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Diagnosis and Discussion. Schizophrenia. chronic psychotic disorder with onset typically occurring in adolescence or young adulthood results in fluctuating, gradually deteriorating, or relatively stable disturbances in thinking, behavior , and perception
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Schizophrenia • chronic psychotic disorder with onset typically occurring in adolescence or young adulthood • results in fluctuating, gradually deteriorating, or relatively stable disturbances in thinking, behavior, and perception • severity can range from mild and subtle with very good adaptation to everyday life, to severely disabling requiring constant supervision in a restricted environment.
Epidemiology • US lifetime prevalence: 1% • DSM-IV-TR: annual incidence 0.5-5.0 per 10,000 • Equally prevalent in men and women. • Earlier onset in men (10-25 yrs old), women (25-35) • Men are more likely to be impaired with negative symptoms • Women have better social functioning prior to disease onset
Pathophysiology Dopamine Hypothesis
Increased rate among the biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia • Correlated with the closeness of the relationship to an affected relative
Neuropathology • Loss of brain volume results from reduced density of the axons, dendrites and synapses that mediate associative functions of the brain.
CLINICAL FEATURES • No clinical sign or symptom is pathognomonic for schizophrenia • Patient’s symptoms change with time • Clinicians must take into account the patient’s educational level, intellectual ability and cultural and subcultural membership.
Premorbid Signs and Symptoms • Appear before the prodromal phase of the illness • Patients had schizoid or schizotypal personalities. • Quiet, passive, and introverted • As children, they had few friends • Signs may have started with complaints about somatic symptoms • Headache, back and muscle pain, weakness and digestive problems
Family and friends may notice that the patient has changed and no longer functioning well in occupational, social, and personal activities. • May begin to develop an interest in abstract ideas, philosophy and the occult or religious questions • Include markedly peculiar behavior, abnormal affect, unusual speech, bizarre ideas and strange perceptual experiences.