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PHYSICAL EXAM
May include measuring height and weight, vitals, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, listening to heart and lungs, examining the abdomen
A person must meet certain symptom criteria to be diagnosed with disorganized schizophrenia. These symptoms include:
LABORATORY TESTS
May include a complete blood count, screening for alcohol and drugs, and checking the thyroid function.
1. Disorganized speech
2. Disorganized behavior
3. Lack of emotion
4. Inappropriate emotions
What is disorganized schizophrenia?
Symptoms of disorganized schizophrenia
What causes disorganized schizophrenia?
Complications with untreated disorganized schizophrenia
Tests and diagnostics
Treatments for disorganized schizophrenia
PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION
Doctors or mental health providers will interview the person that has a possibility of having disorganized schizophrenia about thoughts, feelings, and behavior patterns.
Experts are not sure what the causes of disorganized schizophrenia and all other types of schizophrenia are. Studies suggest there is some kind of brain dysfunction, probably caused by a combination of environmental triggers and genetic factors.
Changes in key brain functions, such as awareness, emotion and behavior lead experts to conclude that the brain is the biological site of schizophrenia.
Pharmacological treatments support the idea that an overactive dopamine system may result in schizophrenia: Medications that block dopamine receptors, specifically D2 receptors, reduce schizophrenia symptoms.
Doctors say that most likely an imbalance of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, is involved in the onset of schizophrenia. They say this imbalance is probably caused by your genes making you susceptible to the illness. Some say the levels of other neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, may also be involved. Divergent thinking, which affects the way individuals arrive at ideas, is also affected by dopamine activity.
Imaging studies show differences in the brain structure of people with schizophrenia, but the significance of these changes in unclear.
Disorganized schizophrenia and genetics?
It has been long understood that disorganized schizophrenia runs in families. People who have a close relative with this type of schizophrenia are more likely to develop the disorder than are people who have no relatives with the illness.
What are environmental triggers?
Imagine your body has a load of buttons, and some of these buttons result in schizophrenia if enough of them are pressed, and pressed in the right sequence. The buttons would be your genetic susceptibility, while whatever pressed them would be the environmental triggers.
Disorganized schizophrenia is a subtype of schizophrenia. An affected person has disorganized speech and behaviour, and has flat or inappropriate emotions. Hallucinations and delusions are less pronounced in this subtype but there may be some evidence of these symptoms. Affected people have significant impairments in their ability to maintain the activities of daily living and they also have significant impairment to communicate properly. They cannot stay on track during a conversation - jumping from one unrelated idea to another. Individuals with this mental disorder may have impairment in their emotional processes so their emotions may be unstable or unsuitable for a certain time.
Scientists are continuing to study and better understand the genetic factors related to disorganized schizophrenia. We inherit our genes from both parents. Scientists believe several genes are associated with an increased risk of disorganized schizophrenia, but that no gene causes the disease by itself.
Left untreated, disorganized schizophrenia can result in severe emotional, behavioral, health, and even financial problems such as:
- Suicidal thoughts or behaviors
- Self-destructive behavior
- Inability to perform daily tasks
- Frequent hospitalizations
- Depression
- Abuse of alcohol and/or drugs
- Poverty
-Homelessness
- Crime
Could disorganized schizophrenia be caused by a physical abnormality in the brain? There have been dramatic advances in neuro-imaging technology that allow scientists to study the brains structure and functions in living individuals. Many studies of people with schizophrenia have found abnormalities in brain structure. studies of brain tissue after death have also shown small changes in distribution or number of brain cells in people with schizophrenia. It appears that many of these changes are present before an individual becomes ill, and schizophrenia may be a disorder in development of the brain.
Prenatal problems and schizophrenia?
Factors such as prenatal difficulties like intrauterine starvation or viral infections, perinatal complications, and various nonspecific stressors, seem to influence the development of disorganized schizophrenia. However, it is not yet understood how the genetic predisposition is transmitted, and it cannot yet be accurately predicted whether a given person will or will not develop the disorder.
DISORGANIZED THINKING
Illogical, nonsensical thought patterns that are noticeable in the way the person talks. The person may not be able to stay on track with a conversation. Making up words is common in disorganized schizophrenics and written communications can also seem disorganized.
HOSPITALIZATION
During crisis periods or times of severe symptoms hospitalization may be necessary to help the person with disorganized schizophrenia.
Disorganized schizophrenia is a chronic condition that requires lifelong treatment, even when symptoms have lifted.
ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY (ECT)
A procedure in which electric currents are passed through the brain to trigger a brief seizure. This causes changes in brain chemistry that can reduce symptoms.
TREATMENT TEAMS
These teams help the affected person deal with their condition in different ways. Team members may include:
Family doctors, psychotherapists, family members, pharmacists, nurses, social workers, etc...
ABSENT OR INAPPROPRIATE EXPRESSION
A person with disorganized schizophrenia may have a blank face and have no eye contact or body language with another person. They may show emotion at times but the emotional range is very limited compared to other people. Affected people may also have problems with something known as the "flat effect" People with this disorder also do things such as laughing at a funeral.
OTHER SYMPTOMS
- Beliefs not based on reality (delusions)
- Hallucinations (though not as common as it is in other types of schizophrenia)
- Grimacing
- Odd postures
- Troubles functioning at school or work
- Social isolation
- Clumsy or uncoordinated movement
- Suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors
Main treatments for disorganized schizophrenics are medications, psychotherapy, hospitalization, electroconvulsive therapy, and vocational skills therapy.
DISORGANIZED BEHAVIOR
Confronting others without a logical reason or doing something like wearing many layers of clothing on a warm day could be a sign that a person has disorganized schizophrenia. The person may also have a messy appearance and have difficulties with every day tasks like brushing their hair or teeth, getting dressed, bathing, etc.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
There are two types of psychotherapy that can help an individual that has disorganized schizophrenia:
1. INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
Cognitive behavior therapy helps people with mental health problems recognize and change harmful ideas and behaviors that they may have.
2. FAMILY THERAPY
Family therapy helps families of affected people understand the disorder, and it also helps the affected person with communication skills.
MEDICATIONS
The most commonly prescribed medications for diagnosed schizophrenia are:
1. FIRST GENERATION (TYPICAL) ANTIPSYCHOTICS
This medication controls symptoms by affecting brain chemicals. It is very effective in helping delusions.
2. SECOND EDITION (ATYPICAL) ANTIPSYCHOTICS
This is a newer medication that manages loss of motivation and helps with lack of/inappropriate emotions.