by Olaide Akande

Created on: September 16, 2009   Last Updated: September 18, 2009

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that causes an overall decline in the functional capabilities of affected persons. It is a complex illness that manifests with a wide variety of symptoms, with some of its features often overlapping with other types of mental illnesses. The key disturbances in schizophrenia are those of thought, mood, perception and social interaction.

What are the features of schizophrenia?

A man is seen wandering aimlessly on a hot summer day dressed up in several layers of clothing. He appears to be talking to someone but you don't see anybody around. When you talk to him, his thoughts appear illogical.....a typical schizophrenic case.

The following are some of the symptoms a schizophrenic may exhibit:

Hallucinations

Delusions

Disorganized speech and behavior

Catatonic behavior

Reduced or no emotional expression

Reduced speech

Loss of interest

Loss of motivation

Hallucinations refer to perceiving things that aren't there while been fully wake and conscious. Auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) are the hallmark of schizophrenia. A person may also experience seeing things that are not there (visual hallucination), or have a feeling of things crawling in his skin when there actually isn't anything there (tactile hallucinations).

Delusions are a firmly held false belief. In schizophrenia, they are often bizarre or of a persecutory nature. For example, a person may be utterly convinced "some people" are out to get him but on further questioning about whom this people are, no clear or meaningful response is given.

The speech of a schizophrenic patient will sometimes make no sense to a listener. This arises from the though disorder characteristic of schizophrenia. They may have what is called thought blocking, whereby sentences are interspersed by long pauses. The losing of associations is another type of thought disorder in which the sequence of thought isn't logical. Perseveration of thought leads to repetitive and stereotyped speech.

In catatonic behavior, the person has an abnormality of movement which can range between two extremes of excess or none at all. The person may be completely mute, and sit still for long periods or may be hyperactive up to the point of physical exhaustion.

The last four symptoms listed are often referred to as negative symptoms in contrast to the positive symptoms of delusions, hallucinations and disorganized speech. When present, they often indicate a more severe case.

A person with schizophrenia may

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