Classification of schizophrenia, types, causes, symptoms of the disease

Schizophrenia is a pathology of the psyche that has a chronic course. The disease affects about two percent of the world's population. Its frequency does not depend on race or gender. Mental disorder has a devastating effect on the individual. It should be noted that there are several types of ailment. The article deals with the classification of schizophrenia, its symptoms and therapy.

The characteristic features of the disorder

Most people not related to psychiatry associate this disease with manifestations such as vision and delirium. However, these signs can only be present in the acute phase. Often, against the background of treatment, they disappear. But other manifestations (emotional disturbances, problems with mental activity) are difficult to correct. Schizophrenia is a disease that is one of the most common mental illnesses. It affects men and women equally. But there is one caveat: in representatives of the stronger sex, the disorder manifests itself earlier. The main category of people with this disease are individuals aged 15 to 30 years. Moreover, the severity and nature of the symptoms in patients is diverse. According to the classification of schizophrenia, there are several types of disorders. They are described in the next section of the article.

Forms of ailment

There are several types of pathology. They were developed by specialists in the field of psychiatry. According to the classification of schizophrenia, the following forms are distinguished:

1. Paranoid. Patients with this ailment are characterized by the emergence of ideas of a stable, obsessive nature. Also, such people have visions, hallucinations at the tactile, olfactory and auditory levels.
2. Hebephrenic. This type, as a rule, begins to appear in the puberty. Its symptoms include behavioral disorders, foolishness, unreasonable laughter, elaborate manners, difficulties in speech and mental activity.
3. Catatonic form of schizophrenia. With this disease, the patient is pathologically closed, constantly silent, staying in one position for a long time or, conversely, too excited. Such an individual is characterized by the repetition of other people's words, gestures, facial expressions. This form of the disease is considered one of the most severe.

There is a division by type:

1. Simple type. The main symptoms of the pathology are detachment, the patient’s cold attitude to himself and others, contradictory statements and emotions.
2. Post schizophrenic depression. The main symptom of the disease is the extremely depressed mental state of the patient. Other symptoms are mild.
3. Undifferentiated type. In patients with such a diagnosis, various manifestations of pathology are equally present.
4. Residual form. It is characterized by a predominance of disorders of the emotional sphere after exacerbation.

Specialists also highlight special forms of schizophrenia. These include:

1. Pathology with a sluggish course.
2. The disease, manifested in the form of seizures.
3. Hidden type.
4. Febrile form.

Characteristic manifestations of the disease

Specialists who have developed a classification of schizophrenia, emphasize that any type of disorder has certain features. These are signs that indicate violations of the psyche in several ways. They are characteristic of all patients. The manifestations of this kind include:

1. Illogical thinking (meager vocabulary, inability to complete phrases and conduct normal dialogue).
2. Alienation from the outside world, relatives, acquaintances. The individual is unable to establish contacts, understand jokes and hints, his thinking and hobbies are stereotyped. Doctors often mention this criterion when asked about how to identify schizophrenia in a loved one.
3. Atypical reaction to events and statements. The patient may have fun during the funeral, and suddenly feel sad at the birthday party. The patient’s behavior and emotions are not related to each other. For example, feeling fright or excitement, the individual smiles and laughs.
4. Inconsistency. A person can experience completely different feelings for the same object or face. He hesitates for a long time before even making a simple decision. His thoughts are also controversial.

Conversation with the patient and the identification of the above signs in him is considered an effective way to determine schizophrenia. But there are certain aspects that indicate the development of the disease.

Symptoms and its types

Manifestations of the disease are of two types: positive and negative. The first category includes specialists:

1. Visions, hallucinations of auditory, olfactory, tactile and taste character. The individual claims that there are voices that evaluate him, argue, give directions. The patient is inclined to pass off his thoughts as strangers. A hallmark of hallucinations is that they are perceived by a person as really existing.
2. Illusions. The patient clearly sees the object and takes it for a completely different one.
3. One of the most common positive symptoms is considered nonsense. Speaking about this feature, specialists mean ideas and conclusions that do not correspond to reality. Some patients believe they are being watched, want to kill, hypnotize, and so on. Others suspect infidelity of the husband (wife). Still others suddenly find themselves in a serious illness or physical defect.
4. Unnatural motor activity or, conversely, a long stay in one position.
5. Reactions that do not fit the situation. For example, a person denies having any family ties with family members.
6. Long monologues that differ in the absence of logic, meaninglessness. Sometimes, during a conversation, an individual suddenly switches from one topic to another. Patients with schizophrenia are too attentive to trifles.
7. The presence of ideas that play a very important role in human life, but at the same time divorced from reality.

Negative symptoms mean social, emotional and mental abilities, which gradually worsen with the development of pathology. These disorders with a simple form of schizophrenia are dominant. They are described in the next section.

List and description of negative symptoms

Such violations include:

1. Weak will
2. Frequent change of emotional background.
3. Constant desire is alone, low activity and indifference to the surrounding reality.
4. Violations of speech and mental nature.
5. Coldness and callousness in relation to other people.
6. The tendency to overeating, alcohol abuse, increased sex drive, masturbation.
7. Inability to control your own actions.
8. Decreased ability to plan action.
9. The lack of joy and pleasure from those things that used to deliver positive emotions.
10. Thoughts of suicide, depression.
11. Neglect of hygiene procedures.
12. Hobbies that are monotonous and ridiculous.

In the classification of schizophrenia, the ratio of the above signs with the symptoms of a positive type is taken into account.

Factors contributing to the development of the disease

There are several hypotheses about the causes of schizophrenia. Is this disorder inherited? The exact answer to this question is still unknown. However, there is an assumption about the high probability of the occurrence of pathology in the event that one of the relatives of the individual suffered a similar ailment. In general, experts identify several different factors that contribute to the development of the disease, for example:

1. Viral pathologies at an early age (herpes, rubella, EBV).
2. Infectious diseases in the mother during the period of gestation.
3. Adverse heredity.
4. The use of narcotic substances, alcohol-containing products.
5. Personality traits of the patient (low resistance to emotional stress, underdeveloped communication skills, isolation, obstinacy, lack of initiative).
6. Poor living conditions, low income or lack of work.
7. Disruption of family relations (quarrels, excessive custody, alienation of parents, psychological, physical or sexual violence, early loss of loved ones).

These factors are only the alleged causes of the development of the disorder. To date, scientists cannot give an exact answer to the question of why it arises.

Recurrent Schizophrenia

Experts say that this type of disease has a better prognosis compared to other forms of the disease. It usually develops in youth and is characterized by the onset of seizures. Moreover, in some individuals, exacerbation can occur only once. In others, deterioration is observed approximately twice a year. In most patients, recurrent schizophrenia attacks occur in a particular season (for example, spring or autumn). Pathology proceeds in several stages:

1. Disorders of an emotional nature, mood swings from elevated to depressed and passive.
2. The emergence of delusional thoughts and statements. The patient may claim that someone controls him, supervises. Some patients believe that the people around them are good and evil forces fighting each other.
3. Disorders of consciousness (freezing in one position, lack of reactions to external influences, visions of a fantastic nature).

There is a similar type of pathology - paroxysmal-progressive schizophrenia. It is characterized by exacerbations that develop rapidly, but with timely and adequate therapy, do not last long.

Paranoid type

Patients with this ailment have delusions that are not related to real life. For example, an individual may be convinced that he is of high origin, or be afraid of surveillance, a possible murder. Sometimes people with schizophrenia in a paranoid form express thoughts about the presence of dangerous diseases. Such statements are explained in an absurd manner. For example, a person claims that a microcircuit is inserted into his body, knocking down the body. Or the patient discovers a physical defect that does not actually exist. Schizophrenia in a paranoid form is characterized by auditory hallucinations.

Under their influence, the individual can harm his body or attack others.

Sluggish type of disease

In patients with a similar disorder, the pathology develops very slowly. The patient can lead a relatively normal lifestyle. The manifestations of the disorder are mild. In the event of a sluggish schizophrenia, the symptoms and signs are as follows:

1. Decrease in activity and circle of hobbies.
2. Poverty of emotions.
3. Strange behavior.
4. Attacks of nervousness, despair and depression.
5. Fears that are obsessive. Some patients are afraid of microbes, which does not allow them to calmly visit public places, to contact with people and makes them treat the surrounding objects with wet wipes.
6. Loss of communication with reality. Patients say that they are playing some role. Often, such patients become callous, callous.
7. The actions of individuals are distinguished by mannerism, they are prone to deception and tantrums, often wandering around.

A simple type of pathology

This form is characterized by a predominance of violations in the emotional sphere, intellectual activity. The disease occurs most often in adolescents.

Simple schizophrenia is difficult to recognize. Sometimes relatives explain the symptoms of the disorder in a loved one by lack of will or bad manners. However, it seems surprising to the family members of the patient that the once compliant young man becomes impudent, skips classes at school, closes in on himself, runs away from home, does not follow the rules of hygiene. There is a tendency to study global world problems, theories. Patients learn new skills with great difficulty. An individual with simple schizophrenia is characterized by passivity and indifference. He can spend hours in bed and do nothing. The person has no interest in relatives, irritability, attacks of causeless anger are observed. Such individuals are also characterized by violations of the sexual sphere and in eating behavior.

Hidden type of pathology

This is the mildest form of the disease. The disease is characterized by the presence of diverse, but weakly expressed manifestations.

In individuals with mild schizophrenia, the following symptoms and signs are observed:

1. Pretentious speech, unnatural movements, a strange manner of dressing.
2. The presence of significant thoughts in a person that he constantly expresses to others. Despite the large number of conceived plans, strategies, the activities of such patients do not bring results.
3. The patient prefers to be within his own home, alone with himself. His mood is often passive, there is indifference to the world, people, external events.

Schizophrenia in childhood

On the one hand, this disorder is quite easy to diagnose, since babies usually express their feelings more openly. On the other hand, the mental processes in minors are not fully formed. And this creates difficulties in identifying the disease. To make a diagnosis, the doctor needs to clearly know that for six months the child has at least two of the following symptoms:

1. Visions and hallucinations of a different nature. Parents may notice that the baby is as if listening to something or trying to make out an object that does not actually exist.
2. Reluctance to communicate with others. It seems to the child that they think badly of him.
3. Loss of interest in games, activities.
4. Hysterical behavior.
5. Causeless anxiety.

Consequences of Mental Disorder

Schizophrenia is a pathology that has not been fully studied. The exact reasons for its development remain a mystery. To date, there are no medicines that could relieve the patient of the symptoms of the disease once and for all. The genetic mechanisms of the occurrence of schizophrenia have not been fully studied whether this mental disorder is inherited. But there is evidence that, as pathology develops, changes occur in the individual's mental activity. Timely diagnosis and therapy can maximally avoid these undesirable consequences.

Identification of pathology. Her treatment

Before claiming that a person is sick with schizophrenia, careful monitoring of this individual is necessary. The prolonged (more than a month) presence of signs such as delusional ideas, visions, various types of hallucinations, impaired behavior and speech allow the doctor to determine the diagnosis. There are also tests and other methods that help identify the ailment. Some types of disorder (for example, a simple form of schizophrenia) are very difficult to determine. After all, their manifestations are dimly expressed. This explains the fact that many patients experience various complications due to delayed treatment.

Schizophrenia is a disease that requires constant use of medications. With the help of drugs, you can significantly reduce its symptoms. Agents such as Haloperidol and Aminazine are quite powerful, but hard to absorb. Newer drugs (Ziprasidone, Abilifay) are easier for patients to tolerate. They have a complex effect on receptors.