264 Schizophrenia, Disorganized Type (295.10)
DSM-IV-TR criteria
- Schizophrenia in which the following criteria are meet:
- All of the following are prominent for a diagnosis to be made:
- Disorganized speech
- Disorganized behavior
- Flat or inappropriate affect
- The criteria are not met for Catatonic Type
Associated features
The essential features of the Disorganized Type of Schizophrenia are:
- Disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect.
- Having disorganized speech may be accompanied by madness and laughter that are not closely related to the content of the speech.
- The behavioral disorganization (i.e., the lack of goal orientation) may lead to severe disruption in the ability to perform activities of daily living (i.e., showering, dressing, or preparing meals).
- Those individuals suffering from the Disorganized Type of schizophrenia may also demonstrate improper “normal behaviors” including masturbating or defecating in public.
- Criteria for the Catatonic Type of Schizophrenia are not met, and delusions or hallucinations, if present, are fragmentary and not organized into a coherent theme. Associated features include grimacing, mannerisms, and other oddities of behavior. Impaired performance may be noted on a variety of neuropsychological and cognitive test.
- This subtype is also usually associated with poor pre-morbid personality, early and insidious onset, and a continuous course without significant remissions.
- Historically, and in other classification systems, this type is termed hebephrenic, which is characterized by foolish mannerisms, senseless laughter, delusions, hallucinations, and regressive behavior.
Individuals with Disorganized Type of Schizophrenia might suffer from social deficits, which is an impaired ability to understand and solve social problems. They behave “silly” or seem weird to most people. For example, individuals suffering from Disorganized type laugh or giggle at inappropriate times.
Individuals might also suffer from emotional deficits, which some Schizophrenics might show abnormal expressions of emotions, or an impaired ability to recognize emotion in others. Sufferers of Disorganized type schizophrenia also have problems showing the correct emotion for example they might be the ones to laugh at a funeral.
Substance abuse is very prevalent in Schizophrenia cases. 80-90% use nicotine heavily. In many cases many are polysubstance abusers.
Most Schizophrenics are at a high suicide risk. (10% succeed)
Also if these individuals display hallucinations and delusions, their behavior tends to be bizzare and poorly organized.
Individuals do not respond well to treatment.
Child vs. adult presentation
In recent research it has been shown that signs of schizophrenia may be present before clincal symptoms of psychosis appear. Normally schizophrenia develops in individuals sometime between adolescence and early adulthood. During childhood, symptoms can be minimal and discrete, however t