Disorganized Schizophrenia is a long term mental illness and is considered to be one of the several subtypes of Schizophrenia. It is also known by the name of Hebephrenic Schizophrenia. In the condition of Disorganized Schizophrenia, a person gets extremely disorganized in any of the emotions of life. It is thought to be in the extreme of disorganization syndrome that has been assumed or imagined to be one feature of a 3-factor model of schizophrenia symptoms. Among the other 2 factors, one is delusions/ hallucinations in which the person lives in a distorted and imaginary reality which is not present and the other factor is psychomotor poverty which is poor in speech, lack of spontaneous movement, and blunting emotion. In this factor, person loses his or her control over speech and lacks too much in any of the spontaneous movement or action required in general life along with total blunted emotions. The patient of Disorganized Schizophrenia is characterized by totally confused and illogical thoughts and behavior. In other words, their behavior and speech along with actions is extremely agitated and purposeless.
Disorganized Schizophrenia is considered a more severe type of Schizophrenia as the patients in this condition don’t and can’t take care of their daily routine activities like preparing and having meals or taking care of the hygiene issues. Their speech becomes so much smashed that no one can ever understand whatever they want to say.
SYMPTOMS OF DISORGANIZED SCHIZOPHRENIA
- Unstructured Thinking: In the condition of Disorganized Schizophrenia, person is unable to form any leer or logical thoughts and this inability affects his/ her speech which also becomes unclear and disorganized in which a person cannot stick to the point of talk but keeps changing the subject of issue. The speech problem becomes so severe at times in certain cases that it is perceived as meaningless and confused (a mess of sounds) to those around him/her.
Chaotic Behavior: In this symptom, the person is unable to take care of the daily routine activities and also becomes unable to decide over basic things of life like, taking bath, getting ready after bath or for any other function of daily life, or even preparing and having meals. They may take meaningless tensions or they may show sexual behavior in public. Such disorganized behavior may appear to be normal to schizophrenics but very strange and unusual to the public or the people around them. Their behaviors vary from being childlike or silly or getting too much aggressive and violent on normal issues of life.
- Lacking Emotional Expression: With this symptom, person becomes fully blank in showing or expressing emotions as per the condition or situation. The patient appears extremely indifferent and unconcerned. They don’t talk properly or be in eye contact with the other nor do they show any body language relating to the issues they might be trying to discuss. They may show behaviours which are not at all expected or pursued for the present situation like they may laugh out loud on a very serious issue or condition.
TREATMENT FOR DISORGANIZED SCHIZOPHRENIA
Disorganized schizophrenia is a long-lasting and prolonged disease. While episodes of symptoms may vary in their intensity and duration, people with the disorder don’t return to their previous functional abilities without treatment. It can often be managed with coordinated treatments, including:
- Antipsychotic medications that may prevent the recurrence or lessen the intensity of psychotic episodes
- Individual psychotherapy that supplements drug treatment
- Family or group therapy
- Training in social and vocational skills
People with disorganized schizophrenia are more likely to misuse alcohol or drugs than are those with other schizophrenia subtypes. They are especially likely to be heavy smokers. In addition to its associated health risks, substance abuse can aggravate the symptoms of schizophrenia, leading to risky behaviors in order to procure substances, and disrupt treatments or other interventions. Smoking, in particular, may counter the effect of antipsychotic medications.