Types and Symptoms of Schizophrenia

There are five different types of schizophrenia, according to schizophrenia research, and the symptoms vary. The first type and the most common is paranoid schizophrenia. The paranoid schizophrenic suffers bizarre delusions and sometimes auditory hallucinations. For instance, the patient may believe that the government is spying on them, that people on television or animals are talking to them, or that someone is trying to deliberately hurt them. Often, paranoid schizophrenics also suffer an accompanying anxiety disorder that causes heightened fear, nervous twitches and displeasure. Other patients have delusions of grandeur, and believe they are a great inventor or a celebrity.

The second type is called disorganized schizophrenia. The symptoms of schizophrenia for this type include speech patterns that are extremely difficult to understand. They have trouble sorting out what is important and what is irrelevant. Sometimes they show displaced emotions, like laughing at the changing of traffic lights or grimacing when they're being scolded. Schizophrenia patients cannot connect cause and effect or create meaningful sentences. "Thought blocking" occurs mid-speech, when the person suddenly stops or changes topics. Sometimes they use "neologisms," which are made-up words that contain meaning only to the user. People with "loose associations" and "derailment" may change the topic abruptly and without warning, making their stories extremely difficult to follow. Others with "perseveration" will repeat the same lines over and over again. It should be noted that loose associations and perseveration are also found in patients diagnosed with mania.

The third type is called catatonic schizophrenia, which is the stereotypical view of a person rocking back and forth in a strait jacket, staring vapidly -- sometimes rambling incessantly, or at other times being completely mute. The symptoms of this type may include making jerky, bizarre movements, with arms and legs flailing about for no reason. The catatonic schizophrenic is incapable of caring for him or herself and is characterized as having a very severe mental illness.

The fourth type is referred to as undifferentiated schizophrenia, meaning that the symptoms cannot definitively classify the disorder as one type or another. Some patients show all the different symptoms or a few from each category. These patients sometimes lack catatonia, paranoia and disorganized speech, but may instead exhibit symptoms of a neurological disorder.

Lastly, the residual schizophrenic is someone who may have a past history, but currently exhibits no positive symptoms -- like delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or bizarre behavior. Sometimes residual schizophrenia occurs during a transition from diagnosed schizophrenia to remission, and other times no psychotic episodes occur for years.

The symptoms of schizophrenia often disrupt normal functioning. In 1999, active psychosis was ranked the "third most disabling disorder," after quadriplegia and dementia. Because psychotic episodes are often triggered by stress, it can be frustrating to medicate patients. The patients often assume they've healed completely if no symptoms are present and stop taking the schizophrenia drug, only to find the symptoms resurfacing. A recent study found that 10% of schizophrenics die by suicide and 30% had tried to commit suicide at least once. Clinical psychiatry is often recommended for mental health treatment.

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