What problems do schizophrenics have in the partnership?
The effects of schizophrenia on the patient’s relationship are very complex and highly dependent on how severe the psychosis is. In the best case, the partner can be brought into the therapy, the patient is optimally medicated or even cured and the couple is stronger connected afterwards than before. In the worst case, however, the patient withdraws more and more, undergoes a complete change of character and becomes increasingly estranged from his partner or involves him in the illness, thus becoming an enormous burden. Regardless of the exact course of the disease, it is always important to take care of the partner, who usually suffers greatly from the illness of his loved one.
How high is the heritability of schizophrenia?
Genetic predisposition appears to be the biggest risk factor for the development of schizophrenia. If one has no schizophrenic relatives, the risk of developing the disease is less than 1%. If second-degree relatives are affected, the risk increases to 3-5%, and even to 9-12% for first-degree relatives.
If both parents are affected or the identical twin, the risk is 50%. It is therefore assumed that more than 80% of all schizophrenia disorders are more or less genetically determined. However, these genes only make the person susceptible to schizophrenia, and without environmental stress factors, people with a high genetic risk do not usually fall ill.
What forms of schizophrenia are distinguished?
The three main forms are paranoid, hebephrenic and catatonic schizophrenia. The paranoid form is characterized mainly by delusions and associated symptoms. In hebephrenic schizophrenia, on the other hand, the focus is not on delusions and hallucinations, but on a reduction in affect.
This is reflected in the patient’s listless, lame behavior. Catatonic schizophrenia is characterized by a complete isolation of the patient who does not speak or move. This form is the most difficult to treat.
Paranoid schizophrenia is the most common form of schizophrenia. The main symptom here is paranoia, i.e. delusion, usually accompanied by acoustic hallucinations, e.g. in the form of voices in the head.
These voices are mostly commenting and pejorative, thus judging the patient and his actions and thus wearing him down more and more. Paranoia is popularly known as paranoia, but the word roughly translated means only “against the mind” and in the medical sense means any form of delusion, so paranoid schizophrenia does not necessarily have to include paranoia. Many patients also develop delusions of grandeur or a combination of delusions.
In most cases, the delusion consists of misinterpretation of other people, the patient feels the behavior of his fellow human beings as hostile, as if everyone was against him and wanted to harm him, so a kind of persecution delusion does indeed occur. This initially manifests itself as anxiety and a general distrust, but can also develop into complex conspiracy theories. As already mentioned, there are many different forms of schizophrenia.
It is therefore also not clear whether it is really always the same disease, or whether schizophrenia is not just an umbrella term for many different psychoses, which need to be examined and differentiated more closely. Schizophrenia simplex is one of these forms, which in most cases only shows so-called negative symptoms and therefore differs strongly from the typical forms of schizophrenia. This means that the patients are mainly affect-relieved, i.e. apathetic and impassive, but only in rare cases suffer from delusions or hallucinations.
They are therefore mainly conspicuous by their inadequate behavior, the patients seem somehow strange and withdrawn.Unfortunately, the severity of the symptoms increases over time and is very difficult to treat, as the common medications mainly act on the positive symptoms. The prognosis for schizophrenia simplex is therefore still unfavorable today. Like most psychiatric diseases, schizophrenia is more or less relapsing.
This means that even without therapy, the symptoms may eventually recede on their own, but they may also recur. Many patients are symptom-free and practically cured after a single relapse, but unfortunately not all patients achieve complete remission, i.e. the complete disappearance of all symptoms. So if certain abnormalities remain after a severe schizophrenic phase, this is called schizophrenic residual.
In most cases, positive symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations are relapsing, i.e. they disappear completely, while negative symptoms such as apathy and apathy can remain as residuals between relapses. Unfortunately, these can worsen with each episode and are hardly treatable. In chronic cases of schizophrenia the residuals are therefore a major problem. You can find more information about schizophrenic residuals here: What is a schizophrenic residue?
