What happens when you have paranoid schizophrenia?
Depression vector created by pch.vector - www.freepik.com
In the last post, we saw how:
Among the types of schizophrenia are the disorganized type and the catatonic type
Schizoaffective disorder has a more insidious course when compared to schizophrenia
Remission is difficult to attain without appropriate medication.
What are the main differences between Schizophrenia and Schizotypal Personality Disorder?
Welcome to Medic Vibes, where we discuss mental health disorders and make sense of them. Dr Ebingo Kigigha is a medical doctor (aspiring psychiatrist) and creative person (illustration and music). This has been our routine for three consecutive months. This month will be dedicated to Schizophrenia. In the first month, we discussed Depression, and in the subsequent month, anxiety. We just finished with Bipolar affective disorder. We are done looking at research work done in Nigeria on schizophrenia.
In this post, we are looking at a Quora. To learn more just keep scrolling down. You can also skip to the key point of the post if you which or go to the conclusion to get the summary.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Some studies have tried to compare the neuroendocrine background of patients with schizophrenia and groups used as control. Dexamethasone suppression tests in these studies are abnormal in some groups of patients with schizophrenia. The problem with this test is that it does not hold a good predictive value. One test was able to find the poor outcome in patients with schizophrenia who have non-suppression.
In some other research there has been reduced follicular stimulating hormone this may however only relate to the duration and length of the condition.
Paranoid Schizophrenia
According to Clivlandclinc, paranoid schizophrenia is an outdated term used to describe a subtype of schizophrenia. It is not used by a psychiatrist to describe it any more. Schizophrenia is seen as a specific disease and it is a continuum.
In 2013 when the DSM 5 was being made paranoid schizophrenia was removed from the list of diagnoses. This old term is used to illustrate a type of schizophrenia with marked paranoia and delusion.
Schizophrenia affects both sexes at the same rate but starts at different ages. For males, it is somewhere between 15 to 25 while for females it is between 25 to 35. It is not very common for children to be schizophrenic but it can happen.
Schizophrenia is not a very common condition, but most people can describe it in the world there are about 2.8 million new cases.
Schizophrenia affects the brain, it affects thinking, recall, and presents hallucinations. There is usually a problem with being able to know if something is real or is a hallucination.
The main features of schizophrenia are abnormal beliefs in things that are not sure, seeing and hearing things and people that are not there, speaking ununderstandable words, and behaving bizarrely.
It use to be a specific subtype but it has been noted that paranoia is common in schizophrenia. In paranoid schizophrenia, the patient lacks trust and has reason to suspect those around them. The delusions in paranoia are usually those of persecution.
The patient usually lacks insight into the condition that they have. This is usually called a lack of insight. The person can not see any signs and symptoms proof that they are dealing with schizophrenia.
Nobody is still sure about the cause of schizophrenia. Experts are still working on understanding the changes that are seen in the brain, and genetics and relating them to schizophrenia.
What we know for sure is that schizophrenia is not a contagious disease and it cannot be gotten from a person who has it.
Since there are no tests for schizophrenia it usually requires an expert to diagnose using the symptoms and criteria available.
Most other tests done in a patient suspected of having schizophrenia are done to confirm that it is not any other condition.
Treatment
Chris Harding who has a bachelor's degree in Chemical engineering explains through sources that Paranoid schizophrenia is one of the forms of schizophrenia.
Paranoid schizophrenia falls into the continuum of schizophrenic disorders. The word health organization see it as one of the worse diseases to have. It is also called the cancer of mental illness.
The positive symptoms seen in schizophrenia include hallucinations and delusions, the negative symptoms are social withdrawal, and depressed mood and cognitive symptoms are forgetfulness inability to focus and reduced IQ
The basic understanding is that positive symptoms are additional symptoms while negative symptoms take away from the patient. The cognitive symptoms don’t allow for mental functioning.
The disorders are seen in schizophrenia multifaceted because every individual will experience life differently and it is those experiences that cause a difference in they perceive things.
Late-onset schizophrenia is a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder. They will have a delusional reference and lead to thoughts that one problem is related to another.
The writer expressed that because he is dealing with schizophrenia he can no longer work because stress has been known to make his symptoms worst.
It is always possible to manage the symptoms of schizophrenia and have them disappear but there is no way to have them go permanently. Some people take treatment and the symptoms never come back, they are episodes free but those people are thought of as being in remission. When a patient is in remission, nobody is sure when the clinical features will come back.
The best way to treat this condition is through the use of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. The patient needs to receive therapy regularly to get better.
The drugs used in schizophrenia are the typical and atypical antipsychotics. The other medication used helps to treat the side effects of the antipsychotic medication.
Psychotherapy helps the patient cope with the condition better
Electroconvulsive therapy is usually used when medication does not work. It is also very common to use when the features are very severe.
Get help in emergencies. If someone with schizophrenia talks about harming themselves or others, or if they show severe paranoia, agitation or act violently, you should call your local emergency services immediately.
Questions
- What did you learn about Schizophrenia?
Conclusion
There is a neuroendocrine aspect to schizophrenia that is not totally confirmed.
Paranoid schizophrenia is outdated naiming system for a subbtype of schizophrenia because every trupe of schizophrenia presents with schizophrenia.
Therapy in schizophrenia leads to remission in symptoms but there is no cure for schizophrenia
References
- Kaplan-Sadocks-Comprehensive-Textbook-Psychiatry
- Page demarcations made with Inkscape.org
- Encyclopedia