How do you know if someone is schizophrenia
Symptoms - Schizophrenia - NHS
Schizophrenia changes how a person thinks and behaves.
The condition may develop slowly. The first signs can be hard to identify as they often develop during the teenage years.
Symptoms such as becoming socially withdrawn and unresponsive or changes in sleeping patterns can be mistaken for an adolescent "phase".
People often have episodes of schizophrenia, during which their symptoms are particularly severe, followed by periods where they experience few or no symptoms. This is known as acute schizophrenia.
Positive and negative symptoms
The symptoms of schizophrenia are usually classified into:
- positive symptoms – any change in behaviour or thoughts, such as hallucinations or delusions
- negative symptoms – where people appear to withdraw from the world around then, take no interest in everyday social interactions, and often appear emotionless and flat
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are where someone sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels things that do not exist outside their mind. The most common hallucination is hearing voices.
Hallucinations are very real to the person experiencing them, even though people around them cannot hear the voices or experience the sensations.
Research using brain-scanning equipment shows changes in the speech area in the brains of people with schizophrenia when they hear voices. These studies show the experience of hearing voices as a real one, as if the brain mistakes thoughts for real voices.
Some people describe the voices they hear as friendly and pleasant, but more often they're rude, critical, abusive or annoying.
The voices might describe activities taking place, discuss the hearer's thoughts and behaviour, give instructions, or talk directly to the person. Voices may come from different places or 1 place, such as the television.
Delusions
A delusion is a belief held with complete conviction, even though it's based on a mistaken, strange or unrealistic view. It may affect the way the person behaves.
Delusions can begin suddenly or may develop over weeks or months.
Some people develop a delusional idea to explain a hallucination they're having. For example, if they have heard voices describing their actions, they may have a delusion that someone is monitoring their actions.
Someone experiencing a paranoid delusion may believe they're being harassed or persecuted. They may believe they're being chased, followed, watched, plotted against or poisoned, often by a family member or friend.
Some people who experience delusions find different meanings in everyday events or occurrences.
They may believe people on TV or in newspaper articles are communicating messages to them alone, or that there are hidden messages in the colours of cars passing on the street.
Confused thoughts (thought disorder)
People experiencing psychosis often have trouble keeping track of their thoughts and conversations.
Some people find it hard to concentrate and will drift from one idea to another.
They may have trouble reading newspaper articles or watching a TV programme.
People sometimes describe their thoughts as "misty" or "hazy" when this is happening to them. Thoughts and speech may become jumbled or confused, making conversation difficult and hard for other people to understand.
Changes in behaviour and thoughts
A person's behaviour may become more disorganised and unpredictable.
Some people describe their thoughts as being controlled by someone else, that their thoughts are not their own, or that thoughts have been planted in their mind by someone else.
Another feeling is that thoughts are disappearing, as though someone is removing them from their mind.
Some people feel their body is being taken over and someone else is directing their movements and actions.
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia
The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can often appear several years before somebody experiences their first acute schizophrenic episode.
These initial negative symptoms are often referred to as the prodromal period of schizophrenia.
Symptoms during the prodromal period usually appear gradually and slowly get worse.
They include the person becoming more socially withdrawn and increasingly not caring about their appearance and personal hygiene.
It can be difficult to tell whether the symptoms are part of the development of schizophrenia or caused by something else.
Negative symptoms experienced by people living with schizophrenia include:
- losing interest and motivation in life and activities, including relationships and sex
- lack of concentration, not wanting to leave the house, and changes in sleeping patterns
- being less likely to initiate conversations and feeling uncomfortable with people, or feeling there's nothing to say
The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can often lead to relationship problems with friends and family as they can sometimes be mistaken for deliberate laziness or rudeness.
Psychosis
Schizophrenia is often described by doctors as a type of psychosis.
A first acute episode of psychosis can be very difficult to cope with, both for the person who is ill and for their family and friends.
Drastic changes in behaviour may occur, and the person can become upset, anxious, confused, angry or suspicious of those around them.
They may not think they need help, and it can be hard to persuade them to visit a doctor.
Read more about understanding psychotic experiences.
Schizophrenia - Symptoms and causes
Overview
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning, and can be disabling.
People with schizophrenia require lifelong treatment. Early treatment may help get symptoms under control before serious complications develop and may help improve the long-term outlook.
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Symptoms
Schizophrenia involves a range of problems with thinking (cognition), behavior and emotions. Signs and symptoms may vary, but usually involve delusions, hallucinations or disorganized speech, and reflect an impaired ability to function. Symptoms may include:
- Delusions. These are false beliefs that are not based in reality. For example, you think that you're being harmed or harassed; certain gestures or comments are directed at you; you have exceptional ability or fame; another person is in love with you; or a major catastrophe is about to occur. Delusions occur in most people with schizophrenia.
- Hallucinations. These usually involve seeing or hearing things that don't exist. Yet for the person with schizophrenia, they have the full force and impact of a normal experience.
Hallucinations can be in any of the senses, but hearing voices is the most common hallucination. - Disorganized thinking (speech). Disorganized thinking is inferred from disorganized speech. Effective communication can be impaired, and answers to questions may be partially or completely unrelated. Rarely, speech may include putting together meaningless words that can't be understood, sometimes known as word salad.
- Extremely disorganized or abnormal motor behavior. This may show in a number of ways, from childlike silliness to unpredictable agitation. Behavior isn't focused on a goal, so it's hard to do tasks. Behavior can include resistance to instructions, inappropriate or bizarre posture, a complete lack of response, or useless and excessive movement.
- Negative symptoms. This refers to reduced or lack of ability to function normally. For example, the person may neglect personal hygiene or appear to lack emotion (doesn't make eye contact, doesn't change facial expressions or speaks in a monotone).
Also, the person may lose interest in everyday activities, socially withdraw or lack the ability to experience pleasure.
Symptoms can vary in type and severity over time, with periods of worsening and remission of symptoms. Some symptoms may always be present.
In men, schizophrenia symptoms typically start in the early to mid-20s. In women, symptoms typically begin in the late 20s. It's uncommon for children to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and rare for those older than age 45.
Symptoms in teenagers
Schizophrenia symptoms in teenagers are similar to those in adults, but the condition may be more difficult to recognize. This may be in part because some of the early symptoms of schizophrenia in teenagers are common for typical development during teen years, such as:
- Withdrawal from friends and family
- A drop in performance at school
- Trouble sleeping
- Irritability or depressed mood
- Lack of motivation
Also, recreational substance use, such as marijuana, methamphetamines or LSD, can sometimes cause similar signs and symptoms.
Compared with schizophrenia symptoms in adults, teens may be:
- Less likely to have delusions
- More likely to have visual hallucinations
When to see a doctor
People with schizophrenia often lack awareness that their difficulties stem from a mental disorder that requires medical attention. So it often falls to family or friends to get them help.
Helping someone who may have schizophrenia
If you think someone you know may have symptoms of schizophrenia, talk to him or her about your concerns. Although you can't force someone to seek professional help, you can offer encouragement and support and help your loved one find a qualified doctor or mental health professional.
If your loved one poses a danger to self or others or can't provide his or her own food, clothing, or shelter, you may need to call 911 or other emergency responders for help so that your loved one can be evaluated by a mental health professional.
In some cases, emergency hospitalization may be needed.
Laws on involuntary commitment for mental health treatment vary by state. You can contact community mental health agencies or police departments in your area for details.
Suicidal thoughts and behavior
Suicidal thoughts and behavior are common among people with schizophrenia. If you have a loved one who is in danger of attempting suicide or has made a suicide attempt, make sure someone stays with that person. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately. Or, if you think you can do so safely, take the person to the nearest hospital emergency room.
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Causes
It's not known what causes schizophrenia, but researchers believe that a combination of genetics, brain chemistry and environment contributes to development of the disorder.
Problems with certain naturally occurring brain chemicals, including neurotransmitters called dopamine and glutamate, may contribute to schizophrenia. Neuroimaging studies show differences in the brain structure and central nervous system of people with schizophrenia.
While researchers aren't certain about the significance of these changes, they indicate that schizophrenia is a brain disease.
Risk factors
Although the precise cause of schizophrenia isn't known, certain factors seem to increase the risk of developing or triggering schizophrenia, including:
- Having a family history of schizophrenia
- Some pregnancy and birth complications, such as malnutrition or exposure to toxins or viruses that may impact brain development
- Taking mind-altering (psychoactive or psychotropic) drugs during teen years and young adulthood
Complications
Left untreated, schizophrenia can result in severe problems that affect every area of life. Complications that schizophrenia may cause or be associated with include:
- Suicide, suicide attempts and thoughts of suicide
- Anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Depression
- Abuse of alcohol or other drugs, including nicotine
- Inability to work or attend school
- Financial problems and homelessness
- Social isolation
- Health and medical problems
- Being victimized
- Aggressive behavior, although it's uncommon
Prevention
There's no sure way to prevent schizophrenia, but sticking with the treatment plan can help prevent relapses or worsening of symptoms.
In addition, researchers hope that learning more about risk factors for schizophrenia may lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.
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Content:
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder in which there is a breakdown of thought processes and emotional reactions. The disease does not cause disturbances in consciousness and does not change many intellectual processes, however, with its prolonged course, perception, memory and attention are disturbed.
Lack of treatment leads to a complete loss of a sense of one's own "I", the loss of the integrity of a person's personality. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to diagnose the signs of schizophrenia in a timely manner and start treatment as soon as possible.
Symptoms of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia develops for a long time and imperceptibly for the patient. The first signs appear when a person is sure that he is completely healthy.
Early symptoms of schizophrenia:
- Isolation from society, unsociableness.
- Indifference to yourself, friends and family.
- Emotional coldness.
- Gradual loss of interest in everything that previously worried.
- Sleep disorders.
Adolescents often experience these symptoms during the transition period. However, in any case, take a closer look at your child and consult a doctor if you suspect.
As the disease progresses, common symptoms and signs of schizophrenia occur:
-
Psychotic (positive):
- Hallucinations - the patient sees and hears something that is not there.
- Nonsense - illogical beliefs in which the patient cannot be persuaded.
- Disorderly thinking - the patient either speaks too quickly, then stops in the middle of a thought and at the same time names non-existent words.
- Unnatural movements - a patient with schizophrenia moves slowly and freezes in an unnatural position, or vice versa moves too quickly and jerkily.
-
Negative:
- Inability to express emotions - the patient constantly looks depressed and out of touch with reality.
- Thought disorder - the patient does not absorb information well, cannot concentrate and forgets everything.
In order to alleviate the situation of the patient, it is necessary to urgently consult a doctor and not push the patient away from himself. Remember that all changes in a person's personality are not his fault, but a manifestation of the disease.
Treatment of schizophrenia
Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for schizophrenia.
The doctor can only alleviate the course of the disease. However, this is not a reason to put an end to yourself or your loved one. In the UK, people with schizophrenia even find employment, work successfully and lead a normal life.
From a medical point of view, the ideal solution for the treatment of schizophrenia is the placement of a patient in a hospital. Especially during an exacerbation of the disease. However, it should be borne in mind that hospitalizations are a great stress for a person who is associated with a restriction of freedom. Before doing so, consider possible alternatives.
The main treatment for schizophrenia is drug therapy. After a thorough diagnosis, the doctor individually prescribes a set of drugs that extinguishes the manifestations of the disease.
In addition to drug therapy, the patient needs professional psychological help and support from loved ones. All this together allows you to minimize the symptoms and provide the patient with the most comfortable conditions for life.
See also
- Surgeon phlebologist
- Paid pediatrician
- Department of Traumatology
How to understand that I have schizophrenia: symptoms, causes, treatment
There are many myths and misconceptions around schizophrenia. She is often romanticized, filmed about her and described in literature, and also devalued from time to time. However, this disease is a serious psychiatric diagnosis, and it cannot be cured. Zaborona journalist Polina Vernigor tells what kind of diagnosis it is, what are its symptoms, why the disease occurs in general and what to do with it.
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder that causes a misinterpretation of reality and can cause hallucinations, delusions, and highly disordered thinking and behavior that impair daily functioning. Schizophrenia can lead to disability.
One of the biggest problems with this disease is that it cannot be completely cured.
At the same time, scientists continue to look for the causes of schizophrenia and new methods of treatment, or at least correction of this condition.
Another big problem of schizophrenia is the misconceptions about it in society. This is definitely not about a split personality, and most patients do not pose a threat to others.
Studies show that this disease affects both men and women equally. There is a very high chance of dying at a young age due to comorbid problems, such as heart disease or diabetes, which are common in people with schizophrenia.
- Richard Dadd, "The blow of the fairy woodcutter" (1855-64). The artist painted this picture during 9 years of being in a psychiatric hospital
How to understand that a person has schizophrenia?
In fact, schizophrenia has active and inactive phases.
In the inactive phase, a person behaves in the same way as a healthy person. But the longer the disease lasts, the more the person's personality changes.
“This may be a loss of emotional fluctuations, interest, simplification of interests and activities: a person is not interested in hobbies, communication with friends. That is, a person is limited only by physiological things. But this manifests itself in those who have been suffering from schizophrenia for 20-30 years, ”explains Oleg Tokarchuk, a psychiatrist at the Vinnytsia Regional Clinical Psychoneurological Hospital, to Zaborona.
The active phase already has obvious symptoms. For example, a person cannot distinguish a real experience from an unreal one. As with any disease, symptoms can vary in frequency and duration in different patients. In addition, the older a person is, the less likely they are to have severe psychotic symptoms. The severity of schizophrenia is also affected by alcohol, drugs, stress, and improper medication.
Here are the main symptoms that are observed in patients with schizophrenia:
- hallucinations - for example, the patient may hear voices or see things that do not really exist;
- paranoia;
- hyperbolization or distorted understanding of reality;
- decrease or loss of ability to make plans;
- violation of communication functions;
- weak expression of emotions;
- loss of pleasure;
- confusion;
- speech problems;
- violation of logical thinking;
- unnatural behavior and movements.
Usually schizophrenia manifests itself in 20-30 years. However, there are cases when it happens earlier, most often due to certain factors - stress due to poor school performance, toxic family atmosphere, peer problems and the like.
“Sometimes symptoms are observed at 14-16 years of age. But these are quite rare cases. It is not known exactly why some show it at a young age, while others show it at an older age. This is influenced by genetic predisposition, and the environment, and the structure of receptors in the body, and developmental features, ”says the psychiatrist.
Symptoms must have lasted at least six months to be diagnosed. It can only be put by a doctor and only after a thorough medical examination, since such symptoms can also occur for other reasons - for example, due to the abuse of psychotropic substances, brain inflammation, brain tumors.
Asylum in Band-Hein where Wölfli was treated (1910) Adolf Wölfli, "Drawing" (1930)Why is this happening?
Every case is special. There are several factors that can cause the disease.
Schizophrenia is often hereditary, but no single gene is responsible for this. Rather, certain combinations of genes can make a person prone to developing a disease.
However, the presence of these genes does not mean that a person will have 100% schizophrenia.
Evidence that the disease is partly inherited comes from twin studies. Identical twins have the same set of genes.
If one of them develops schizophrenia, the other twin has a 50% chance of getting sick, even if they grow up separately. If one of the twins with different genetic makeup develops schizophrenia, the other has a 12.5% chance of developing it.
At the same time, studies of people with schizophrenia have shown that there are subtle differences in the structure of their brains. These changes are not observed in all patients with schizophrenia and may occur in people who do not suffer from mental illness. But they suggest that part of schizophrenia may be a disease of the brain.
"On a Clear Day" (1973). Painting by Canadian-American artist Agnes Martin, who suffered from schizophrenia Agnes Martin, Night Sea (1963) Agnes Martin, "Untitled #11" (2002) Agnes Martin, "Red Bird" (1964) There are chemicals in our brain that carry messages between its cells called neurotransmitters.
Scientists have also found a link between neurotransmitters and schizophrenia - drugs that relieve some of the symptoms of schizophrenia change the level of neurotransmitters in the brain.
At the same time, changes in the level of neurotransmitters - dopamine and serotonin - can also lead to schizophrenia. Some research suggests that an imbalance between the two may be the cause of the problem. Others have found that a change in the body's sensitivity to neurotransmitters is one of the causes of schizophrenia.
Also, schizophrenia can develop in children with low birth weight, who were born prematurely or had a lack of oxygen during childbirth. These factors can affect the brain.
Severe stress can affect the development of the disease in later life: loss of a job or home, death of loved ones, breakup of relationships, physical, sexual or emotional abuse. However, these situations by themselves are not capable of causing schizophrenia. They can only serve as a trigger for those at risk.
How to treat?
Schizophrenia, unfortunately, is incurable. This disease requires lifelong medication - even in the inactive phase. Usually, medications and therapy are used to correct the condition, and sometimes hospitalization may be required.
“In the treatment of psychosis (and schizophrenia is psychosis), we divide it into several stages. The first stage - we relieve an acute condition when there are hallucinations or a threat to others or ourselves. After that, we prescribe maintenance treatment that a person takes for a long time - most often it will be lifelong, ”says Oleg Tokarchuk.
The most commonly prescribed antipsychotic drugs act on the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. Other medications, such as antidepressants, can also help. Some of these medicines are on the National Medicines List, so the government can provide them to patients. However, more effective means that are not included in this list, patients must buy themselves.
But, according to the psychiatrist, in some places there are regional programs that at least partially cover their cost.
Symptoms may take several weeks to resolve. Schizophrenia medications have serious side effects, so people with schizophrenia may be reluctant to take them.
Psychotherapy can help normalize the way you think. In addition, learning to deal with stress, detect relapse early, and prevent relapse can help people with schizophrenia cope with the illness. Psychological support groups can also help such patients.
“As far as I know, there are no groups specifically for patients with schizophrenia in Ukraine. But there are psychotherapeutic groups of different orientations, most often organized at neuropsychiatric dispensaries. But these are groups of patients with different diagnoses. In my opinion, groups where there are patients with a different range of problems are the best option, ”explains the psychiatrist.
