The Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia occurs in people from all cultures and from all walks of life. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects a small portion of the population in the world. When schizophrenia is active there are many different symptoms that can appear. Some symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. When these symptoms are treated, most people with schizophrenia will improve over time with treatment. With the different studies we are able to see how schizophrenia works in different ways. The different ways being what is happening in the brain when a person has schizophrenia. Along with the different treatments from counseling to medication what works better.

A.1- Suspicious, without just cause, of people wanting to betray, hurt or take advantage of them. (American Psychiatric Association [APA] 2013).

It has been said that people with Schizophrenia have hallucinations and Delusions. “Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way the person acts, thinks, and sees the world” (“Schizophrenia” 1). This disease makes the person live in fear and horror from how much it controls the person’s head. There are many signs and symptoms of Schizophrenia. The five signs of Schizophrenia are: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and the negative symptoms. There are also different types of Schizophrenia. The three types are: Paranoid Schizophrenia, disorganized Schizophrenia, and Catatonic Schizophrenia. Each of these different kinds of Schizophrenia has a different affect on people and each one has a different explanation.

Positive symptoms are when symptoms of schizophrenia are bizarre additions to an individual’s behavior, such as delusions, disorganized thinking and speech, hallucinations, and inappropriate affect. Delusions, or incorrect thoughts, occur in various ways but the most popular is persecution, when the individual feels like everyone is out to get them, following delusions of grandeur, or feeling like they are of higher power such as being the Queen of England, when they clearly are not. Another symptom is disorganized thinking and speech that can include loose associations in which the conversation is all over the place, neologisms which is making up words, or the individual with schizophrenia will talk in clang or repeated rhymes. Third, is hallucinations

Symptoms vary between three different diagnoses including Bipolar 1, Bipolar 2, and cyclothymic disorder. Each diagnosis has similarities but different time lengths between depressive and manic episodes. Bipolar 1 being more severe, can lead to hospitalization opposed to mild symptoms of Bipolar 2 and cyclothymic, causing more depressive episodes rather than experiencing extreme manic episodes.

Schizophrenia, paranoid type was researched in terms of diagnostic criteria based on many different actions that affect people in multiple ways. Schizophrenia is a disease in the brain that is an emotionally draining illness that can affect the victim along with anyone in contact with the victim. RB a young man has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, paranoid type. He lives at home with a loving family and he was always socially active and great student. Schizophrenia has been a severely stigmatized disorder has many different aspects to the disorder. The standard diagnostic criteria for Schizophrenia are characteristic symptoms, social and occupational dysfunction and the duration of the symptoms. Everyday health describes Paranoid Schizophrenia as “Delusions of grandeur or persecution afflict paranoid schizophrenics, along with feelings of anger. These patients often argue a lot and can be violent.” RB is believed to have all the concerning aspects that clients with Schizophrenia have. I will be developing a case study to discuss RB’s positive and negative symptoms, delusional thinking, what medications would be helpful, screenings important to RB’s diagnosis and psychosocial treatments that he would benefit from.

Schizophrenia is defined as a brain disorder that creates a distorted reality in the minds of those affected. This brain disorder is the most common psychosis disorder, affecting people all around the world. There is no knowledge of where this brain disease originated, therefore there is no cure as of today. There are several sympotoms that come along with this disorder, many that affect the perception and sense of reality of the individual. Hallucinations, delusions and other uncommon behavior are all common symptoms. These hallucinations are usually auditory which affect the individual's thoughts and self-idenity; many schizophernic individuals sometimes even identify as someone else wether this may be a famous person or a friend. In 1911, a Swiss psychiatrist, Eugen Blueler created the term schizophrenia and also was the first to determine that there are both positive and negative traits of this disordrer.

Approximately 20% of North Americans will be affected by a mental illness during the course of their lifetime (Saha, Welham, Chant, & McGrath, 2008). Schizophrenia continues to develop new challenges today and continues to be a complex mental illness. It is a brain disorder that can happen to anyone occurring in any culture, affecting men and women equally and all areas of functioning, including thought, emotion, perception, and behavior.

A person diagnosed with Schizophrenia has a variety of symptoms which are divided into positive and negative symptoms and may vary depending on the severity. Some people might have more positive symptoms while others have more negative symptoms. Both positive and negative symptoms are usually present. The difference is that they are somewhat opposites of each other in how the symptoms are presented.

The symptoms and behaviors that accompany schizophrenia are more devastating than any other mental illness. A common symptom of schizophrenia is delusions, which are false but strong

Schizophrenia is a very complex disorder, and it is said that it involves irregulation of multiple pathways. It is believed that schizophrenics have an abnormal level of dopamine in their brains. Serotonin, GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and glutamate may also play a role. Deficits in acetylcholine muscarinic receptors have been identified in individuals with schizophrenia. “Evidence from genetic, post-mortem and animal studies over the past decade has identified a number of susceptibility factors for schizophrenia, including neuregulin 1 (Nrg1) and its receptor ErbB4, disrupted-in-schizophrenia-1 (DISK1), dysbindin-1, catechol-O-methyl tranferase (COMT), BDNF, and Akt” (Deng & Dean, 2016, para. 1). These factors interact with dopaminergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmitter systems.

According to the information provided in this case, and considering all the signs and symptoms presented by the patient, Ms. Neighbors meets the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for schizophreniform disorder.

Schizoaffective disorder, often abbreviated as SZA or SAD, is a mental disorder portrayed by unusual thought processes and emotions and is defined by mood disorder-free psychosis in the context of a long-term psychotic and mood disorder (Schizoaffective Disorder, 2014b). The diagnosis is made when the individual has characteristics of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder, either bipolar disorder or depression, but does not meet diagnostic criteria for either alone (Schizoaffective Disorder, 2015d). The bipolar type is classified by indications of mania, hypomania, or mixed episode and the depressive type is classified by symptoms of only depression (Schizoaffective Disorder, 2015c). Hallucinations, paranoid delusions, and disorganized speech and thinking or behavior are common symptoms for the criterion psychosis must meet for schizophrenia (Schizoaffective Disorder, 2014b). Symptoms currently have an indefinite lifetime dominance and usually begin in young adulthood. Diagnosis is based on observed behavior and the individual 's reported experiences (Schizoaffective Disorder, 2014b). Schizoaffective disorders are often mistakenly diagnosed with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia because it shares symptoms of numerous mental health illnesses.

There are 3 categories that revolve around Schizophrenia; Positive, Negative and Cognitive. Positive Symptoms include things like Hallucinations, Delusions, and Thought disorders. Negative Symptoms include things like reduced expression of emotions, reduced feelings of pleasure, and reduced speaking. Cognitive Symptoms are often very subtle, but when they do occur it causes; the Inability to understand information, trouble focusing or paying attention, and problems with working memory. (NIMH, 2012)

Symptoms. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder which is characterized by an inability to distinguish what is real and subsequent abnormal behavior. Literally translating from the Greek skhizein and phrēn meaning ‘split-mind’, schizophrenia is characterized by both positive symptoms, e.g. hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking, and also negative symptoms, e.g. apathy, Anhedonia, and deficits in executive functioning. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) requires for a diagnosis that the individual exhbit at least two dysfunctional symptoms that are active for at least one month (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).