SCHIZOPHRENIA- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWBY CATHY CYWINSKI, MSW LCSW

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

• Hallucinations- false perception

• Delusions –fixed false belief

• Grossly Disorganized Speech and Behavior

• Tend to dress and act in odd ways

• Flat Affect

SYMPTOMS

• Hallucinations-can occur with any of the five senses:

• Auditory hallucinations

• Visual hallucinations

• Tactile hallucinations

• Olfactory hallucinations

• Gustatory hallucinations

SYMPTOMS

• Bizarre delusion – this simply translated means a delusionregarding something that CANNOT possibly happen.

• Nonbizarre delusion – this is a delusion regarding something thatCAN possibly happen.

COMMON TYPES OF DELUSIONS

• Grandiose

• Erotomanic

• Delusions of Control

• Religious

• Persecutory

• Referential

SYMPTOMS

• Disorganized Speech

• Loose associations- may go from one topic to another with no clear logic

• Tangentiality- answers to questions may be obliquely related or completelyunrelated

• Incoherence or word salad- speech may be so severely disorganized thatit is nearly incomprehensible

SYMPTOMS

• Grossly disorganized behavior

• A person may appear disheveled, may dress in an unusual manner (manylayers of clothes on a hot day), or may display inappropriate sexual behavior.

• Alogia-poverty of speech- brief, empty replies

• Avolition- inability to initiate and persist in goal directed activates. The person may sit for long

periods of time and show little interest in participating in work or social activities.

• Catatonic motor behaviors- a marked decrease in reactivity to the environments.

SYMPTOMS

• Negative Symptoms

• Affect flattening- a person’s face appearing immobile and unresponsive, with poor eye

contact and reduced body language

IS THERE SOMETHING TO FEAR

• Myth: People with a severe mental illness are violent and unpredictable.

• Fact: The vast majority of people with mental health problems are no more likely to be

violent than anyone else. Most people with mental illness are not violent and only 3%-5% of

violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact, people

with severe mental illnesses are over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than

the general population. (Survey from mentalhealth.gov)

• If a person talks about Command Hallucinations- a voice commanding them to do something

i.e. – hurt themselves or someone else, get help immediately.

TREATMENT

• Schizophrenia is associated with high levels of dopamine and unknown irregularities of

glutamate.

• Medications used to treat schizophrenia aim to decrease the amount of dopamine being

processed by the brain.

• Many of the medications used to treat schizophrenia have a high occurrence of

unpleasant side effects that must be concurrently treated.

WAYS TO MANAGE THOUGHT DISORDER

• Redirection

• Reflect back to a reality based topic

• When there is doubt

• Reality checking

• Stay on track

• Don’t feed into the delusion

• Questions?

• Comments?