Schizophrenia is a complex disorder of the brain which is characterized by the absence of the ability to distinguish between whatever that is being experienced in everyday life is real or the individual’s imagination.
Individuals who are suffering from schizophrenia also impacts the thinking process and the overall normal functioning of the brain. Schizophrenia also deeply affects the ability of decision making and alters an individual’s response to various emotions as well as relationships.
The major drawback associated with the condition of schizophrenia is that it causes confusion as well as fear in the minds of the individuals and makes them withdraw from the outside world thereby initiating the risk of such people getting suicidal tendencies leading to episodes of chronic depression.
Schizophrenia affects the social as well as personal relationships of the people suffering from it. The episodes of schizophrenia are known to occur in phases and the various treatment modalities such focus on causing symptomatic relief before the relapse of symptoms occurs. some more details on schizophrenia Wikipedia.
Types of Schizophrenia
Here we explained different types of schizophrenia. check below 5 types of schizophrenia with symptoms.
Paranoid schizophrenia
This is considered to be the most common type of schizophrenia and it is found to generally occur during the teenage years or the beginning of early adulthood. The symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia resemble that of psychosis and include various delusions which can be either that someone will kill the individual or they will get abandoned.
Schizoaffective disorder
schizophrenia is said to be a schizoaffective disorder when the individual manifests not only the symptoms of schizophrenia but also other conditions such as bipolar disorder or depression. Some of the symptoms of those with schizoaffective disorder include:
- Depressive symptoms such as hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, sadness and suicide. Other symptoms include lack of energy as well as the absence of interest in day to day activities.
- Maniac symptoms like getting easily agitated and disturbed and decreased sleep.
- Other general symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, disorganised movements as well as speech and absence of facial expressions.
Catatonic schizophrenia
The rarest form of schizophrenia is categorised as catatonic schizophrenic and it is mainly seen in the affected individuals in the form of physical symptoms and they are often mistaken for being drunk. The most commonly occurring symptoms of catatonic schizophrenia are excessive uncoordinated movements, absence of coherent response and unusual display of extreme outburst of anger.
Disorganised schizophrenia
Also known as hebephrenia, disorganised schizophrenia is characterised by uncoordinated and disorganised thinking, speech as well as behaviour patterns. Commonly found to be associated with the age group of 15 to 25 years, disorganised schizophrenia affects the cognitive function of the individual which includes memory, motor skills, attention span along with intelligence.
Residual schizophrenia
The mildest form of schizophrenia is referred to as residual schizophrenia. In this type of schizophrenia, classic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusional thinking are not present. Instead, other symptoms such as lack of expression and emotions as well as strange speech are manifested.
Symptoms of schizophrenia in adults
The most visible characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia are delusions, hallucinations, loss of organised speech, disorganised behavioural changes and other associated negative symptoms which vary from individual to individual both in occurrence as well as severity which may keep changing with time.
Delusions
Delusion refers to the feeling of an individual that whatever they believe is the truth even though evidence shows otherwise. The most commonly occurring symptom of schizophrenia is delusions and they most often are associated with the feeling of illogical and hypothetical illusions or thoughts which may include:
Delusions of persecution – The delusion of persecution implies the presence of the feelings that someone out there is coming to harm the individuals which most often involves the false idea that they are going to get killed by the most bizarre of means.
Delusions of reference – The delusion of reference means that the person thinks that things that are meant for everyone have been specially designed to send a message for him only.
Delusions of grandeur – This type of delusion refers to the feeling that one is extremely popular and a famous individual who wields immense power over others.
Delusions of control – This category of delusion is associated with the feeling that others have the power of controlling the individual’s actions as well as thoughts.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations mean that the feeling of sounds or sensations that they are experiencing is very much true but in reality, they are only their imaginations. The various types of hallucinations may include a wide range of sensory feelings such as auditory and visual hallucinations which tend to manifest the most when the person is all alone.
Disorganised speech
The major drawback associated with schizophrenia is that it disables the individual’s ability to concentrate and continue that chain of thinking and respond coherently. Individuals suffering from schizophrenia may usually respond to any query addressed to them by unrelated answers with illogical things.
Disorganized behaviour
Schizophrenia causes the impairment of the ability to take care of oneself and leads to inappropriate emotional responses leading to bizarre behaviour.
The negative symptoms associated with schizophrenia are:
- Lack of emotional expression – which is characterised by the presence or absence of expression on the face and lack of eye contact while interacting with others.
- Lack of interest – this stems from the fact that there is a loss of motivation in the individual.
- Speech abnormalities – the symptoms that manifest include the inability to talk coherently and conversing in a monotone.
Symptoms of schizophrenia in children
In younger children, the symptoms of schizophrenia include long periods of inactivity, flopping the arms and legs, delayed milestones of crawling, walking and talking, presence of odd movements such as rocking and prolonged slumped posture. In older children, some of the symptoms of schizophrenia are intense fear that someone might harm them, hearing unnatural voices, seeing things that are not there, long bouts of moodiness or anxiety, absence of emotions, agitated and confused behaviour, inability to differentiate between what is the reality and stories or television programs and long duration of sitting and staring, trouble in concentrating on the studies, social withdrawal and acting like small children.