Schitzophrenia (shizophrenia) symptoms - schizophrenia signs treatment
Schitzophrenia is chronic. Signs of scizophrenia affects one percent of the American population over 18. People suffering from shizophrenia may hear voices or become convinced of others plotting against them. Schizophrenia symptoms treatment started to be efficient with the use of medicine such as Chlorpromazine in the 1950's.
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Schitzophrenia is a very disabling disease of the brain which seems to affect around one percent of the American population. Shizophrenic patients suffering from scizophrenia signs are known to sometimes hear voices that are not really there, to believe that others are broadcasting their thoughts for everyone to hear or they may be totally convinced of non-existing conspirations and plots against them. Shizophrenia will seriously affect the patients possibilities of having any kind of normal relationship with others.
Schizophenia-like disorders and conditions symptoms were described starting in Europe around mid 19th century. Among the first scientifical works on the subject were the findings of Kraepelin (1878) and Beuler (1909). The actual name of schizophrenia, was given by Beuler, meaning a "mind split". The splitting of a mind is not the same as a split personality, a different psychological condition. The condition is probably much older and evenly distributed in the whole world, it seems as if schitzophrenic symptoms affects around one percent of all populations.
Old schizophrenia treatment - Chloropromazine, Haldol
There were no functioning treatments before the mid 1950's when the first experimental treatments of shizophrenic symptoms was tried using the medicine Chloropromazine. This drug is an antipsychotic, or as they were called at the time, a major tranquilizer. There were other antipsychotics soon to follow such as Haldol which had bad side-effects but was still the most commonly used medicine for schizophrenia symptoms used at the time. Newer drugs are more effective with less side effects, they work over a broader spectrum of signs and symptoms and have contributed to a great leap forward in the treatment of schitzophrenia.
There is no cure for scizophrenia other than treating the symptoms of shizophrenia based on continous use of the stabilizing drugs and keeping the patient relatively stress free. It is important to diagnose the schitzophrenic condition early as any delay in the treatment will lead to further damage to the brain functions and a greater disability will develop. Medicine response, no matter which drug is used, is normally best during the first psychotic break and less effective when delayed or in relapse occurances. Early treatment with the modern medication is very important and so is the avoidance of any relapses as they tend to provide further brain damage and greater disability leading to more difficulties in later treatment of shizophrenia and schizoprenic symptoms.
People suffering from schizophrenia may not always make sens, they may just sit there for long periods without much activity or they may seem absolutely alright until they actually tell others what they are thinking. People with this condition will often have serious difficulties keeping a job or taking proper care of themselves, thereby putting a heavy burden on their families and society.
Symptoms of schizophrenia
A large proportion of the schitzophrenia patients will not take their medication regularly as prescribed, or they might stop taking the medicine completely. This will typically lead to symptoms returning with large distress and need for further care. There is research going on into longer lasting medications for better maintenance of the treeatment and consistency in the treatment of schitzophrenic patients.There are three major groups of symptoms of schizophrenia:
- Positive symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions, strange thoughts and movement disorders.
- Negative symptoms such as a loss of speach ability, loss of emotion, or the loss of ability to find any pleasure in normal life. These symptoms can sometimes be mistaken for depressions and other conditions and can be harder to diagnose correctly as schizophrenia.
- Cognitive symptoms (these are also called cognitive deficits) are when there are memory problems, problems focusing and keeping attention or to plan and organize things in normal life. These are very disabling, yet difficult to diagnose properly as shizophrenia.
Positive schitzophrenia symptoms
Symptoms in this group are rather easy to notice as they represent a behavioral pattern not normally present in healthy people. These signs frequently involve loss of reality contact such as hallucinations or delusions. Symptoms in this group can go away and come back again at a later time, they can be very grave or very subtle, particularly depending on whether the patient is under treatment for scizophrenia or not.Hallucinations are common, these are sensory impressions not noticeable to others such as hearing voices, smelling or feeling things. It is quite common that schizophrenic patients hear voices commenting on what they do, how they behave, sometimes warn them of dangers. These voices may be around for a long time before family or siciety notice anything going on. Hallucinations can also be to see people that are not present, smelling things other cannot smell (something that can also be a symptom of a brain tumor) and sometimes feeling that invisible people are touching their body.
It is common that patients suffering from schizophrenia have delusions, sometimes very strange such as the neighbor remote controlling them with the help of radio waves, voices on radio sending special messages to them or transmitters sending out their thoughts to everyone else. It is also possible that the patient can believe he is some historically important person, or similar delusions. When the delusions go as far as to suspiscions of poisoning, spying on them, plotting etc, the disorder can be a paranoid schizophrenia.
In some cases of schizophrenia, there is what is known as thought disorder, or the existence of strange and unusual thoughts. One of the forms of this disorder is disorganized thinking, which is where the patient can not organize thoughts properly and connect them in a logical pattern. This may lead to garbled speech or difficulties in making sense to the environment. Sometime a thought can disappear, it may be seen as the patient suddenly stops in the middle of a thought, having the feeling of someone actually taking or removing the thought of his head.
Movement disorders can sometimes be seen such as clumsy movements and difficulties in coordination. There may also be strange and involuntary movements such as strange manners or muscle movements. The extreme case of this is where the patient become catatonic, which fortunately does not happen much anymore since good treatment of schizophrenia became available.
Negative scizophrenia symptoms
This group fo symptoms normally include reductions in normal behavior state or in the emotional pattern, signs can be:- No facial expression at all, speaking with a monotonous voice
- Total lack of pleasure in normal life,
- Problems to plan and go ahead with activities
- Reluctance to speak, even when forced by circumstances
Patients with schizophrenia symptoms often have a problem keeping up their basic hygiene and will need assistance with normal daily activities. Since this group of symptoms are not obviously signs of psychiatric illness, people with schizophrenia are often seen as lazy and not interested in improving their lives.
Cognitive shizophrenia symptoms
Cognitive symptoms and signs of schitzophrenia are low key and are often not diagnosed properly until neuropsychological diagnosing is used. These symptoms include:- Low ability to take in information and to act on and make decisions from on that information,
- Difficulty to focus and keep attention due to the disorder condition
- Memory problems such as low ability to keep fresh information in mind and use it immediately
Cognitive impairment due to scizophrenia can often be a large problem and hinder in the patient's normal life. These symptoms of shizophrenia can lead to feelings of large distress. Schizophrenia symptoms summary.