schizophrenia is essentially this
disorder that's present all the time or
sometimes we say that it's chronic and
it's characterized by someone not being
able to tell what's real and what's not
real and it affects about 1% of the
general US population or about 3 million
Americans with an onset typically
happening around the late teens to early
20s and this onset is usually brought on
by some sort of stressful life event
like starting a new job or going off to
college but about 15 to 20 percent of
cases account for either late onset
which is above 40 years old or very late
onset above 60 years old
clinically though schizophrenia is
actually a syndrome meaning that people
can have different types of symptoms so
even like different types of
hallucinations or delusions but they're
all associated with schizophrenia so
when we talk about symptoms of
schizophrenia we can separate them into
positive and negative symptoms and when
we say positive and negative though we
don't mean like these positive symptoms
are good symptoms and negative are bad
we mean that these positive symptoms are
usually like exaggerations of normal
processes that we typically wouldn't see
in a quote-unquote healthy person so you
can sort of think of it like you're
adding to and exaggerating normal
behaviors to where they become abnormal
negative behaviors on the other hand are
called negative because there's this
like absence or reduction in normal
processes and behaviors it's like you're
subtracting from normal processes to
where they become abnormal ok so
positive symptoms which are also
symptoms of psychosis are things like
delusions which are these false beliefs
that someone feels very strongly about
and they won't change their mind even
though there's strong evidence against
it for example a delusion of control
where they think some outside force or
person or thing is controlling their
actions or maybe like a delusion of
reference where they think that someone
is trying to speak directly to them
through a television news program or
something similar and another positive
symptom is hallucinations which are any
kind of sensation usually hearing or
seeing something that appears very real
but in fact isn't real so maybe like
hearing voice
this is or commands that aren't actually
there and finally there's
disorganization which is either in your
behavior which someone can directly see
by the way you act or thinking which can
be observed through your speech and this
can be like having trouble staying on
topic or having trouble answering the
actual question that was asked so those
were all positive symptoms right where
normal behaviors and processes are like
added to and exaggerated but negative
symptoms where there's this like
reduction or subtraction in normal
processes can be split into primary and
secondary negative symptoms in primary
negative symptoms are the core features
of schizophrenia and the first major one
is apathy and this is where the patient
lacks interest or enthusiasm or care
towards something or someone else for
example not caring whether you pass this
huge exam at school shows apathy toward
that class and this is negative because
they have less interest or care than
what would be considered normal
another major symptom is flat effect and
this is where a patient doesn't have an
emotional response like anger or sadness
to situations that would normally cause
strong emotions for example if someone
is fired unexpectedly from their job
usually you'd expect them to be pretty
angry right but maybe someone with
schizophrenia as reaction will be
completely unchanged or essentially flat
and some other symptoms are lack of
energy and anhedonia which is an
inability to experience pleasure from
activities that you used to enjoy so
like for example if you used to really
enjoy going on rollercoasters and you'd
have a really awesome time doing this
but now maybe you are unable to
experience the same feeling of
Awesomeness as you did before so those
were primary negative symptoms secondary
negative symptoms are any symptoms that
result from other manifestations of
schizophrenia so maybe something like
social isolation or staying inside
because you're paranoid that someone is
watching you this is negative because
your actions are reduced compared to a
quote-unquote healthy individual and
secondary because it's caused by
paranoid
delusions all the symptoms listed though
are mental symptoms but there can be a
physical manifestations too which is
something called catatonia this is
characterized by changes in muscle tone
and muscle activity and this can happen
though
with a lot of different disorders
psychiatric or not including
schizophrenia and it may be caused by
medications but other times it could be
caused by something unknown and one type
of this is catatonic stupor which is a
decreased reaction to stimuli like not
talking or being motionless or just
staring off into the distance and
another type is excited catatonia where
you have excessive motor activity and
movements but these movements don't
serve any real purpose it's just like
this general state of restlessness