Schizophrenia occurs in approximately one percent of the population. There is no gender involved here. Schizophrenia can start at any age, but usually begins between the ages of 15 and 25 in men, and between the ages of 25 and 35 in women. Schizophrenia is proportionately more common in the lower social classes.
Definitions of terms related to schizophrenia
- Illusion: a real object is perceived. However, the characteristics or meaning of this object are misinterpreted. This happens under the influence of certain expectations. One is capable of correction when it appears that the perception is not in accordance with reality. The person concerned discovers that he has made a mistake or has imagined something;
- Hallucination: this does not involve a misinterpretation of what one hears, sees or feels. In fact, nothing is observed at all. The person concerned only has the idea that he is observing something. Hallucinations can involve all sensory functions: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The behavior of the person concerned can be influenced by the hallucinations. For example, the person concerned may hear voices that force him to carry out certain commands;
- Delusions or delusions: the person concerned does not recognize the incorrectness of thoughts in delusions or delusions, even if they are demonstrably contrary to reality. The person involved even defends the delusion. A delusion can arise suddenly. The delusion can immediately have persuasive power for the person involved. A delusion can also arise from experiences that are associated with the psychotic state or are linked to a serious mood disorder. Delusions can have different themes:
- One’s own person or existence: sin, guilt, greatness or omnipotence, belief in one’s own immortality, the denial of one’s own existence or the conviction of being worthless; idea of the end of the world, of poverty or wealth;
- One’s own body: belief of disease, infection, deformity or presence of a foreign object in the body; idea of spreading a disturbing odor;
- The outside world: the idea of being chased, harmed, discussed, or influenced by others; the belief that others input or withdraw thoughts; the idea that someone is in love with the person concerned; the belief that the partner is unfaithful.
Hallucinations and delusions are psychotic symptoms.
Nowadays, several researchers no longer consider psychotic symptoms as diseases that require treatment . It can make the patient very anxious, but it is also a way to deal with stressful circumstances. It would be a strategy to maintain an equilibrium, albeit disturbed, but functional for themselves.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia develops gradually. As a result, the beginning cannot always be indicated. It can manifest itself in the way we perceive, think, feel or even move. One patient with schizophrenia may have very different symptoms than another patient with schizophrenia. The picture in one and the same patient can also change over time. The psychotic episodes often alternate with a quiet period. During this quiet period, the symptoms are much less noticeable.
Both predisposition and environment play a role in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is equally common throughout the world. Someone with a predisposition to schizophrenia does not necessarily have to develop the disorder. It is estimated that ten to twenty percent of the population is predisposed to schizophrenia, while only one percent develop the disorder. The environment can activate or inhibit the predisposition. If someone is not predisposed to schizophrenia but grows up in an adverse environment, he cannot develop schizophrenia.
It turns out that schizophrenia is more common among immigrants. It occurs in both the first and second generations. However, it is more common in the second generation. These are the children of the immigrants. In England, for example, schizophrenia is nine times more common among the second generation of Afro-Carribbeans than among native English people. However, the disorder is not more common in the Caribbean. The high frequency of the disorder cannot therefore be explained by the different genetic predisposition. In the Netherlands we see a high risk of schizophrenia in Moroccan men. In the first generation, the risk is five times higher in this group. In the second generation this risk is seven times higher. Among the second generation of Surinamese and Antilleans, the figures are twice to four times as high. This figure is twice as high among second-generation Turks. It is striking that the risk of developing schizophrenia is only slightly increased in Moroccan women. It is currently not clear which environmental characteristics are responsible for the increased risk. Consideration is given to discrimination, humiliation and drug use.
Subgroups
Substantive thought disorders
- Mystical-religious or pseudoscientific ideas or other forms of magical thinking;
- Delusions so bizarre that they cannot possibly be true;
- Delusions of thought insertion or withdrawal (the person concerned believes that thoughts from outside are being put into or pulled out of his head);
- Delusions of influence (the person concerned believes that he is controlled by a power or force or, conversely, that he himself has special powers);
- Paranoid delusions (person feeling threatened or being chased);
- Hallucinations.
Formal thought disorders
- Confusion (the person involved jumps from topic to topic, it is impossible to make sense of their train of thought);
- Thinking often slows down;
- Patients suddenly lose what they are thinking about;
- Abstract thinking is affected (abstract concepts are explained concretely and figurative meanings are taken literally);
- Creating words that don’t exist;
- An artificial way of talking;
- Difficulty processing impressions from the environment;
- Concentration disorders.
Emotions
- Fear;
- Irritability;
- Emotional flattening
- Face is expressionless and voice has no expression whatsoever;
- Misplaced affect and laughter;
- Psychomotor disorders;
- Catatonic symptoms (examples include inertia or strange postures, a rigid facial expression, and regular, meaninglessly repetitive movements.
Four different types of schizophrenia
The symptoms are very diverse. To classify the symptoms, a division has been made between five different types of schizophrenia:
- The paranoid type;
- The disoriented type;
- The catatonic type
- The undifferentiated type;
- The residual state.
Violated in personal space
The behavior of patients with paranoid psychotic symptoms suggests that they feel that their personal space and territorial boundaries are constantly being violated. Their personal space has very wide boundaries. Others quickly become too close for them.