Schizophrenia is a rare disorder producing severe psychiatric and neurological symptoms in less than 1.1% of the world’s population. A lot of information is not yet known about this particular disorder and research continues all over the world to uncover more about it. Even though the exact cause is unknown, it is believed to occur due to a combination of factors such as genetics, environmental causes, etc. Symptoms primarily include hallucinations, delusions, and withdrawal tendencies. A better understanding of this disease is crucial for further development (both regarding the perspective of the disease and its current state of knowledge) to take place. This was facilitated by several authors in the 19th and 20th century, the likes of which included Eugen Bleuler and Kurt Schneider whose description of the symptomatologies gives a comprehensive view. This is mostly an introductory article focusing on the classification of the symptoms and their causes.
The core symptoms include:
1) Auditory hallucinations – Auditory perceptions with no cause
2) Thought withdrawal, insertion, and interruption – A person’s thoughts are under control of an outside agency
3) Thought broadcasting – As the person is thinking everyone is thinking along with him/her
4) Somatic hallucinations – A hallucination involving the perception of a physical experience with the body
5) Delusional Perception – A true perception, to which a person attributes a false meaning
6) Feelings or actions experienced as made or influenced by external agents
The above symptoms are the positive symptoms as they are not usually experienced by non-schizophrenic people.
All the other symptoms, like other forms of hallucinations, depressive or euphoric mood changes, emotional blunting and sudden delusional ideas are second-rank symptoms.
Positive-Negative Schizophrenia
Tim Crow, a leading psychiatrist, and researcher proposed a simple sub-classification of schizophrenia, based on the predominance of either positive or negative symptomatology .
“Type I” (positive) schizophrenia was characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and formal thought disorder, with a presumed underlying dopaminergic dysfunction. “Type II” (negative) schizophrenia displayed social withdrawal, loss of volition, affective flattening, and poverty of speech, presumed to be associated with structural brain abnormalities.
Cognitive Symptoms
Cognitive symptoms include problems in attention, concentration, and memory. Specifically, individuals typically experience
1) Difficulty processing information to make decisions
2) Problems using information immediately after learning it
3) Trouble focusing or paying attention
Causes
1) Genetics
2) Neurochemistry
3) Brain Pathology
4) Environmental Factors
References
1) Schneider K. Clinical Psychopathology. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1959.
2) Crow TJ. Molecular pathology of schizophrenia: more than one disease process? . BMJ.1980;280:66–68.
3) Harvey, PD and Bowie CR . Cognitive deficits and functional outcome in schizophrenia.
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