None — Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a type of mental illness that affects a person's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, emotions and ability to relate to others. The symptoms are generally classified in three categories:
1. Positive symptoms are "additional" symptoms (outside of normal behaviors) that are associated with being out of touch with reality. They commonly include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized or unusual thoughts or speech, and movement disorders. 2. Negative symptoms reflect disruptions or lost parts of a patient's personality. Examples include inability to enjoy everyday pleasures, flat emotion or expressiveness, withdrawal from family, friends and social activity, and reluctance to engage in conversation (even when spoken to). 3. Cognitive symptoms affect the ability to think. They may include an inability to learn or understand instructions, memory problems, trouble with organization, poor decision-making and inattention.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the condition affects about 2.4 million Americans over 18. The average age of onset is between 13 and 25. Males tend to show signs of schizophrenia at an earlier age than females.
The disorder may be classified into one of five types. Paranoid schizophrenia is diagnosed when the person is highly suspicious of others, afraid of being persecuted and/or has grandiose thoughts. Disorganized schizophrenia is characterized by incoherent thoughts or speech. In schizoaffective disorder, the patient has symptoms of both schizophrenia and a major mood disorder. Catatonic schizophrenia causes a patient to be withdrawn and silent. A person with residual schizophrenia doesn't have hallucinations or delusions, but has lost interest in life.
Social Skills Help There is no cure for schizophrenia, but treatments are available. Many patients can be successfully treated with antipsychotic medications and supportive living programs.
An important obstacle for many people with schizophrenia involves social skills. Experts say patients often have trouble recognizing social cues, reading faces or putting themselves in the place of others (empathy). These problems can make it difficult to obtain or maintain employment or function in the community.
Researchers at UCLA used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study and compare the brains of patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The investigators found when "healthy" people think about other people, areas of the brain responsible for social processing (called the "mentalizing" network) light up. But when people with schizophrenia think about people, the mentalizing network stays dark (isn't turned on).
The researchers believe they can change the way the brain reacts through social skills training. Classes meet two times a week for 12 weeks. Participants are taught how to read different kinds of emotions in faces (like happiness, surprise, anger or fear). The class also goes into the hospital cafeteria or local food establishments to practice their social awareness skills. Psychiatry Researcher, Michael Green, Ph.D., says the ultimate goal of the program is to enable participants to take the newly learned social cognition skills into the community and improve their ability to function in day to day activities.
Research compiled and edited by Barbara J. Fister
AUDIENCE INQUIRY For general information on schizophrenia: Mental Health America National Alliance on Mental Illness National Institute of Mental Health
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