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SCHIZOPHRENIA
Description |
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Symptoms |
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Anxiety
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Behaviour - apathetic
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Behaviour - changes
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Behaviour - cathatonic
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Behaviour - irritability
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Behaviour - lack of emotions
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Behaviour - mood changes
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Behaviour - social isolation
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Delusion
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Hallucinations |
Insomnia
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Memory - loss
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Mental concentration - disorder
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Mental confusion
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Mental depression
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Mental orientation - loss
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Mental reasoning - difficulty
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Movements - loss of coordination
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Movements - slowness |
Speech - changes
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Speech - difficulty
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Description |
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by profound disruption in
cognition and poor emotional responsiveness. Changes in thinking and behavior
are the most obvious symptoms of schizophrenia. People experience signs and
symptoms of schizophrenia in different ways.
The disorder mainly affects:
- Cognition,
- Behavior, and
- Emotion.
Signs and symptoms of schizophrenia generally are divided into three categories:
- Positive, meaning increase or alteration of normal functions, such as
hallucinations and thought disorders.
- Negative, reflecting decrease or loss of normal functions like social
withdrawal, lack of emotions, or loss of motivation.
- Cognitive. These symptoms may be difficult to recognize as part of the
disorder because they are related to the thinking processes. Examples of
cognitive symptoms can be memory problems and difficulty to understand
information.
In addition, there are three major subtypes of schizophrenia:
- Paranoid schizophrenia, in which delusions of persecution are common.
- Disorganized schizophrenia can be recognized by disorganized speech,
infant-like behavior and inappropriate emotions.
- Catatonic schizophrenia mainly reflects the lack or excess of motor activity.
The causes of schizophrenia are still unknown. However, genes may play a role.
Environmental factors can cause high levels of stress and may trigger the
disorder by increasing the body’s production of cortisol.
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Diagnosis |
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No single symptom is definitive for diagnosis. There are no medical tests or
standard criteria to diagnose schizophrenia. For instance, in Europe is used the
criteria ICD-10 while in others countries around the world is used the system
DSM-IV-TR. Diagnosis is approached according to the reported mental
abnormalities of each patient.
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More information: |
Schizophrenia
Treatment
Schizophrenia
Healthcare Centers
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