Schizophrenia: symptoms in women. The first signs of schizophrenia in women

Many of us know a serious psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia. Moreover, people often use this term to determine something that does not fit into the usual reasonable frames. But what is this disease really? How does it arise and develop?

At once I want to note that the generally accepted opinion about the greater susceptibility of this disease to men in the medical environment is perceived as highly controversial. Among the patients with this diagnosis are many women, and we will consider in this article how schizophrenia manifests in women than its symptoms differ from those of the same psychic pathology in the stronger sex.

At what age does schizophrenia appear

The development of this pathology occurs in men and women in different ways. So, representatives of the stronger sex, as a rule, begin to get sick before ladies (from about 20 years of age). By the age of 30, the pathology is already actively manifesting themselves. In addition, even in adolescence, these boys are marked by signs of increased aggression and antisociality.

When diagnosed as "schizophrenia," the symptoms in women usually appear 5 years later, and, as a rule, they are less pronounced. The disease takes a slow form, complicated by periodic exacerbations.

Features of symptomatology in women

Already at an early stage of development the disease manifests itself in the form of delusions and hallucinations. True, schizophrenia in women usually passes on a more severe emotional background and is often accompanied by depression. By the way, these signs can arise and exist for years before the appearance of productive symptoms.

Even with a sluggish situation, the sick ladies show less aggression, but they become very irritable, unfriendly, avoid social contacts, which can bewilder their surroundings.

Is schizophrenia a hereditary disease

Recent research has shown that schizophrenia in adults and children is still a hereditary disease transmitted through the maternal line. If earlier scientists only mentioned statistics that say that in sick parents, children in 40% of cases also become patients of psychiatric clinics, now these data are confirmed by geneticists.

The predisposition to schizophrenia presupposes the presence of a set of defective genes. But, that while it is surprising, the set of patients is usually different. True, all these genes have, as a rule, common features - their functions concern regulation of the brain development process. So, the more of them, the higher the likelihood of the onset of the disease.

Although, unfortunately, there is still no way to determine the genetic profile of the patient with the diagnosis of "schizophrenia" unequivocally, and therefore, one can not test the carrier of a predisposition to this pathology in order to clearly say whether he becomes ill or not.

How not to miss the first signs of ailment?

It is very important to notice the first symptoms of schizophrenia in women, Because the disease at the beginning of development is better treatable than in men.

1. The patient has a different way of talking. She can begin to communicate in short sentences, and sometimes she is not at all able to explain anything intelligibly. In order to speak out, she picks up the words for a long time.

2. Everything that previously gave pleasure, becomes such a lady uninteresting.

3. The facial expression of a woman is reduced, she avoids direct views.

4. The initiated cases are not brought to its end, as this woman can no longer perceive any goals. Because of this attitude, as a rule, official affairs or studies suffer greatly.

5. The patient can not concentrate on anything, constantly loses thought, perplexedly pauses.

Any of the emerging signs of the disorder should be alarming and cause an urgent appeal to a psychiatrist.

The main symptom of schizophrenia is a violation of thinking

If a patient is suspected of a disease, it is necessary to determine the presence of a disorder of thinking in order to establish a diagnosis and to ascertain that this indicator is consistent with other manifestations of the overall clinical picture.

Thanks to simple tests, it is now possible for both women and men to identify symptoms of schizophrenia. The onset of the disease is diagnosed if:

• The patient uses his own language, filled with neologisms;
• Between the concepts of the patient there is little correlation and the blurring of borders is obvious;
• Such a person has lost the ability to abstract thinking;
• In chronic forms of the disease, the patient demonstrates verbigeration (mechanical repetition of any words or phrases);
• The logic of the patient is often difficult to explain;
• The ability to separate the main and secondary is broken;
• Unified concepts, phenomena and objects on non-essential grounds;
• It is difficult for a patient to understand the similarity or difference between something;
• Clogging of thinking in him often turns out to be in the neighborhood with a loss of control over the flow of thoughts.

Features delirium and hallucinations

Symptoms of schizophrenia in women, men and children are similar to those of delusional ideas, which completely master the patient's consciousness and can not be corrected, that is, the patient can not be dissuaded from the mistakenness of his ideas about anything.

The most characteristic for patients with this diagnosis is the so-called delusion of physical impact. It seems to the patient that he is being acted upon by hypnosis or some kind of radiation emanating from both terrestrial and cosmic installations. At the same time, he clearly hears the voices of those beings that influence him at the moment, controlling his thoughts, emotions and even movements.

The patient can see and pictures or "films", which he allegedly show these creatures. Often the sensation of smells (mostly unpleasant), as well as feelings of drilling, burning, transfusion and lumbago in the head.

Schizophrenia: symptoms in women, manifested in the emotional sphere

At the beginning of development, the disease is characterized by a loss of feelings of affection and sympathy for parents, relatives or friends. Family, children - all this loses its value in the eyes of women. The patient loses interest in learning or work, becomes closed and fenced off. Parents such a woman can start to call by name and patronymic, treating them like strangers.

Women are especially inclined to reflect and endlessly search for the meaning of life or the root causes of any, even the most ordinary events.

Sometimes the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia in women take a cardinal character, manifested in rudeness, malice and aggression towards others. The patient loses interest in his appearance (he does not wash, does not change clothes, does not comb his hair) and duties. She has a passion for vagrancy, she does many absurd, incomprehensible actions. In some cases, women with schizophrenia show excessive sexual activity without realizing it.

Along with the above deficiency symptoms in women diagnosed with schizophrenia, signs of manifestation of pathology more often than in men are expressed in a depressed mood. The patient has lethargy, apathy, lack of will, needs, attention, motivation and initiative (all these symptoms in medicine are called Apato-Abulic syndrome).

Peculiarities of women's perception of their disease

Schizophrenia in women, the symptoms and the first signs of which we are considering, is characterized by the critical attitude of women to the manifestations of their ailment, especially at the initial stage. And this, among other things, often leads to the appearance of psychomotor reactions, which are supposedly aimed at expelling the evil forces that settled in the body of the sufferer. By the way, men in this situation usually believe that what is happening with them does not go beyond the normal framework.

Because of their psychological characteristics, women tend to be addicted to magic and occult sciences, so changes in their condition are sometimes perceived as a sign of their own exclusivity, confirmation of magical abilities, and so on. And men like this, as a rule, not typical.

Schizophrenia: symptoms in women with different forms of the disease

Depending on how the disease manifests itself, it is divided into 4 forms: simple, paranoid (delusional), hebephrenic (disorganized) and catatonic.

The paranoid form is the most common. It is diagnosed in most patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Symptoms in women with this form of the disease are manifested by unfounded judgments that can not be corrected. Most often this is nonsense of persecution, less common is the delirium of jealousy, greatness, etc. Compared to other forms, this is the most dangerous for society, since the patient can begin to defend himself against fictitious dangers and cause harm to those around him.

Gebefrenic form most often appears in adolescence. Initially, it is perceived as a tendency to prank: the child grimaces, mischievous, constantly active. But over time, parents are alarmed, since the speech of a teenager becomes very fast and incomprehensible, and behavior - all the more strange. His jokes no longer cause laughter, but, on the contrary, frighten him, forcing him to suspect a mental disorder. Unfortunately, the prognosis of this form of the disease is most often unfavorable.

Catatonic and simple forms

With the catatonic form of the disease, the patient stays frozen for a long time in complete immobility, even if the pose is uncomfortable. In some cases, extreme excitement, even riot, can be observed. Sometimes it alternates with numbness. Patients, as a rule, do not feel hunger and fatigue neither during the period of inhibition, nor during excitation. They have to be fed by force, otherwise they can reach total exhaustion.

Simple schizophrenia in women is actually not so simple. She, unlike other forms of the disease, there are no bright symptoms in the form of hallucinations, motor disorders or delusions. It is inherent in a gradual increase in the main signs of the disease: isolation, disturbance of thinking.

The patient no longer has to worry about her own destiny, she has emotional dullness and other signs of personality disintegration. This form of the disease develops slowly and unnoticed, which is the reason for the late treatment of a psychiatrist and, accordingly, worsens the prognosis.

What can be the course of the disease

Schizophrenia, the forms and causes of which we consider in this article, depending on the features of the course of the disease is divided into continuous, paroxysmal and sluggish.

Continuously flowing form has a progressive steady flow, leading to a complete disintegration of the personality. There is also a malignant form, which leads to such consequences in a very short time.

During the paroxysmal course of the disease, periods of exacerbation of symptoms are replaced by light intervals of remission.

Sluggish form is not perceived by all specialists as actually schizophrenia. Manifestations of the disease are not so pronounced. This form of schizophrenia does not lead to asociality. Often the disease recedes independently even without treatment.