ry searching the definition of Schizophrenia, I can guarantee that you will find one common definition throughout the internet. “Schizophrenia is defined as an umbrella of psychotic disorders that involve disturbances in thought, language, perception, communication and behavior”.
That’s because it literally is an umbrella of psychotic disorders. According to the American Psychiatric Association 1994, a schizophrenic patient has to deal with hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, movement disorders and inappropriate emotional expressions in their everyday life.
Schizophrenia occurs in all ethnic groups and in all parts of the world, However it is 10 to 100 times more common in Western countries than in Third World countries.
Symptoms
…show more content…
Delusions and hallucinations fall into this category. Delusions are unsubstantiated beliefs, such as the outer space aliens are trying to control my behavior. Hallucinations can either be auditory or visual. In some extreme conditions, visual and auditory hallucinations may occur together. Auditory hallucinations are the most common types of hallucinations where schizophrenic patients often hear voices in their heads which can cause patients to react and behave aggressively or in some cases even commit suicide. Visual hallucinations are very rare, patients suffering with visual hallucinations often see fictional figures like demons or sometimes angles, in some cases patients visualize insects crawling all over their body or even flashing lights. Positive symptoms are treatable with the help of Anti-psychotic drugs.
On the other hand you have negative symptoms, these symptoms are described as more psychological. Negative symptoms include flat effect, intellectual impairment and loosening of associations. Negative symptoms remain consistent over time and are difficult to treat. counselling helps reduce negative symptoms and that’s why schizophrenic patients are advised to undergo counselling sessions