Schizophrenia
"Split Mind"
Symptoms, Delusions, and Hallucinations
Symptoms:
Disorganized thinking
Disturbed Perceptions
Inappropriate Emotions and actions`
Delusion: false beliefs, often persecutions of grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders
hallucination: sensory experienced without sensory simulation
5 Subtypes, Chronic, and Acute
Paranoid - Preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations, often with themes of persecution of grandiosity
Disorganized - disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion
Catatonic - Immobility (or excessive, purposeless movement), extreme negativism and/or parrotlike repeating of another’s speech or movements
Undifferentiated - many and varied symptoms
Residual - Withdrawal, after hallucinations and delusions have disappeared
Chronic Schizophrenia - emerges gradually and is often associated with negative symptoms (absence of appropriate behaviors) and carries a low chance of recovery
Acute (reactive) Schizophrenia - develops rapidly (often in response to stress) in a previously well-adjusted person, may be associated with positive symptoms (presence of inappropriate behaviors) and carries a greater chance of recovery
Abnormal Aspects and Prenatal Dangers
Dopamine Overactivity- People with Schizophrenia have an excess of dopamine receptors, which intensifies hallucinations and paranoia
Abnormal Brain Activity and Anatomy- low brain activity in frontal lobes, which inhibits reasoning, planning, and problem solving. They also have out of sync neurons, which contributes to the confused responses to stimuli. In addition, they have enlarged, fluid-filled areas and a corresponding shrinkage of cerebal tissue.
Maternal Virus During Midpregnancy- Higher rates of Schizophrenia have been linked with a flu epidemic during fetal development, as well as babies who are born in in densley populated areas where viral diseases spread more readily.