Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness. It most commonly features auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction.
Signs and Symptoms
Usually with schizophrenia, the person's inner world and behavior change notably. Behavior changes might include the following:
- Social withdrawal
- Agitation or anxiety
- Depersonalization (intense anxiety and a feeling of being unreal)
- Loss of appetite
- Loss of hygiene
- Delusions
- Hallucinations (for example, hearing things not actually present)
- The sense of being controlled by outside forces
- Positive symptoms: hearing voices, suspiciousness, feeling under constant surveillance, delusions, or making up words without a meaning (neologisms)
- Negative (or deficit) symptoms: social withdrawal, difficulty in expressing emotions (in extreme cases called blunted affect), difficulty in taking care of themselves, inability to feel pleasure (These symptoms cause severe impairment and are often mistaken for laziness.)
- Cognitive symptoms: difficulties attending to and processing of information, in understanding the environment, and in remembering simple tasks
- Affective (or mood) symptoms: most notably depression, accounting for a very high rate of attempted suicide in people suffering from schizophrenia
The causes of schizophrenia are not known. However, an interplay of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors are thought to be involved. We do not yet understand all the causes and other issues involved, but current research is making steady progress toward elucidating and defining causes of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are thought to have many risk factors in common.
Nanda Nursing Diagnosis for Schizophrenia Clients - 22 Nursing Diagnosis
- Anxiety
- Bathing or hygiene self-care deficit
- Disabled family coping
- Disturbed body image
- Disturbed personal identity
- Disturbed sensory perception (auditory, visual, kinesthetic)
- Disturbed sleep pattern
- Disturbed thought processes
- Dressing or grooming self-care deficit
- Fear
- Hopelessness
- Imbalanced nutrition: Less than body requirements
- Impaired home maintenance
- Impaired social interaction
- Impaired verbal communication
- Ineffective coping
- Ineffective role performance
- Powerlessness
- Risk for injury
- Risk for other-directed violence
- Risk for self-directed violence
- Social isolation
