An Overview Of The Various Types Of Schizophrenia Disorder

Sometimes it seems like a fine line between worrying for no real reason and having a mental disorder. For instance, you may have a bit of healthy paranoia if you wonder if perhaps your neighbor who admittedly hates you may have keyed your car following a blowout fight. However, if you're smashing all the television sets in the house because you fear your neighbor may be spying on you, then you've got a more serious disorder called paranoid schizophrenia. Of course, not all cases are as dramatic as the aforementioned illustration. Sometimes you may just display various eccentricities that are not found in the general population. In this article, you'll learn about the five types of schizophrenia disorder.

Some mental illness professionals view schizophrenia as a collection of related illnesses with similar characteristics. This disease impacts 1-2% of people in the US, which equals at the very least 2.5 million, with 100,000 to 200,000 new cases diagnosed each year. More hospital beds are filled with schizophrenics than with individuals struggling with cancer, heart disease or diabetes in the United States. However, 70% of these people can lead a relatively normal life with the assistance of antipsychotic drugs that suppress hallucinations and delusions.

Of all the kinds of schizophrenia, the most common is paranoid schizophrenia, which is present in 40% of all affected people. Paranoid schizophrenia is marked by hallucinations and delusions. Sometimes, sufferers think they're being watched, spied on or sabotaged. Sometimes, people who suffer from schizophrenia may have delusions of grandeur and believe they are here for a special reason, for example a rescuer who was dispatched to alert the earth about imminent disaster. Some people may be possessed by jealousy or unexpectedly explode in anger.

The other types of schizophrenia disorder include catatonic-type, disorganized-type, undifferentiated and residual. It is rare for people to become catatonic, although this type of disorder may occur following some sort of trauma and also earlier in life. Similarly, disorganized schizophrenia is diagnosed earlier in life, usually when a child or adolescent shows difficulty focusing in school, explodes with angry outbursts or exhibits jumbled speech patterns. Once the acute psychotic attack occurs, patients often develop what is called "residual schizophrenia," which includes more subtle symptoms like social withdrawal, lack of motivation, the inability to focus and inappropriate emotions.

Often times, the various types of schizophrenia disorder are called "undifferentiated schizophrenia" if the symptoms do not fall under the category of paranoid schizophrenia. Before making a diagnosis, doctors monitor the patient's symptoms for a period of at least six months. It's estimated that a third of patients recover from a schizophrenic episode without requiring long-term treatment. However, the most severe cases will require life-long dependency on anti-psychotic medications to enable a longer, healthier life.