History and Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Study Notes

History of Schizophrenia

Dementia Praecox (early dementia) was a term first used by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin to describe the deterioration of mental function in those suffering from schizophrenia.
Eugene Bleuler later renamed the condition to Schizophrenia, recognizing the fragmentation of thought and mind.
Bleuler stated four fundamental symptoms of schizophrenia: blunt affect, disturbance of association, autism, and ambivalence.
Proponents of schizophrenia like Kurt Schneider, Ernest Kretschmer, Karl Jaspers, and Adolf Meyer emphasized the role of psychotic symptoms like hallucinations and delusions, as well as biological and psychological factors contributing to the conditions.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Positive Symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, and abnormal movements.
- Delusions: A false belief that is firmly held despite evidence to the contrary.
  - Persecutory - belief that one is being harmed or persecuted.
  - Erotomanic - belief that someone is in love with them.
- Hallucinations - sensory experiences that occur in the absence of any external stimuli.
- Disorganized Thinking (Speech)
  - Tangentiality - answering a question in an irrelevant or tangential manner.
  - Perseveration - repeatedly returning to the same topic or idea, despite not being relevant to the current conversation.
  - Neologism - creating new words or expressions.
  - Clang Association - using words based on their sound, rather than their meaning, resulting in a speech pattern that is more random and nonsensical.
Negative Symptoms include:
- Diminished Emotional Expression: Alogia, avolition, anhedonia, and associality.
  - Alogia - reduction in speech output.
  - Avolition - decrease in motivation and goal directed behavior.
  - Anhedonia - loss of interest or pleasure in activities.
  - Associality - lack of interest in social interactions.
Catatonia Symptoms:
- Stupor - lack of psychomotor activity.
- Catalepsy - rigid and fixed bodily positions.
- Mannerism - odd or unusual movements.
- Negativism - resisting external stimuli or instructions.
- Mutism - inability to speak.
- Stereotypy - repeating odd and repetitive movements.
- Echolalia - mimicking or repeating the speech of others.
- Echopraxia - mimicking or imitating the movements of others.

Schizophrenia vs Psychosis

Schizophrenia: A type of psychosis, characterized by continuous signs for at least six months.
Psychosis: A broad term describing a mental state where an individual loses touch with reality. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking.
- Brief Psychotic Disorder: Symptoms last at least one day but less than one month.