characteristics of schizophrenia

• % of the population experience schizophrenic symptoms
• No difference in prevalence between males and females
• Age of onset in males

  Late teens, early 20's
• Age of onset in females

  Late 20's, early 30's
• Classification systems used to diagnose schizophrenia

  • ICD-10
  • DSM V
• Diagnosis of schizophrenia

  1. Two or more symptoms present for more than one month

  2. Reduced functioning
• Positive symptoms

  Symptoms present in people with schizophrenia and not in normally functioning people
• Negative symptoms

  Symptoms present in healthy people but absent in those with schizophrenia
• Delusion

  A belief that is unreal
• Types of delusions

  • Paranoid delusions
  • Grandiose delusions
  • Delusions of reference
  • Thought insertion and broadcasting
• Hallucination

  A perception that is not real
• Disordered thinking

  Confused and muddled thinking
• Negative symptoms

  • Lack or reduction of normal behaviours
  • Social withdrawal and isolation
• Historically, a number of 'Types of Schizophrenia' have been identified, but these have been removed from DSM V because they are not viewed as 'stable' conditions
• Common types of schizophrenia

  • Paranoid
  • Disorganised
  • Catatonic
  • Undifferentiated