression or substance abuse are often added to schizophrenia.

Serious crises accompanied by suicidal thoughts (suicidality) may also occur. In this case, hospitalization in a psychiatric facility is essential.

Schizophrenia Diagnosis

• There is no specific test to diagnose schizophrenia.
• The doctor diagnosed after a detailed conversation with the patient and family members. During this discussion, the doctor detects the typical symptoms of schizophrenia and questioning the patient about it. Additional tests: physical and neurological examinations to rule out other diseases (eg, brain tumor, brain infection, epilepsy).

Schizophrenia Treatment Options

Currently, schizophrenia can be treated appropriately, but a cure of the disease is exceptional.

The effectiveness of treatment depends largely on understanding the disease by the patient and his family, and its ability to accept treatment. Denial of the disease can be particularly problematic during the acute phase. If the patient presents a danger to himself or others, hospitalization in a closed institution is essential. This placement may, under certain legal conditions, be made against the wishes of the patient.

Treatment usually involves medication, psychotherapy and social therapy.

Schizophrenia Medical Drugs Treatment

• Neuroleptics: Psychotropic help alleviate these acute symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions or thought disorders. It is essential that these drugs are taken for an extended period or even a lifetime, as prescribed by your doctor. Without drugs, the risk of recurrence is high. One should be alert to side effects such as motor disturbances, seizures, agitation, etc.. and notify the doctor if these effects occur.
• Antidepressants during the course of schizophrenia, depression is often added to the disease.
• Sedatives: help reduce anxiety during the acute phase.

Schizophrenia Psychotherapy and social therapy

• Psychotherapy: it relies heavily on an understanding of the disease and how the patient perceives it. It often takes often the form of group therapy.
• Social therapy, which seeks to prevent the occurrence of problems related to illness within the family, housing, workplace and social life. This treatment includes professional therapy, occupational therapy and vocational rehabilitation measures. It is essential to include all family and social environment in the treatment. A detailed explanation of the disease and communication exercises are major elements of this therapy. Care should be taken not to have requirements too large or too small to schizophrenia, which can be problematic.

Schizophrenia Evolution

Schizophrenia develops in spurts. Accompanied by a prodromal signs may precede the onset of schizophrenia. However, these signs are not specific to the disease and are therefore often not identified as precursors of schizophrenia. These signs include include depressed mood and social withdrawal.

During the acute phase, positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions) predominate. These events may again disappear completely or develop into a chronic phase, characterized by the presence of negative symptoms. In very rare cases, acute signs of disease persist over the long term.

After acute exacerbations of schizophrenia, depressive symptoms and states of exhaustion can occur, but they regress back in time.

Schizophrenia Prognosis :

In more than half of cases of schizophrenia, progress is poor and symptoms, usually negative, persist.

The chances of recovery are the best in the following cases:

• Couple together
• Good social network
• Female
• Acute onset of disease
• Triggers of the disease clearly identifiable
• Appropriate medication