Very often people call each other“Schizophrenics” simply for emotional incontinence, some impulsiveness, or a late brain response. Often, this is how people are called impermanent and easily changing their decisions. How little we put into this concept and how much we don’t know about what is actually a disease, how it manifests itself and what are the stages of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a whole group of mentaldisorders that are associated with a violation of emotional reactions, disorders of perception of the world, themselves in it and thinking. Schizophrenia can be recognized by a number of distinguishing features:
Because of the extensive list of symptoms, discussions are still underway on whether schizophrenia can be considered a separate disease, or is this the diagnosis behind which lies the diversity of syndromes and mental disorders.
Studies show that on the planet approximately0.5 percent of the total population is at one stage or another of the disease. Most often, the disorder begins to manifest itself at a young age, in the region of 20-30 years. Both men and women are equally affected.
It is known that people living in a city suffer fromschizophrenia much more often than rural residents. Someone associates the risks of getting sick with a genetic predisposition. It has been proven that if a family of close relatives (mom, dad, brother or sister) suffers from this disease, the probability of starting the stages of schizophrenia step by step is much higher.
Increase the risks of becoming schizophrenic and alcoholnarcotic substances. Although there is also a theory that, on the contrary, links drug addiction and alcohol dependence with the desire to prevent discomfort and fears associated with mental illnesses.
Interesting dependence of the risk of developing the diseasecan be observed by studying the statistics. According to the figures, people born in spring and winter get sick much more often. Also transmitted infections in the womb increase the psyche susceptibility to the disease.
The most popular cause of originschizophrenia is considered dopamine theory. In healthy people, the hormone dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for the psycho-emotional state of a person, is produced in a certain amount. Low or elevated levels of this hormone cause hallucinations, mania, delirium - the main symptoms of schizophrenia.
There are three main groups of symptoms:
Like many diseases, schizophrenia hasprodromal period. This is the earliest stage of schizophrenia. This is the period when the disease has not yet begun to develop, but some features and the very first symptoms of the disease can already tell the doctor and patient about the upcoming disease. It has been proven that in the case of schizophrenia, such symptoms can be noticed about thirty months before the onset of obvious symptoms.
Symptoms of prodrome:
1. The initial period - the initial stage of schizophrenia. Symptoms after the prodromal period are aggravated and become more pronounced. This stage lasts until aggravation. Characteristic:
2. Active, acute phase. This period of illness usually lasts from a month to two. Characteristic of this stage of schizophrenia are the symptoms:
3.The final stage is characterized by deficient symptoms (apathy, indifference, frightening calm). It occurs after the acute phase and is especially pronounced if no appropriate therapy has been carried out.
4. Remissions. When the first stages of schizophrenia pass, life is getting better and it seems to return to its former course.
5. relapses.Most often, schizophrenia returns, and the patient (and his relatives) have to go through all the mental illness again. All stages of the disease can be repeated in turn over many years. You can often notice the patterns and characteristics of the disease in a particular person. With age, the number of relapses usually increases, but there are also cases of complete recovery.
These stages of schizophrenia are divided very arbitrarily.But each illness is cyclical, and these cycles throughout life repeat one after another. Schizophrenics often live permanently in some kind of their own world. And it begins roughly from adolescence. Manifestations of the disease are quite individual. Someone during exacerbations simply ceases to perceive the world around us and becomes locked in itself. Some suffer severe seizures with complete loss of themselves, requiring immediate hospitalization.
Many patients in remission live normallife and hope for a full recovery. But more often they try to spend as much time as possible alone, they are not interested in the opposite sex and are in constant fear of relapse.
Drug treatment has a positive effect on the manifestations of the disease. It relieves symptoms and improves the general well-being of patients.
Treatment of schizophrenia is more symptomatic, consists of medical drugs (tranquilizers) and various ways of social and psychological support.
In the acute / active phase of schizophrenia, recommendundergo treatment in the hospital. This will protect the patient from suicide in the heat of passion, help the relatives of the patient, since caring for such a patient is very difficult and individual (most often they lose the ability to care for themselves, and their behavior is characterized as socially unacceptable). In addition, hospital treatments lead to the early onset of remission.
Most often, patients with schizophrenia after a period of exacerbation remain viable, and with the support of medicines and the psychotherapist can lead a normal life and work.
