Schizophrenia

What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a disorder characterized by the presence of psychotic
symptoms which include hallucinations. Other psychotic disorders with these
characteristics include: schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, brief
psychotic disorder, and also catatonia.
Out of all the psychological disorders, schizophrenia is the most serious. It
usually starts affecting a person in their adolescence or early adulthood, and
is said to affect one person in a hundred. According to most researchers,
normal developmental processes in the brain that happen in the late
adolescence, set the stage for the appearance of the diseases. Schizophrenia
may be the most devastating of all psychological disorders, because of the
social disruption and misery it brings to those who suffer from it and their
families (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p 368).
Symptoms
According to Andreasen, there is no one single symptom or brain
abnormality that is bestowed by all schizophrenics, due to the many
symptoms associated with schizophrenia. Any individual may have one or
more of the major symptoms connected to schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia symptoms are characterized into two types. Positive and
negative symptoms (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 368).

Positive symptoms
Positive symptoms are present rather than absent from the individual.
Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking
and speech, and grossly disorganized or bizarre behaviour or inappropriate
affect (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 368).
Hallucinations- is one of the clearest symptoms that suggests
schizophrenia is the presence of hallucinations- imaginary sensations. In the
absence of many stimulus in the environment, schizophrenic patients may
hear, see, feel, taste or smell strange things. The most common type of
hallucinations in schizophrenic patients is hearing voices. Schizophrenics
tend to believe they hear the voices of God or Satan, the voices of family
members or friends, and even their own voice transmitting aloud what they
are thinking. Most of the time the voices are unpleasant accusing or cursing
the patient, or engaging in a running commentary on his or her behaviour.
Sometimes the voices are menacing and order the patient to kill someone or
even themselves (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p368).

Visual hallucinations- are less common than auditory hallucinations.

They are usually seen in black and white, and often take the form of
friends, relatives, God, Jesus, or the devil. Schizophrenics may
experience bodily sensations that are very frightening and painful. The
may feel like they are being beaten, burned, or sexually violated
(Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011 p. 368).

Delusions- are false beliefs that are not commonly shared by others in
the culture. Even if you try to persuade a schizophrenic patient that their
beliefs are not true or real, and provide great evidence, schizophrenic
patients still wont believe it and think their delusions are real. There are
several types of delusions. Two of the most common for schizophrenic
patients are delusions of grandeur, and delusions of persecution (Wood,
Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 368).

Delusions of grandeur schizophrenics may believe they are a

famous person (Queen, or Jesus Christ) or a powerful or important
person who possesses some great knowledge, ability, or authority
(Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 369).
Delusions of Persecution- patients have the false assumption that
some person or agency is trying to harass, cheat, spy on, conspire
against, injure, kill, or harm them in some other way (Wood, Wood,
Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 369).

Disorganized Thinking and Speech- Schizophrenia causes disturbances

in the form of thought or speech. The most common type of this includes a
loosening of associations- the individual does not follow one line of thought
to completion, but shifts from one subject to another on the basis of vague
connections. Schizophrenics speech in content to their message may be
very vague, or the person may invent words or use them inappropriately.
Example pg. 369. (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 369).
Grossly Disorganized Behaviour- In a schizophrenic patient, grossly
disorganized behaviour can include anything from childlike silliness,
inappropriate sexual behaviour (masturbating in public), messy appearance,
and strange dressing. It also includes unpredictable agitation, like shouting
and swearing, and unusual or inappropriate motor behaviour, including
strange gestures, facial expressions or postures (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, &
Desmarais, 2011, p. 369).
Inappropriate Affect- is when schizophrenic patients facial expressions,
tone of voice, and gestures may not mirror the emotion that would be
expected under the circumstances. For example, a person might cry while
watching a TV comedy and laugh when watching a news story showing

bloody bodies being removed from a fatal automobile accident (Wood, Wood,
Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 369).
Negative symptoms
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia implicate a loss of or deficiency in
thoughts and behaviours that are components of normal functioning.
According to researchers, negative symptoms may include:

Social withdrawal
Apathy
Loss of motivation
Lack of goal directed activity
Very limited speech
Slow movements
Poor hygiene and grooming
Poor problem-solving abilities
Distorted sense of time.

Some schizophrenic patients virtually show no emotional response at all.

Which is mostly known by the term as (flat affect). Some patients may speak
in a monotone, and their facial expressions may be blank and emotionless,
having them seem like robots than humans due to the way they act and
move. According to Fenton and Mc Glashan (1994), schizophrenics with
negative symptoms tend to have the poorest outcomes. They tend to
withdraw from others, and hideaway into their own world. Often times due to
their disorder, schizophrenics functioning is too impaired to hold a job or
even care for themselves (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p.
369).
Four Types of Schizophrenia
There are four historical subtypes of schizophrenia. They are catatonic,
disorganized, paranoid and undifferentiated schizophrenia (Wood, Wood,
Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 369-370).
Catatonic Schizophrenia- patients may display complete stillness or daze,
or great excitement and agitation. Often times, schizophrenics rapidly
alternate between the two. They may even become frozen in an odd posture
or position for hours without moving (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, &
Desmarais, 2011, p. 370).
Disorganized schizophrenia- causes extreme social withdrawal,
hallucinations, delusions, silliness, inappropriate laughter, grimaces,
grotesque mannerisms, and bizarre behaviour, making it the most serious
type of schizophrenia. Patients with this type of schizophrenia have the

poorest chance of recovery. Patients tend to show flat or inappropriate affect,

and are frequently incoherent.

They often commit obscene behaviour, masturbate openly, and

swallow almost any kind of object or material.
Disorganized schizophrenia mostly occurs at an earlier age than the
other types and results in the most severe collapse of the personality.
(Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 370).

Paranoid Schizophrenia- people with paranoid schizophrenia usually suffer

from delusions of grandeur or persecution. They are convinced that they
have another identity aside from their own. They believe that they possess
great ability or talent, or that they have some special mission. They often
show exaggerated anger and suspiciousness. When they have delusions of
persecution, and feel like they are being harassed or threatened, they may
become violent to defend themselves against their imagined persecutors.
Usually paranoid schizophrenia behaviour is not obviously disturbed as that
of the catatonic or disorganized type, and the chance of recovery is better
(Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 370).
Undifferentiated schizophrenia- is a catch-all category for people who
show symptoms of schizophrenia, but do not have symptoms that conform to
the norms of any other type of schizophrenia or conform to more than one
type (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 370).

Causes of Schizophrenia
According to many psychiatrists and some researchers in the 1950s and
1960s, unhealthy patterns of communication and interaction in the entire
family can cause schizophrenia. There is no convincing evidence to justify
this claim. Instead research evidence strongly suggests thats a complex
interaction of both biological and experimental factors are involved in the
onset of schizophrenia (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p.
370).
Genetic Inheritance- Research shows that schizophrenia tends to run in
families, and that genetic factors play a huge role. Genes also play a role in
how poorly an individual with schizophrenia respond to antipsychotic drugs,
which are given for treatment. The diathesis- stress model suggests that
schizophrenia develops when there is both a genetic predisposition toward
the disorder (diathesis), and more stress than a person can handle. There is
no evidence suggesting that individuals who develop schizophrenia develop
more stress, than the people who do not have the disease. Instead; some
people seem to be more vulnerable to stress than others. Stress plays a role

in schizophrenia development among those who have the relevant

constitutional vulnerability. Other environmental factors- birth trauma, virus,
such as influenza, malnutrition, a head injury, and so on- that can interfere
with normal brain development bring an increased risk of schizophrenia
(Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011, p. 370-371).

Diathesis-stress model: the idea that people with a constitutional

predisposition (diathesis) toward a disorder, such as schizophrenia,
may develop the disorder if they are subjected to sufficient
environmental stress. (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais, 2011,
p. 370-371).

Excessive Dopamine Activity- There have been findings of abnormal

activity in the brains dopamine system in many schizophrenic patients.
Studies suggest that dopamine plays an important role in schizophrenia
mainly because medications that are known to act on dopamine are usually
helpful in the treatment of psychosis (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, &
Desmarais, 2011, p. 371-372).
Gender and Schizophrenia- Men are more likely to have schizophrenia
than women, and also tend to develop the disorder at an earlier age.

Men generally dont respond as well to treatment,

Men spend more time in mental hospitals,2
Men are more likely to relapse.
Independent of culture and socioeconomic variables play a factor on
the earlier age of onset. (Wood, Wood, Boyd, Wood, & Desmarais,
2011, p. 372).

Schizophrenia Questions
1. Hallucinations is sensory perception (see, hear, feel, smell) that a
person experiences but isnt really happening. The most common type
of hallucination is _________________
2. Which subtype of Schizophrenia causes patients to become frozen or
still for hours without moving? ____________________
3. Schizophrenia tends to run in families as research shows and affects
how poorly an individual with the disorder will respond to treatment
drugs (antipsychotic). Which cause of Schizophrenia is this classified
as? ___________________

4. What type of positive symptom of Schizophrenia affects an individuals

ability to connect thoughts and words to completion but shifts from one
subject to another through vague connections? _____________________
5. _____________ symptoms implicates a loss of or deficiency in thoughts
and behaviours that are components of normal functioning.