Schizophrenia
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Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and puzzling of psychological disorders. Literally, schizophrenia means 'split mind, but it is not the same as multiple (split) personalities, which is a distinct type of psychopathy classified among the dissociative disorders. Schizophrenia refers to a group of psychological disorders, which involve disorders of though, perception and emotion, bizarre behaviour and social withdrawal. It is something that affects 1% of the world's population and is probably the most serious of mental disorders.
According to DSM-IV, schizophrenia has three essential features thought disorders, delusions and hallucinations. To be diagnosed with schizophrenia, an individual must show at least one of these features. Thought disorder is probably the most pronounced symptom of schizophrenia. It causes the patient to have difficulty in logically arranging their thoughts and sorting out reasonable conclusions from absurd ones. When in a conversation, schizophrenics may jump from one topic to another abruptly and display associations between words that are not entirely obvious. They may also use neologisms, made up words, and may repeat the same phrase over and over again...