Schizophrenic and Psychotic Disorders

• Schizophrenia outlines a range of psychotic disorders that affect all aspects of a person’s thinking, emotions, actions, along with a major break from reality
• Personal, social and occupational functioning deteriorate because of disturbed thought process, unusual emotions and motor abnormalities
• Types of schizophrenia:

  • Simple: gradual withdrawal from reality
  • Paranoid: having delusional thoughts and hallucinations
  • Catatonic: no response to the environment; would remain rigid/unmoving or would engage in constant repetitive movements
  • Disorganised: thoughts and speech are jumbled and impossible to understand (word salad)
  • Undifferentiated: has symptoms but doesn’t fit into above categories
• DSM-5 outlines the following psychotic symptoms:

  • Positive symptoms: additional symptoms to normal behaviour e.g. Delusions, Hallucinations, Disorganised thoughts and catatonic behaviour
  • Negative symptoms: symptoms that lack aspects of normal behaviour e.g. loss of speech, withdrawal from society, or loss of typical facial expressions (flat affect)
• Delusional disorder occurs when a person experiences persistent delusions for a month or longer while maintaining normal behavior
• Delusional disorder excludes positive or negative psychotic symptoms
• Types of delusional disorder include:

  • Erotomanic: belief that someone is in love with you
  • Grandiose: belief that one has great unrecognised skill or status
  • Jealous: belief that partner is unfaithful (paranoia)
  • Persecutory: belief that people are conspiring against or want to harm you (paranoia)
  • Bizarre delusion: logically impossible
  • Non-bizarre delusion: possible but unlikely