schizophrenia
Meaning of schizophrenia: The negative symptoms, such as blunted emotion and lost motivation, often shape daily life more than the hallucinations the illness is known for.
Definition of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a long term mental illness in which thinking, perception, emotion and behavior are disturbed enough that a person loses reliable contact with shared reality. Hallucinations, fixed false beliefs, disorganized speech and a flattening of drive and emotional expression are its characteristic features, and it is identified from a pattern that persists rather than from any single symptom.
What are the symptom groups?
| Group | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Positive | Experiences added to ordinary function: hallucinations, most often voices; delusions, meaning beliefs held firmly against clear evidence; disorganized speech and behavior |
| Negative | Function taken away: reduced emotional expression, sparse speech, loss of motivation and of pleasure, withdrawal from company |
| Cognitive | Difficulty holding attention, keeping information in mind and planning ahead |
The positive symptoms are the ones the illness is known for and the ones treatment addresses most directly. The negative and cognitive groups usually have the greater effect on work, study and relationships, and they respond less readily.
Does the name mean split personality?
No, and the misunderstanding is an old one. The name was assembled from Greek roots meaning split mind, describing thought, emotion and perception splitting apart from one another inside a single mind, not a mind divided into separate people. Dissociative identity disorder, in which distinct identities alternate, is a different condition with a different presentation and course. In everyday speech the adjective is also used loosely to mean inconsistent, a usage with no connection to the illness at all.
How is it recognized?
No blood test or scan confirms schizophrenia. It is identified from the pattern and duration of symptoms, the loss of functioning that goes with them, and the exclusion of other explanations, including substance use, a mood disorder carrying psychotic features, and physical illness affecting the brain. Symptoms usually appear in late adolescence or early adulthood, frequently after a stretch of gradual withdrawal and slipping performance that is only recognized for what it was in hindsight. The course varies widely, from a single episode with good recovery, through episodes separated by stable periods, to continuous symptoms. A social worker is often part of the team, because housing, income and employment influence the course alongside the medical side.
What is commonly assumed and is not true?
The link with violence is the most persistent misconception. People with schizophrenia are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it, and where a raised risk of harming others is found it concentrates in a small group and connects largely to untreated illness and substance use. Harm to oneself carries the greater risk. The illness is also not caused by poor parenting, an idea long abandoned, and it is not confined to institutions, since most people carrying the diagnosis live in the community.
Used in a sentence
The patient was evaluated by psychiatry for symptoms consistent with schizophrenia, including auditory hallucinations.
Good to know
Schizophrenia is frequently confused with dissociative identity disorder in everyday speech, but the two are separate conditions, and schizophrenia does not by itself involve multiple separate personalities.
Word origin
Where “schizophrenia” comes from
Formed from Greek schizein, meaning to split, and phren, meaning mind, describing thought and emotion split apart from one another rather than a mind divided into separate personalities.