Signs of schizophrenia in men. Behavior, forms of the disease, exacerbation

Reasons for the development of schizophrenia in men

Schizophrenia refers to mental diseases characterized by suppression of will, changes in moods and behavior. The disease develops due to irreversible processes in the brain. They contribute to the severing of nerve connections in the cortex of the organ. Neurosurgeons also note the possibility of replacing innate neural circuits with abnormal structures that lead to damage to all brain cells.

The causes of schizophrenia are:

• Congenital deformation of DNA chains. The disease can be inherited and is cumulative. The predisposition and symptoms of the disease increase with each new generation. At the same time, the age at which schizophrenia begins to manifest itself and the rate of degradation increase exponentially.
• Stress. Constant stressful situations or lifestyle cause depression of the central nervous system. Neural connections weaken, which leads to a mild course of schizophrenia.
• Overwork and lack of sleep. Lack of sleep and intense physical activity deplete the body's resources. Disturbances in sleep-wake cycles cause disruptions in the hormonal system, which can affect brain function.
• Alcohol abuse. Ethyl alcohol molecules block brain impulses and also provoke the destruction of brain tissue. As the area of ​​brain damage increases, the symptoms of schizophrenia appear more clearly.
• Drug use. Synthetic chemicals entering the bloodstream and then into brain cells cause brain cell death due to lack of oxygen and nutrients. Also, narcotic substances can temporarily change a person’s personality traits and behavior, to which the immune system reacts.

What is schizophrenia and what are its signs in men.
The mechanism of personal destruction has several stages:

• Signs of schizophrenia in men, such as changes in behavior or personality, can occur due to various head injuries. Depending on the severity of the damage, symptoms may not appear for a long time or may be detected almost immediately.
• Infectious encephalopathy. A number of infectious diseases affect brain tissue, causing the death of entire colonies of cells. In this case, neurobiologists consider the appearance of schizophrenia to be a mild complication that can be partially treated.
• Diseases of the immune system. Autoimmune pathologies force defense systems to attack their own body, perceiving it as foreign and dangerous. This situation, in the absence of supportive therapy, leads to a complete loss of self-awareness in a short time.

The majority of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are men. This is explained by higher activity of the gender type, as well as a tendency to abuse drugs and alcohol

Asthenia

Asthenic syndrome is manifested by nervous exhaustion, fatigue, and low performance. The female psyche is more vulnerable and therefore such disorders are more typical for the weaker sex. They experience increased emotionality, tearfulness and mood lability.

The male psyche reacts to asthenic syndrome with outbursts of irritation and loss of self-control over trifles. With asthenia, severe headaches, lethargy and disturbances in night sleep are also possible.

Classification and features of the disease

There are several types of schizophrenia. Their classification is based on the speed and mechanism of disease development or on the behavioral characteristics of patients.

Classification by attacks

Depending on the severity and frequency of schizophrenic manifestations, psychiatrists distinguish:

• Continuous. This form of the disease includes the paranoid type of schizophrenia, when the patient is haunted by hallucinations or obsessive thoughts. The pace of development of the disease and the intensification of symptoms occur quickly and continuously, the person withdraws into his own reality, which he himself invented. The continuous type of schizophrenia is characterized by the absence of remission. Correct and timely treatment of this type of schizophrenia improves the patient's condition and eliminates possible loss of personality.
• Progressive paroxysmal. Manifests itself with classic symptoms of the disease without signs of psychosis or nervous breakdowns. The attacks are characterized by sudden and severe outbreaks of delusions, hallucinations or paranoia, between which there is a calm period with the preservation of the main symptoms of schizophrenia. The occurrence of new attacks is provoked by stress and overexertion.
• Circular. Includes several mental illnesses at once: periodic schizophrenia and the absence of high-intensity psychoses.
• Low-progressive. This type of disease is also called sluggish or schizotypal. It is characterized by slow development and minimal mental disorders. It first begins to appear at the age of 18-23 years.

Signs of schizophrenia in men, whose behavior is practically no different from ordinary people, are classified as schizoaffective disorders. This type of disease has rare outbreaks of symptoms that are eliminated by taking the necessary medications.

Older patients show signs of schizophrenia less frequently than younger people.

Classification by behavior

The disease also has a classification based on the characteristics of its course and patient behavior:

• Paranoid. Develops at the age of 30 years. It is characterized by: the presence of obsessive thoughts; incorrect perception of the world; distortion of self-awareness; the occurrence of hallucinations; suppression of willpower. Paranoid schizophrenia forces patients to spend all material and physical resources on an idea that has arisen. With the continuous course of such a disease, a person stops interacting with the real world, forgetting about the simplest things: personal hygiene or work. It should be noted that the patient may carefully hide his thoughts from strangers, which makes diagnosing the disease difficult.
• Hebephrenic. Appears at the age of 14 years. It is characterized by a change in the will and emotional background of a person. At the same time, the patient develops childish mannerisms: laughter; slurred speech; making grimaces; mimicking. This form of schizophrenia is severe and difficult to treat. Moreover, periods of such attacks may be aggravated by obsessive delusions or hallucinations.
• Catatonic. Schizophrenia of this type is detected in 3% of patients and develops at 25-30 years of age. This disease is characterized by healthy behavior and preservation of mental functions against the background of psychomotor impairment. Such movement disorders can be static, when a sick person remains in one position for several hours, or dynamic, when a person exhibits abnormal activity. One of the main symptoms of the catatonic type is linguistic stupor, in which the patient perceives the speech of strangers, but is constantly silent.

Signs of schizophrenia in men whose behavior does not become normal even after treatment for this disease may be considered borderline:

• Post-schizophrenic disorder: characterized by deep depression and apathy after treatment.
• Residual effects of schizophrenia , which are considered a chronic form of the disease that does not have psychoses and nervous outbursts. Such phenomena may appear within a year after a course of treatment.
• Unspecified schizotypal disorders. This borderline state occurs only in men and does not have similar symptoms to the accepted diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia.

The hebephrenic and catatonic types of the disease, which develop only in young men under the age of 30, are considered the most difficult to relieve or treat. If symptoms appear at a more mature age, a clinical history is built from a study of the male’s youthful behavior.

Important Considerations on Your Mental Health Journey

Many men are ashamed to admit to any illness, believing that being sick is not courageous, and even more so, about mental disorders, considering them something shameful. This is a fundamentally wrong opinion; psychosis is the same disease as angina pectoris or diabetes mellitus, and also requires constant treatment and monitoring by specialists.

It is necessary to start treatment as early as possible, in this case it will go faster and there will be no fear of relapse.

To date, the exact cause that provokes the development of psychosis has not been established, so no one can be 100% excluded from the risk group. Heredity plays a special role in the development of the disease.

Melancholic people, suspicious people with phobias and susceptible to other people's opinions, insecure men with frequently changing moods, exhaust their nervous system with constant experiences and expose themselves to unnecessary danger.

We must remember that only in a healthy body is a healthy mind. It is important to strengthen your physical health: lead a healthy lifestyle, exercise, do not drink or smoke.

Stages of schizophrenia

Psychiatrists distinguish 3 main stages of the disease:

Treatment approach

Exacerbation of any mental illness can only be treated in a hospital. At the first stage of treatment, the patient will be prescribed psychotropic drugs - antidepressants and tranquilizers, as well as general restoratives. Physiotherapeutic procedures are prescribed as an additional remedy: electrosleep, acupuncture, exercise therapy and others. They relieve the patient’s emotional stress and develop a positive outlook on the world around him.

The best results in the treatment of mental disorders can be achieved with the help of cognitive therapy: it makes it possible to strengthen your self-esteem, change your view of the world around you, etc.

In addition, psychological rehabilitation provides good results in the treatment of psychosis, which includes: group therapy, art therapy, and occupational therapy.

During your hospital stay, the doctor determines the cause of the disease and tries to eliminate it, if possible.

You cannot arbitrarily change the dose of medications prescribed by your doctor or stop taking them. Subordinate your entire life to a strict routine.

The support and understanding of the woman you love plays a huge role in the treatment of the disease.

The first signs of male schizophrenia

The first symptoms of schizophrenia are divided into several types.

Positive:

• hallucinations;
• delusional ideas;
• sloppiness;
• aggression;
• anxiety;
• thought disorders;
• motor disorders.

Negative:

• apathy;
• isolation;
• loss of interest in previously favorite activities;
• monotony of speech;
• weakness;
• lack of communication skills;
• speech dysfunction;
• mood swings.

Blackout

In an unconscious state, the perception of reality is distorted, interaction with society is disrupted.

There are several types of this condition. They are united by common symptoms:

• Disorientation in space and time, depersonalization.
• Detachment from the environment.
• Loss of ability to logically comprehend a situation. Sometimes incoherent thoughts.
• Memory loss.

Each of these signs sometimes occurs in mental disorders in an adult, but their combination may indicate confusion. They usually go away when clarity of consciousness is restored.

Features of behavior in a schizophrenic state

The behavior of men with schizophrenia differs from healthy people. An important feature of this behavior is the fear of eye contact. The patient is unable to withstand direct gazes. He tries to hide or leave, subsequently avoiding even relatives.

Behavioral changes also include deterioration of thought processes and loss of logic, as well as too obvious logic in solving simple everyday problems. The desire to learn something new disappears in younger patients, and men over 40 do not use previously acquired experience and skills in life.

The emotional background changes a person’s behavior towards complete disinterest in the world: the patient begins to think a lot, incoherent thoughts appear that seem obvious to him, but remain incomprehensible to the people around him.

Schizophrenia forces a person not only to withdraw into himself, but also to seek physical protection. In this case, the sick person closes himself in his room, curtains or boards up the windows and refuses to eat. It is worth noting that the presence of schizophrenia does not make patients weak-minded; their intelligence remains at the same level.

Depression

This painful condition for any person is characterized by a persistent decrease in mood, depression, depression. The disease can be detected at an early stage, in which case the condition can be quickly normalized.

Severe cases of depression are often accompanied by suicidal thoughts and require hospital treatment.

Characteristic signs of depression are:

• feelings of guilt, sinfulness;
• feeling of hopelessness;
• sleep disorders.

The condition may be accompanied by heart rhythm disturbances, increased sweating, pressure surges, loss of appetite, weight loss, and diarrheal disorders. Mild forms of the disease respond well to treatment, but if severe depression occurs, the patient needs to see a doctor.

Features of manifestation at different ages

Signs of schizophrenia in men, behavior and frequency of attacks depend on age.

What factors influence the course of the disease?

Unfortunately, today modern medicine is unable to answer the question regarding the causes of the formation of various mental disorders. However, according to experts, there are a number of indirect factors that provoke the development of schizophrenia. Among them, we should highlight a low social position and a high stress load in modern life. In addition, the disease can be significantly complicated by a protracted onset, frequent exacerbations and prolonged absence of remission. In addition, the presence of traumatic brain injuries, neurological pathologies, drug addiction and alcohol abuse can worsen the prognosis.

According to many experts, the appearance of this disease is associated with heredity. In addition, perinatal trauma and upbringing in a single-parent family can worsen the prognosis. Insularity and a low level of intelligence can worsen the situation. It is also interesting that the disease in question is most often diagnosed in people born in the winter months.

According to this theory, a full-fledged family, good physical health, and “healthy” relationships with the opposite sex have a beneficial effect on the prognosis. Late development of the disease and early identification of the problem can help reduce the frequency of attacks. That is why it is very important to promptly recognize the development of the disease. In order to achieve success in treatment and a positive result, it is important that the patient receives support from his loved ones.

The development of schizophrenia, regardless of gender, is based on changes in metabolic processes and brain structure

Symptoms and signs of exacerbation of schizophrenia

Signs of schizophrenia in men, whose behavior can change abruptly or gradually, can be easily recognized. One of the obvious symptoms is non-standard human behavior. He becomes more withdrawn, apathetic or depressed. The person also begins to feel anxious.

Among the main symptoms of the acute phase of the disease are:

• hallucinations;
• delusional ideas;
• untidiness.

Each relapse of schizophrenia lasts on average 2 months. During this period, careful observation and care of the patient is necessary.

Hallucinations (deceptions of perception)

Hallucinations that haunt the patient may be:

• auditory;
• tactile;
• visual;
• olfactory.

The most common deception of perception in men is auditory. With such hallucinations, a person may hear voices that direct or call for his actions.

Visual hallucinations are also common symptoms. They appear in the middle stage of the disease. The patient may see deceased relatives or people with whom he has negative emotions. There are several signs of auditory and visual hallucinations in men.

He can:

• turn back;
• talk to emptiness;
• listen to the silence.

Tactile and olfactory hallucinations are expressed in strange sensations on the skin or foreign odors that are not felt by others.

Delusional ideas

The main symptoms of relapse of the disease are also anxiety and delirium.

Among obsessive thoughts, psychiatrists distinguish 3 main types:

• influence: the patient is sure that he is being controlled or his subconscious is being influenced by various methods, including irradiation or witchcraft;
• conspiracy: it seems to a person that the people around him are conspiring against him or are constantly discussing and ridiculing him;
• stalking: the patient is tormented by the thought of being watched around the clock.

Irregularities in behavior and appearance

During the period of exacerbation, men often become more aggressive or, conversely, too apathetic.

It is also worth noting the following features of inappropriate behavior:

• guilt;
• thoughts of suicide;
• loss of interest in life;
• absent-mindedness and inattention;
• changes in the sleep-wake cycle;
• sloppiness in appearance;
• lethargy;
• complete indifference to loved ones;
• isolation.

Also, one of the obvious signs psychiatrists note is the laziness characteristic of men, giving way to violent activity.

Changes in thinking and speech accompanying relapse of the disease

A person’s thought processes during an exacerbation may differ significantly from the normal state. He may become illogical, or build chains of actions too clearly to complete a routine task. Speech may become disjointed and intermittent. Patients also tend to talk to themselves, as well as express delusional, illogical thoughts to others.

Clear signs of illness

Paranoid schizophrenia in men is more pronounced than in women. This form of the disease is characterized by various delusions and attacks of hallucinations. In most cases, delusional disorders are expressed in the form of persecutory mania. A sick man experiences obsessive fear due to thoughts that his life is completely controlled by the secret services.

According to available data, men exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia more often than the fairer sex

In addition, the disease can manifest itself in the form of the appearance of various voices in the head. A man begins to think that his behavior is controlled by the voices he hears. Some patients say that their behavior in moments of exacerbation is controlled by the devil, who forces them to “pour out” their aggression on others.

Some patients experience problems with personal relationships. This type of delusion manifests itself in the form of an obsession about the wife’s infidelity or attempts to take the patient’s life. Much less often, the patient feels that his behavior becomes a reason for ridicule and discussion among others. All of the above ideas are reflected in human behavior.

Signs of madness are expressed in attacks of hallucinations that are auditory or olfactory in nature. According to statistics, only five percent of patients with this diagnosis suffer from attacks of visual hallucinations. Psychiatrists say that during verbal hallucinations, the patient hears a voice that directs his actions. Often such attacks are accompanied by catatonic disorders, in which the patient freezes in a certain position.

At a certain stage of development of the disease, the following symptoms appear:

1. A splitting of the psyche, in which the patient’s behavior and way of thinking bears some resemblance to the work of an orchestra without the direction of a conductor.
2. Ambivalence - this term is used to describe the combination of incompatible things. In this case, ambivalence is expressed in the form of hatred and love for a particular person.
3. Autism is expressed by a refusal to contact the surrounding reality.

One of the main features of the development of schizophrenia is attacks of apathy, when the patient gradually isolates himself from the people around him and begins to lose his own personality . Most often, men are diagnosed with a sluggish form of the disease in question. Unfortunately, today this form of the disease is practically incurable. An addiction to drinking alcohol can aggravate the course of the disease.

Schizophrenia in men is a chronic disorder that requires medical supervision and treatment by a psychiatrist

Seasonal exacerbations in schizophrenics. Can it be prevented?

The change of seasons causes relapses in 98% of patients with schizophrenia. This is due to increased daylight hours, climate change and landscapes. Such changes are stressful for the body, which leads to the development of anxiety and all subsequent symptoms.

Autumn and spring also affect patients physiologically. Serotonin levels depend on the amount of sunlight. It is responsible for a feeling of calm and happiness; if it is lacking in the off-season, people become depressed. Also, a lack of vitamin D and iodine in autumn and spring days can cause disruptions in the body, which worsens the disease.

There are several ways to reduce the likelihood of seasonal relapse or mitigate its course:

• timely examination by a psychotherapist;
• taking prescribed medications;
• course intake of vitamins;
• exclusion of stressful situations;
• restriction or complete exclusion of the use of alcohol or drugs.

The prudent and attentive attitude of friends and relatives helps not only to reduce the likelihood of psychosis, but also to calm the person during the acute phase of the disease.

What should you pay attention to?

Before you announce that your loved one has schizophrenia, you need to take a close look at his behavior. Pay attention to strange things that continue for more than a month and cause you concern. Some uncharacteristic oddities may make themselves felt against the background of age, culture, religion, but this will not indicate a disease.

Also, you should not be scared by people with a guitar who sing their songs in the transition. Of course, their behavior will seem strange to you, but in this way they are trying to earn a penny for their living.

Only if you are too concerned about the behavior of a loved one and are convinced that many actions contradict him, you can contact a psychiatric clinic for additional advice.

Risk factors for exacerbation

Since men exhibit strong gender characteristics, during exacerbation of schizophrenia they often do not comply with the necessary medication regimen. They consider themselves healthy and shy away from their daily routine. This behavior can cause a relapse of brain pathology and a deterioration in the patient’s condition.

People in unstable families are susceptible to frequent exacerbations. Frequent shouting, quarrels or scandals provoke severe stress and increased symptoms. At the same time, the manifestations of the disease depend on the intensity of negative emotions: from apathy to aggression dangerous for others.

Risk factors also include men who use alcohol or drugs. After making an accurate diagnosis, it is necessary to give up all bad habits. Men living in a temperate climate zone with pronounced seasonal transitions—autumn and spring—have a high risk of relapse.

The disease is of an incurable type with the ability to maintain a full life. At the same time, the behavior of men during periods of exacerbation is very different from female schizophrenia and has more pronounced symptoms. Control over the general condition of a person and compliance with supportive therapy helps to inhibit personal degradation and self-destruction.

Author: Shalunova Anna

Mania

This neuropsychiatric disorder is characterized by sleep disturbances: usually adults with this disorder can sleep 4-6 hours and feel alert . In the initial stage (hypomania), a person notices an increase in vitality, increased performance, and creative enthusiasm. The patient sleeps little, but works a lot and is very optimistic.

If hypomania progresses and turns into mania, then these symptoms are accompanied by a change in personality and an inability to concentrate. Patients are fussy, talk a lot, while constantly changing their posture and gesticulating energetically.

Typical symptoms of mania in adults are increased appetite, increased libido, and challenging behavior. A good mood can suddenly give way to irritation. As a rule, with mania, sanity is lost, and patients do not understand that their condition is pathological.

Illness after 30

How exactly does schizophrenia manifest after 30:

1. This age is characterized by the development of paranoid schizophrenia . At this moment, a certain obsession may arise, for the sake of which the patient can spend all his strength.
2. If the disease occurs continuously , the patient may forget to perform the most basic actions.
3. If the disease arose in adolescence , then at the age of 30 it reaches the peak of its development.
4. The symptoms themselves do not change ; there is no longer a tendency for them to decrease or increase. Often such a person may be considered a little strange, especially if he was able to easily hide his incomprehensible delusional ideas.
5. The onset of the disease at this age occurs in very rare cases.
6. Also, after 30, schizophrenia can be hidden and not manifest itself with any obvious symptoms.

Causes of the disease

Among the main reasons why paranoid schizophrenia occurs, doctors call:

1. Neurochemical disorders, brain dysfunction. There are hypotheses that schizoid disorders arise from an imbalance of important neurotransmitter substances - dopamine and serotonin.
2. Drug addiction, alcoholism.
3. Conflicts and traumatic situations that arise between a person and society, for example, child abuse in early childhood.
4. Genes, heredity. If no one in your family suffered from severe mental illness, then your risk of getting sick, according to doctors, is no more than a percent. However, if there was at least one case, this risk already increases to ten percent.
5. Mother's illnesses during pregnancy. Viral infections are very dangerous for a pregnant woman, as well as fetal starvation, when the woman carrying the child is systematically malnourished.

Quite often, when paranoid schizophrenia occurs, there is a combination of several factors. Taken together, they dramatically increase the risk of developing the disease, even if a person has no genetic predisposition.

Diagnostic features

It is important to clearly distinguish it from other psychotic disorders with similar symptoms (for example, schizoaffective or delusional). It is the paranoid form of schizophrenia that contains delusions and hallucinations of a special nature in the clinical picture. Other signs (emotional inadequacy, intermittent speech, etc.) will be less pronounced and will not dominate.

A complete examination of the patient can be carried out both in a hospital and on an outpatient basis - if the patient does not show signs of aggression or psychosis. In this case, the participation of loved ones is very important, since the patient cannot always adequately tell what exactly happened to him and when.

The psychiatrist collects detailed information about the patient’s life, past illnesses, possible pathological heredity (family history), clarifies when the symptoms of mental disorders began and how they manifested themselves. At the same time, the patient is examined for the presence of other diseases, some of which can also negatively affect mental health.

One of the main methods for diagnosing schizophrenia is special tests that help determine disorders of behavior, consciousness, memory, thinking, perception, intelligence and emotional-volitional sphere.

How does the disease begin?

The onset of the disease can be both slow and sudden.

If schizophrenia begins abruptly, the patient’s behavior quickly changes:

1. the thought process becomes inconsistent;
2. aggressive agitation appears;
3. delusional states characterized by inconsistency develop;
4. the development of phobias, that is, unreasonable fear, is possible;
5. behavior becomes more and more strange (inappropriate).

When the onset of the disease turns out to be slow, forms of behavior also change, but not immediately.

Premorbid

Premorbid comes from the Latin word morbus, meaning disease. This is a human condition that precedes the development of any disease. In this case, the body's defenses go from one extreme to another - either they are overstrained or sharply weakened.

Premorbid is also characterized by two outcomes:

1. or this condition develops into an already pronounced form of the disease;
2. or after some time , it ends, and the functions of the body return to their normal state.

Delusions in paranoid schizophrenia

Delirium, as the main symptom of the disorder, develops in several stages and symbolizes the “heyday” of the disease.

The first stage of its formation is called paranoid. It is characterized by systematized, interpretive delusions. The concept of systematization means that nonsense has a fairly logical, plausible structure. This stage of the disorder is not accompanied by disturbances of perception, such as hallucinations and mental automatisms.

The most common plot (theme) of delusion is the ideas of persecution, greatness and jealousy, invention, and violation of rights. Thus, a patient who lived with his father and became dependent on his sister after the death of his parent began to rave about damage caused to him by his sister. The patient stated that she infringed on him “in everything,” mocked him, took possession of his father’s inheritance and spent his, the patient’s, money.

Typically, the paranoid delusional stage is accompanied by increased activity. That is, if a person shows delusional ideas of jealousy, then he tries hard to expose his lovers, find his rival and deal with him. In the case of delusions of reformism, the patient turns to all sorts of authorities and looks for resources to implement his ideas.

Delusional themes in paranoid schizophrenia can develop gradually, subacutely or acutely.

Its acute development is accompanied by suddenness and unexpectedness in the patient’s behavior. Unreasonable aggressiveness and motor agitation appear. Thinking is disorganized, torn, or the patient develops fear of something, suspicion, anxiety, he literally becomes numb with horror.

The gradual development of delusional ideas does not cause sharp dissonance in behavior. Oddities in the patient's actions and judgments, inappropriate gestures and grimaces, and changes in interests are periodically observed. A person may complain of confusion of thoughts, emptiness in the head, and inability to concentrate.

A delusional thought, before “settling down” in the mind of a paranoid person, goes through several stages:

• expectation - the patient feels internal anxiety, tension. It is accompanied by the feeling that something big is about to happen, shedding light and dispelling darkness;
• insight - suddenly to the patient “everything becomes clear” in his unrealistic ideas. He begins to look at the world with different eyes, and he himself transforms into a different personality. The true, crazy truth is born, shedding light on the previously incomprehensible;
• systematization - this process is similar to making a mosaic. When individual pieces come together and create a complete picture. Delusional themes completely cover a person, filling his thoughts, past, future and present.

Diagnostics

Diagnosing the low-grade form of schizophrenia is a very difficult task, which often requires very long observations that can last indefinitely. And even in this case, one should not rush to a final diagnosis.

There are two types of deviations from which it is difficult to distinguish sluggish schizophrenia: borderline states - various types of psychopathy, neurotic deviations and similar diseases. Manifestations of progressive schizophrenia (neurosis-like and psychopath-like) are also possible. As already mentioned, the disease is very difficult to diagnose. If it is impossible to make an indisputable diagnosis in this situation, then it is better to give preference to something that is different from this disease and begin treatment of the patient without stopping monitoring him. There have been cases when a patient was treated for neurosis for 4-8 years and only after that time received a diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia.”

The same applies to doubts in differential diagnosis with other types of schizophrenia. In this case, it is better to give preference to other types of this disease and apply the necessary treatment methods.

Catatonic syndromes

These are conditions in which motor disorders come to the fore: complete or partial inhibition or, conversely, excitation. With catatonic stupor, the patient is completely immobilized, silent, and the muscles are toned. The patient freezes in an unusual, often awkward and uncomfortable position.

For catatonic excitement, repetition of any movements with exclamations is typical. Catatonic syndromes are observed both with darkened and clear consciousness. In the first case, this indicates a possible favorable outcome of the disease, and in the second, the severity of the patient’s condition.

Among women

Research shows that the weaker sex develops paranoid schizophrenia less often than the stronger sex.

However, the course of this disorder is more complicated for them. Apparently, the emotionality of women plays a significant role in the development of the disease, which is why deviations in behavior and social life are more pronounced in them. As schizophrenia progresses, a woman’s personality is ultimately practically destroyed.

Presumably, the disease begins to develop in women at a young age, i.e. Against the background of puberty and fluctuations in the emotional background, a malfunction of the cerebral cortex occurs. In elderly women, such a pathology is very rarely diagnosed, mainly with concomitant severe somatic diseases.

Based on changes in behavior and emotional response, it is easier to notice schizophrenia in women than in men. They become extremely tense, anxious, unbalanced, actively talk about their fixed ideas and fictitious past achievements, and do not hesitate to express a negative attitude and “throw out” the accumulated negativity.

Disease in ICD-10

Paranoid schizophrenia - what is it in the ICD?

The International Classification of Diseases contains this disorder under the code F20.0 .

Along with hallucinations and delusional disorders, the possible presence of affective disorders (anxiety and phobias), catatonic symptoms and speech disorders is assumed.

The following options for the course of the disease are also offered:

• continuous flow - code F20.00 ;
• the course is episodic, having an increasing defect - code F20.01 ;
• episodic course with a stable defect - code F20.02 ;
• the course is progressive, having a paroxysmal character - code F20.03 .

In the case of incomplete remission, the code is given F20.04 , and in case of complete remission - F20.05 .

That is, the clinical picture of the described disease can be varied.

This directly indicates the multicomponent origin of such a schizophrenic disorder and explains the difficulties associated with making a diagnosis.