Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder

Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder

Schizophrenia is a major and severe mental illness coded both by the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) and the ICD (International Classification of Diseases). The illness is characterized by positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations and delusions, while negative symptoms encompass social withdrawal and flat affect. In turn, hallucinations represent perception in the absence of sensory input, while delusions correspond to fixed false beliefs, held despite evidence to the contrary. Conversely, schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness, similarly coded in the above publications, which contains features of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder, such as depression or bipolar illness.

Schizophrenic delusions may include thinking one has special powers. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Thus, individuals who experience delusions and hallucinations, particularly of the persecutory type, may be living a real nightmare. Despite repeated advice by close friends and family to consult a doctor, they may refuse to get professional, psychiatric help, because they themselves fail to see that there is something wrong with them. However, when treatment is given and successful, after a while, patients may start to understand that their delusions and hallucinations are part of their mental illness. For example, after several weeks of psychotherapy, a patient may understand that his or her delusions and hallucinations are false. Still, particular care should be taken at this period in treatment, as depressive symptoms may develop in relation to a certain feeling of loss towards the imaginary world.

In other words, many people with schizophrenic or psychotic symptoms create imaginary friends and worlds in their mind. Consequently, once their symptoms commence to dissipate, individuals may experience loneliness, sadness and other negative emotions and low mood, since to them, there is a loss of a friendship, of a loving and caring relationship, or of feelings of grandiosity such as those felt by individuals believing they have special powers. Alternatively, causes of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder have been discussed at length elsewhere and remain beyond the scope of the present paper.