There are three main symptoms of schizophrenia, delusions, hallucinations, and thought disorder. Delusions are false beliefs in which the person cannot change, such as believing they are a fictional character, or icon. Hallucinations are usually voices, sights, or visions that only the patient can hear, see, or even smell. These voices can make demands by ordering their victim to do things, or sometimes giving warnings. When a patient has a thought disorder, this usually means he or she has difficulty organizing thoughts.
Outline and evaluate the issues associated with the classification and/or diagnosis of schizophrenia (24 marks) Schizophrenia is a severe debilitating psychotic disorder that involves abnormal perceptions and thoughts. It has been described as a disintegration of the personality. The person loses insight and touch with reality thus failing to realise that they have a mental problem. It involves a range of psychotic symptoms where there is a break from reality. Crow (1980) distinguishes between two types of schizophrenia: Type 1 is characterised by positive symptoms were something is added to the sufferer’s personality such as auditory or visual hallucinations; Type 2 is characterised by negative symptoms where something is take away such as there is lack of emotion or limited use of speech.
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, experience of control, hallucinations and disordered thinking. Delusions are bizarre beliefs that seem real to the person with schizophrenia but in fact, are not actually real. Sometimes these delusions can be paranoid in nature. Delusions may also involve inflated beliefs about the person’s power and importance. Experience of control is where a person with schizophrenia may believe that they are under the control of an alien force that has invaded their mind or body.
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth was unable to make his own decisions which lead to his downfall of his mental state. Macbeth is considered a Schizophrenic because he possesses the symptoms of paranoia, anxiety, hallucinations and confused state of mind. In many scenes of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth possesses many of the symptoms a Schizophrenic would possess. Paranoia, disordered speech, anxiety, and confused states of mind are the typical symptoms that a Schizophrenic would have. In many different cases there are different serveries of each of the symptoms.
Eventually, the narrator heads inside to see his friend. Roderick indeed appears to be a sick man. He suffers from an "acuteness of the senses," or hyper-sensitivity to light, sound, taste, and tactile sensations; he feels that he will die of the fear he feels. He attributes part of his illness to the fact that his sister, Madeline, suffers from catalepsy (a sickness involving seizures) and will soon die, and part of it to the belief that his creepy house is sentient (able to perceive things) and has a great power over him. He hasn’t left the mansion in years.
Additionally a schizophrenic person may have hallucinations that can include hearing voices or feeling things such as bugs crawling on them but these are unreal perceptions. Another positive symptom is disordered thinking. They may have loosely associated speech or be incoherent and the person feels as though their thoughts have been inserted or withdrawn from their mind. Negative symptoms usually consist of a loss of normal functions such as a reduction in range and intensity of emotional expressions which can be the tone of voice or facial expressions. Similarly, alogia is a negative symptom of schizophrenia.
Gregory (2010) describes Schizophrenia as the perfect example of a severe mental illness. The world is an incomprehensible jumble for Schizophrenics and the line between delusion and reality is blurred, if not obliterated. The American Psychiatric Association (2013) categorises Schizophrenia as a psychotic disorder, with abnormalities in one or more of 5 domains. These are delusions, hallucinations, disorganised thinking and speech, and grossly disorganised or abnormal motor behaviour such as catatonia. If these delusions and beliefs are not understandable to cultural peers and not related to ordinary life experiences, they are deemed to be bizarre (The American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Understand mental health problems 1.1 According to the psychiatric classification system there are 7 main types of mental ill health disorder. These are: Mood disorders – is a disorder that involves persistent feelings of sadness or moments of feeling extreme happiness to extreme sadness. The most common mood disorders are depression and bipolar disorder. Personality disorders – people with personality disorders have extreme personality traits that are distressing to the person and cause problems in work, school or social relationships. The person’s patterns of thinking and behaviour differ from the expectations in society and they interfere with the persons normal functioning.
The manuals are frequently revised and it has recently been updated to DSM V. There are five different types of schizophrenia; paranoid, disorganised, catatonic, residual and undifferentiated. The paranoid type believe people are plotting against them, are anxious, suffer from delusions, are suspicious of people and they respond to medication. The disorganised type is the silly mind and they suffer from the ‘flat effect’ which is a monotone voice and disorganised speech and behaviour. The catatonic type is when a person has problems with their motor movements; either uncontrollable motor movement or being stood like a statue and mute. The residual type is a milder form of schizophrenia and symptoms are reduced in number and intensity.
is a complex disorder characterized by hallucinations (mostly being hearing voices), delusions (beliefs with no basis in reality), and disturbances in speech. Psychiatrists classify the symptoms into negative and positive categories for schizophrenia. The positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and an altered sense of self. The negative symptoms are a lack of motivation or apathy, blunted feelings, depression or social withdraw. There are three main types of Schizophrenias.