Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by a disintegration of the process of thinking, of contact with reality, and of emotional responsiveness. Thought problems are described as psychosis as the person’s thinking is out of touch with reality. Schizophrenic individuals may have disorganized speech and behavior or physically rigid or lax behavior.
They may also have decreased behaviors or feelings. Often, schizophrenics suffer from hallucinations (sensing things that are not real) or delusions (unrealistic beliefs) or both.
There are five subtypes of schizophrenia, each depending on the types of symptoms that appear. The subtypes are: Paranoid Type, Disorganized Type, Catatonic Type, Residual Type, and Undifferentiated Type.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mood disorder that occurs alongside symptoms that resemble schizophrenia (especially social withdrawal and loss of personality). The psychiatric diagnosis of the disorder describes it as a mental disorder characterized by recurring episodes of elevated or depressed mood, or of simultaneously elevated and depressed mood that alternate with, or occur together with, distortions in perception.
For more information on Schizophrenia, please click on the following links:
- http://www.schizophrenia.com/
- http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/schizophrenia/DS00196