Skip to main content
Back

Schizophrenia definitions

Control buttons has been changed to "navigation" mode.
1/15
  • Schizophrenia
    A psychotic disorder with disturbances in thought, perception, emotion, and behavior, often emerging between ages 18-35.
  • Positive Symptoms
    Features involving additions to normal experience, such as hallucinations or delusions, not typically present in healthy individuals.
  • Negative Symptoms
    Features involving loss or reduction of normal behaviors or emotions, such as emotional flatness, apathy, or decreased speech.
  • Disorganized Symptoms
    Manifestations including illogical speech or unusual movements, reflecting disruption in thought and behavior organization.
  • Hallucinations
    Perceptual experiences occurring without external stimuli, most commonly auditory, but can involve any sense.
  • Delusions
    Persistent beliefs contrary to reality, resistant to evidence, often involving themes of grandeur or persecution.
  • Grandiose Delusions
    False beliefs of being an important figure or possessing exceptional abilities, despite evidence to the contrary.
  • Paranoid Delusions
    False beliefs that one is being targeted or persecuted by individuals or groups, often without logical basis.
  • Disorganized Speech
    Verbal output that lacks logical flow, often nonsensical or incoherent, making communication difficult to follow.
  • Disorganized Behavior
    Unusual or repetitive actions, including unpredictable movements or catatonic episodes, disrupting daily functioning.
  • Catatonic Behavior
    Episodes of immobility or unusual postures, where an individual may freeze and remain motionless for extended periods.
  • Genetic Predisposition
    Increased likelihood of developing the disorder due to inherited factors, as supported by twin and adoption studies.
  • Synaptic Pruning
    Adolescent brain process removing unused neurons; excessive occurrence is linked to reduced gray matter in the disorder.
  • Enlarged Ventricles
    Expansion of brain cavities filled with cerebrospinal fluid, associated with loss of surrounding neural tissue.
  • Prenatal Complications
    Adverse events during pregnancy or birth, such as maternal infection or lack of oxygen, increasing later risk for the disorder.