my sister in law goes off sometimes in a manic state and people say that she is schizophrenic. The most common early warning signs of schizophrenia include:
Social withdrawal
Hostility or suspiciousness
Deterioration of personal hygiene
Flat, expressionless gaze
Inability to cry or express joy
Inappropriate laughter or crying
Depression
Oversleeping or insomnia
Odd or irrational statements
Forgetful; unable to concentrate
Extreme reaction to criticism
Strange use of words or way of speaking
Delusions
A delusion is a firmly-held idea that a person has despite clear and obvious evidence that it isn鈥檛 true. Delusions are extremely common in schizophrenia, occurring in more than 90% of patients. Often, these delusions involve illogical or bizarre ideas or fantasies. Common schizophrenic delusions include:
Delusions of persecution 鈥?Belief that others, often a vague 鈥渢hey,鈥?are out to get him or her. These persecutory delusions often involve bizarre ideas and plots (e.g. 鈥淢artians are trying to poison me with radioactive particles delivered through my tap water鈥?.
Delusions of reference 鈥?A neutral environmental event is believed to have a special and personal meaning. For example, a person with schizophrenia might believe a billboard or a person on TV is sending a message meant specifically for them.
Delusions of grandeur 鈥?Belief that one is a famous or important figure, such as Jesus Christ or Napolean. Alternately, delusions of grandeur may involve the belief that one has unusual powers that no one else has (e.g. the ability to fly).
Delusions of control 鈥?Belief that one鈥檚 thoughts or actions are being controlled by outside, alien forces. Common delusions of control include thought broadcasting (鈥淢y private thoughts are being transmitted to others鈥?, thought insertion (鈥淪omeone is planting thoughts in my head鈥?, and thought withdrawal (鈥淭he CIA is robbing me of my thoughts.鈥?.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are sounds or other sensations experienced as real when they exist only in the person's mind. While hallucinations can involve any of the five senses, auditory hallucinations (e.g. hearing voices or some other sound) are most common in schizophrenia. Visual hallucinations are also relatively common. Research suggests that auditory hallucinations occur when people misinterpret their own inner self-talk as coming from an outside source.
Schizophrenic hallucinations are usually meaningful to the person experiencing them. Many times, the voices are those of someone they know. Most commonly, the voices are critical, vulgar, or abusive. Hallucinations also tend to be worse when the person is alone.
Disorganized speech
Fragmented thinking is characteristic of schizophrenia. Externally, it can be observed in the way a person speaks. People with schizophrenia tend to have trouble concentrating and maintaining a train of thought. They may respond to queries with an unrelated answer, start sentences with one topic and end somewhere completely different, speak incoherently, or say illogical things.
Common signs of disorganized speech in schizophrenia include:
Loose associations 鈥?Rapidly shifting from topic to topic, with no connection between one thought and the next.
Neologisms 鈥?Made-up words or phrases that only have meaning to the patient.
Perseveration 鈥?Repetition of words and statements; saying the same thing over and over.
Clang 鈥?Meaningless use of rhyming words (鈥淚 said the bread and read the shed and fed Ned at the head.").
Disorganized behavior
Schizophrenia disrupts goal-directed activity, causing impairments in a person鈥檚 ability to take care of him or herself, work, and interact with others. Disorganized behavior appears as:
A decline in overall daily functioning
Unpredictable or inappropriate emotional responses
Behaviors that appear bizarre and have no purpose
Lack of inhibition and impulse control.
Negative symptoms
The negative symptoms of schizophrenia refer to the absence of normal behaviors found in healthy individuals. Important negative symptoms of schizophrenia include:
Flattened or blunted affect: Lack of emotional expression, including a flat voice, lack of eye contact, and blank or restricted facial expressions.
Avolition: Lack of interest or enthusiasm; no ability to pursue goal-driven activities.
Catatonia: Apparent unawareness of the environment, near total absence of motion and speech, aimless body movements and bizarre postures, lack of self-care.
Alogia: Difficulties with speech, inability to carry a conversation, short and sometimes disconnected replies to questions, lessening of fluency.
鈥淧ositive鈥?Symptoms of Schizophrenia
In contrast to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, which refer to normal behaviors that are absent, positive symptoms refer to abnormal behaviors that are present. Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and disorganized behavior are all positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
Types of schizophrenia
There are three major subtypes of schizophrenia, each classified by their most prominent symptom: paranoid schizophrenia, disorganized schizophrenia, and catatonic schizophrenia.
Signs and symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia
The defining feature of paranoid schizophrenia is absurd or suspicious ideas and beliefs. These ideas typically revolve around a coherent, organized theme or 鈥渟tory鈥?that remains consistent over time. Delusions of persecution are the most frequent theme, however delusions of grandeur are also common.
People with paranoid schizophrenia show a history of increasing paranoia and difficulties in their relationships. They tend to function better than individuals with other schizophrenic subtypes. In contrast, their thinking and behavior is less disordered and their long-term prognosis is better.
Signs and symptoms of disorganized schizophrenia
Disorganized schizophrenia generally appears at an earlier age than other types of schizophrenia. Its onset is gradual, rather than abrupt, with the person gradually retreating into his or her fantasies. The distinguishing characteristics of this subtype are disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and blunted or inappropriate emotions. People with disorganized schizophrenia also have trouble taking care of themselves, and may be unable to perform simple tasks such as bathing or feeding themselves.
The symptoms of disorganized schizophrenia include:
Impaired communication skills
Incomprehensible or illogical speech
Emotional indifference
Inappropriate reactions (e.g. laughing at a funeral)
Infantile behavior (baby talk, giggling)
Peculiar facial expressions and mannerisms
People with disorganized schizophrenia sometimes suffer from hallucinations and delusions, but unlike the paranoid subtype, their fantasies aren鈥檛 consistent or organized.
Signs and symptoms of catatonic schizophrenia
The hallmark of catanoic schizophrenia is a disturbance in movement: either a decrease in motor activity, reflecting a stuporous state, or an increase in motor activity, reflecting an excited state.
Stuporous motor signs 鈥?The stuporous state reflects a dramatic reduction in activity. The person often ceases all voluntary movement and speech, and may be extremely resistant to any change in his or her position, even to the point of holding an awkward, uncomfortable position for hours.
Excited motor signs 鈥?Sometimes, people with catatonic schizophrenia pass suddenly from a state of stupor to a state of extreme excitement. During this frenzied episode, they may shout, talk rapidly, pace back and forth, or act out in violence鈥攅ither toward themselves or others.
People with catatonic schizophrenia can be highly suggestible. They may automatically obey commands, imitate the actions of others, or mimic what others say.
Causes of schizophrenia
The causes of schizophrenia are not fully known. However, it appears that schizophrenia usually results from a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors.
Genetic causes of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia has a strong hereditary component. Individuals with a first-degree relative (parent or sibling) who has schizophrenia have a 10 percent chance of developing the disorder, as opposed to the 1 percent chance of the general population. But schizophrenia is only influenced by genetics, not determined by it. While schizophrenia runs in families, about 60% of schizophrenics have no family members with the disorder. Furthermore, individuals who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia don鈥檛 always develop the disease, which shows that biology is not destiny.
Environmental causes of schizophrenia
Twin and adoption studies suggest that inherited genes make a person vulnerable to schizophrenia and then environmental factors act on this vulnerability to trigger the disorder. As for the environmental factors involved, more and more research is pointing to stress, either during pregnancy or at a later stage of development. High levels of stress are believed to trigger schizophrenia by increasing the body鈥檚 production of the hormone cortisol.
Research points to several stress-inducing environmental factors that may be involved in schizophrenia, including:
Prenatal exposure to a viral infection
Low oxygen levels during birth (from prolonged labor or premature birth)
Exposure to a virus during infancy
Early parental loss or separation
Physical or sexual abuse in childhood
Brain chemical imbalances
There is evidence that chemical imbalances in certain neurotransmitters, proteins, and amino acids play a role in causing schizophrenia.
Dopamine 鈥?Dopamine is the primary brain chemical implicated in schizophrenia. The dopamine hypothesis suggests that an excess of dopamine in the brain contributes to schizophrenia.
Glutamate 鈥?Glutamate is another important neurotransmitter implicated in schizophrenia. Studies show an underactivity of glut Many people confuse the term schizophrenic with psychotic.
Mania is generally not associated with schizophrenia, but it is with bipolar disorder. Also, mania should not be confused with hyperactivity, although seeming to have unlimited energy is one of the mania symptoms.
There are many types of schizophrenia, but you have not given alot of information about her, except for her mania. Schizophrenia is generalized by hallucinations and delusions. You mentioned neither of those, and since the general population knows nothing about psychology, I am going to guess that they just threw the term schizophrenia around to sound impressive.
Please do not base anything off these copy and paste jobs. You are not qualified to diagnose a mental disorder. Also, i want to point out to whoever said it was catatonic schizophrenia is a complete idiot because catatonics dont even move AT ALL let alone have manic episodes.
Either way, she should go to the doctor if it is really that bad. A random act of hyperactivity is not a sign of mental illness, though. Most people don't know what schizophrenia is. In fact, most doctors don't know enough about schizophrenia to be able to diagnose it. It can only be diagnosed by specially trained mental health doctors. So whatever people say, it doesn't mean she has schizophrenia. In fact, it's quite unlikely because schizophrenia is quite a rare illness; fewer than 1% of people have it.
If your sister in law becomes manic, she is unlikely to have schizophrenia, but might have bi-polar disorder.
If her behaviour is really unusual, and if she has a mental illness, it will probably take a few visits to a psychiatrist to arrive at a diagnosis. It's really helpful for the patient to have a supportive family during this process, so I hope you'll be able to support her whatever her condition turns out to be.
Good luck! There are five types of schizophrenia.
Paranoid-type schizophrenia is characterized by delusions and auditory hallucinations but relatively normal intellectual functioning and expression of affect. The delusions can often be about being persecuted unfairly or being some other person who is famous. People with paranoid-type schizophrenia can exhibit anger, aloofness, anxiety, and argumentativeness.
Disorganized-type schizophrenia is characterized by speech and behavior that are disorganized or difficult to understand, and flattening or inappropriate emotions. People with disorganized-type schizophrenia may laugh at the changing color of a traffic light or at something not closely related to what they are saying or doing. Their disorganized behavior may disrupt normal activities, such as showering, dressing, and preparing meals.
Catatonic-type schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances of movement. People with catatonic-type schizophrenia may keep themselves completely immobile or move all over the place. They may not say anything for hours, or they may repeat anything you say or do senselessly. Either way, the behavior is putting these people at high risk because it impairs their ability to take care of themselves.
Undifferentiated-type schizophrenia is characterized by some symptoms seen in all of the above types but not enough of any one of them to define it as another particular type of schizophrenia.
Residual-type schizophrenia is characterized by a past history of at least one episode of schizophrenia, but the person currently has no positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or behavior). It may represent a transition between a full-blown episode and complete remission, or it may continue for years without any further psychotic episodes.
http://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/guide...
It might be the cataonic one.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cataton... |
