The 6 Types Of Schizophrenia (and Associated Characteristics)
Schizophrenia is a group of serious psychiatric disorders that, contrary to what many people believe, do not have to be similar to each other.
The types of schizophrenia are what have long been used to determine the mental health of patients who present the symptoms. although knowing how to recognize and distinguish them is not easy.
Furthermore, the debate about whether it is more necessary to differentiate between types of schizophrenia or, on the contrary, the phenomenon of schizophrenia should be addressed globally has raised questions about the appropriateness of using different subtypes based on separate diagnostic criteria.
From the discussion about whether to consider types of schizophrenia or talk about schizophrenia in general has had an important consequence: recently, the DSM-V diagnostic manual has stopped differentiating according to subtypes of schizophrenia, although that does not mean that this decision has received good levels of acceptance by psychiatrists in general.
Summing up, It is not at all clear whether or not it is necessary to distinguish between types of schizophrenia but many specialists in the medical field continue to do so. Depending on the categorization of the symptoms and the emphasis placed on the variations and different forms in which schizophrenia can appear, a single concept will be used to explain all cases of this disease or various labels will be used to specify more: no There is an objective criterion that allows this issue to be resolved.
Since knowledge is power, here you can find a description of the characteristics of the types of schizophrenia that have been excluded from the DSM in recent years.
1. Catatonic schizophrenia
This type of schizophrenia is characterized by severe psychomotor alterations that the patient presents. These pathological alterations are not always the same, although the main ones are immobility and waxy rigidity, in which the person keeps the muscles tense so that it looks like a wax figure (hence the name of the symptom), the inability to speak and adopting strange postures while standing or on the ground.
During the phases in which catatonia occurs, alterations in consciousness and other alterations such as mutism, stupor and staring also appear, alternating these negative symptoms with others such as agitation. However, it must be taken into account that there can be a lot of variability in the way in which catatonic schizophrenia presents, and Most patients do not present all the symptoms associated with this condition at the same time.
Finally, it is necessary to point out that in addition to the discussion about whether there are types of schizophrenia or a single clinical entity that expresses itself in different ways, there is a debate about whether catatonia is in fact one of the manifestations of schizophrenia or if it is another independent phenomenon.
2. Paranoid schizophrenia
One of the best known types of schizophrenia, in this case symptoms tend to be more psychological than motor ; In fact, people with this type of schizophrenia do not have defects in motor or speech abilities. Among these signs of alteration in psychic functions is the persecution maniathat is, the belief that other people want to harm us in the present or in the future.
It is also common for auditory hallucinations and delusions to occur in this type of schizophrenia (in the latter, strange elements are not perceived through the senses, but thinking is so altered that strange narratives about reality are constructed).
Delusions of grandeur, classic of megalomaniac people, can also make an appearance here.
3. Simple schizophrenia
This has been a category to designate a possible type of schizophrenia in which there are not as many positive symptoms (i.e., those that define the person’s proactive behavior and initiatives) and negative symptoms (i.e., characterized by the absence of basic psychological processes and a lack of will and motivation). In other words, this type of schizophrenia is characterized by diminished mental processes, and not so much by unusual excesses of mental activity.
People who had this type of schizophrenia presented many forms of inhibition, affective flattening, little verbal and non-verbal communication, etc.
Unlike the rest of the types of schizophrenia that we will see here, this one did not appear in the DSM-IV, but has been a category proposed by the WHO.
4. Residual schizophrenia
This category was used as a type of schizophrenia that occurs when there has been an outbreak of schizophrenia in the past but at present the positive symptoms are very moderate and of low intensity, while what draws most attention are the “remnants” of negative symptoms that have remained. Therefore, to understand this type of schizophrenia, it is very important to take into account the time factor and make comparisons between before and after.
In this type of schizophrenia, rather than behaviors that in themselves are a sign of pathology (such as the adoption of a completely rigid posture), The disease is expressed through the way in which the person’s actions are organized and occur. That is to say, its main characteristic is the disordered way in which the actions appear, compared to the rest.
Their behavior is chaotic and is not organized around themes that are maintained over time, meaning that a more or less coherent narrative is not constructed that gives rise to the persecution mania or the hallucinations that one has, for example. The person shows disorganization in their emotional states, in what they say and/or in their way of moving.
6. Undifferentiated schizophrenia
This is a “catch-all” category to be able to classify those cases that do not fit the diagnostic criteria. of the rest of the types of schizophrenia. Therefore, it cannot be considered a consistent type of schizophrenia.
