Counselling In Hindi | Psychologist & Psychiatrist...
- 28 - Jan - 2023
- by Vikram Sheoran
Read this article to learn more about schizophrenia. Discover the causes of psychosis and the different treatments for this mental illness. Also find out ways you can help someone suffering from it.
Schizophrenia is basically a chronic psychiatric disorder in which the patient might experience distortion of reality and real things happening around him. They often experience delusion or hallucinations. This means sometimes they feel like voices in their heads and it generally feels like someone is controlling their mind. They feel like talking with themselves sometimes.
Schizophrenia is a rare mental disorder and tends to occur in just 1% of the total population. This disorder is generally confused with "split personality disorder " which are actually two different terms.
Split personality is also termed as Dissociative Identity Disorder. The tendency of occurrence of schizophrenia in men is in their early 20s or teenage while in women, its tendency to occur is in the late 20s or early 30s.
Schizophrenic patients often tend to show these symptoms:
Early symptoms: The early symptoms in men and women tend to show in their 20s or 30s. At this age, the person might develop these signs in the early stage:
Facing Difficulty with school tasks, and low academic performance level Here are some other "Positive" symptoms that aren’t typical in otherwise healthy individuals. These might include:
Hallucinations is an experience that appears to be real but is actually created by your mind. It includes watching things that are imaginary, hearing voices in the head, or smelling things that are around you.
A delusion is a sort of illusion or illusionary thought that occur when you believe in something wrong even when you have evidence for facts to the contrary. ● Thought disorders. These include unusual ways of perceiving or thinking or processing information.
This includes unusual body movements or strange postures sometimes. While on the other side, Some of the negative symptoms might include:
Schizophrenia might affect the memory and thinking ability of the patient. But these are somewhat hard to detect. So schizophrenic patients may also have some cognitive symptoms like:
The possible reason behind schizophrenia is still unknown but the researchers still consider the following factors that contribute to this disorder:
Some recent studies claim that " imaging tests completed on people with schizophrenia may show abnormalities in certain brain structures. Ongoing research in this area continues. Chemical abnormalities in the brain are believed to be responsible for many of the symptoms seen in schizophrenia.
Researchers also believe low levels of certain brain chemicals that affect emotions and behavior may contribute to this psychiatric disorder."
Schizophrenia also travels with generations like other physical ailments such as - Diabetes. If one of your ancestors had this disorder then you are on the radar too. It might be possible to travel this disorder in generations since it is hereditary. The surrounding environment also plays a major role in the development of this disorder. If your surrounding environment is disturbing and not fit to survive then you might be prone to develop this disorder faster than those living in a happy place and happy society.
At one time, Schizophrenia was classified into five subcategories but later on, in 2013, these categories have been eliminated from the classification and now schizophrenia is considered as one diagnosis only.
Here are subcategories of Schizophrenia that helps doctors to ensure what type of schizophrenia is this and what should be the treatment plan.
These subcategories include:
Although these subcategories are not in use by the date for the diagnosis it has been included for the information to the readers.
There is no particular test for schizophrenia. The psychiatrist may conduct a psychic exam to ensure the occurrence of schizophrenia. The patient needs to rush to the psychologist to get examined about the disorder.
When the patient visits his psychologist to get examined, the psychologist may ask about:
Also, the mental health expert may conduct the following test:
Sometimes, apart from physical health problems there can be many reasons that encounter schizophrenia. These generally include:
You may be diagnosed with schizophrenia if you include at least two of the following symptoms:
There is no such cure to vanish this disorder up to the root. This disorder requires proper medication that goes on to lifelong. The treatment can only control and reduce the severity of symptoms.
The treatment plan for schizophrenia includes:
As we have discussed earlier the types of Schizophrenia are not in use for now for the diagnosing purpose but is quite useful to particulate about the type of Schizophrenia. These subcategories or subtypes of Schizophrenia are:
When the schizophrenic patient is diagnosed then the doctor doesn't categorize the disorder in any subcategories. It will only be Schizophrenia. Rather if we consider its subcategories, if the predominant symptom is Paranoia, then it is Paranoid Schizophrenia. In the case of Paranoid Schizophrenia, the following symptoms may be seen in the patient:
Where Delusions is something that makes you have some strong belief rather you have the evidence of the truth of the contrary side. There can be many types of delusions, some of which may include:
"About 90 percent of people with schizophrenia experience delusions. Not everyone will have the same types of delusions."
Hallucinations are generally the sensation that you tend to perceive those things which are not real. Schizophrenic patients tend to hear voices in their mind and these voices can be any- suggesting, telling, describing, scolding, or sometimes commanding. These voices are many times related to your known people and if the patient gets himself isolated from the others, the symptoms might worsen.
Disorganized speech means the schizophrenic patients tend to interfere with the words while listening. Sometimes they repeat words, taking in phrases or constructs their own phrases and talking in between. This is the foremost symptom of lack of concentration.
Disorganization of speech is a disorder and not an impairment such as speech impairment. Disorganized Behavior refers to the overall inability to do work. It may be due to a lack of interest, a lack of focus and concentration, or a lack of constructive thinking ability. It includes a lack of control over your behavior as well.
The patient may experience trouble with:
This generally includes a lack of proper behavior that a normal person has and a Schizophrenic patient lacks.
These negative thoughts include:
Suicidal thoughts are more common in Schizophrenic patients. They may also create problems if left untreated. Before they harm themselves or the other, they may be hospitalized to receive necessary medical attention.
The symptoms of Catatonic schizophrenia includes-
This type of schizophrenia occurs generally in childhood i.e. early 20s or late teens. When the symptoms start to show around the age of 13, that is called early or childhood schizophrenia.
Diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia is most difficult as its symptoms are similar to that growth cycle in teenagers. But here are some symptoms by which the doctors can be ensured that the ongoing condition inpatient is due to childhood schizophrenia. Here are those:
Many researchers showed their research in their journals that:
Schizophrenia is a chronic disease that if left untreated can be more harmful to the patient. This disorder is not that kind to be ignored. This mental illness can give rise to other serious complications also.
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There isn't found out anyways by which this disorder can be prevented but there are some ways for sure by which symptoms of this disorder can be reduced to prevent getting it worsens over time.
It is indeed possible that a schizophrenic patient might lead a healthy and peaceful life. The symptoms might go away with time but if the conditions are not favorable, the symptoms can return. The patient must not stop the medication by themselves until it is prescribed by the doctor himself.
On the track to improvement, the patient must:
Both of these disorders are different as compared to their symptoms and treatment plans. Psychosis means that the patient lives in the imagination. He doesn't want to accept reality and real things. They may hear some voices that are not real.in any way or they may visualize and believe things that are also not real when it comes to reality. Psychosis is a separate disorder as well as it is also one of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Psychosis has a tendency of occurrence in normal people sometimes. Although it is one of the symptoms of schizophrenia but not every schizophrenic patient might experience psychotic problems.
Both of them are chronic mental health conditions. Some characteristics of both are the same while some characteristics of both disorders are distinct. Bipolar disorder causes a strong level of mood swings which has a frequency or strength between mania and depression episodes.
Sometimes they may also experience delusions or hallucinations in association with symptoms of psychosis in case of severity. But the Schizophrenic patient experiences hallucinations, delusions with disorganized speech, and thinking. The symptoms of psychosis are not associated with schizophrenic patients.
Although no tests are available to let know whether it is bipolar disorder or schizophrenia but the psychiatrists always examine the patients with some evaluation techniques. These tests could include blood tests, imaging tests, and drug screening tests.
After the report of these tests, the doctor may examine your symptoms and might start with the appropriate treatment plan for the patients.
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