symptoms & features of schizophrenia

• delusions

  are a distorted belief - individual does not feel in control of their own thoughts & feelings (e.g: may believe their neighbor is plotting against them)
• hallucinations

  hallucination voices are most common - these are voices that don't exist but feel real to the person hearing them (e.g: person hears sound of a train rushing past but really they are in a quiet park)
• disorganised speech/thinking

  arises when train of thought is disrupted and person speech is jumbled it becomes meaningless (e.g person stops speaking halfway through a sentence, fixating on a sound and repeating it)
• grossly disorganised or catatonic behaviour

  unusual body movements and adoption of odd postures, uncontrolled limb movements and sometimes frozen immobility
• negative symptoms e.g: affective flattening, alogia or avolition

  involves losses of emotions, interests, pleasure and associated with social withdrawal, apathy and indifference to personal welfare
• thought insertion

  belief ones thoughts are not ones own but belong to someone else and has been inserted into ones mind
• prevalence rate of SZ

  • 1% in population aged over 18
  • onset of disorder occurs between ages 15-45 & usually occurs in males 4-5yrs earlier than females but equally common in both
  • childhood SZ is occasionally diagnosed but rare
• course of SZ

  • episodic illness which periods of psychotic disturbances are seen with normal periods of functioning
  • emergence of psychotic symptoms occur after a period of a few weeks or months, changes in mood & behaviour are evident to people close to sufferer - often suffer low mood, anxiety, experience difficulties in social relationships & concentrating on work/study
  • active phase of disorder follows & episode may last 1-6 months but can extend to a year
• prognosis (outlook)

  • 1/3 of patients have a single or few brief episodes of SZ then recover fully
  • 1/3 has occasional episodes of the disorder throughout their lives & functions effectively between episodes
  • remaining third deteriorate over a series of increasingly incapacitating episodes
• positive symptoms

  e.g: hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thinking