The Consequences of schizophrenia The main ones are cognitive deterioration, isolation, suicide, toxic habits, skills deficits for everyday life, impact on families and economic cost.
Schizophrenia is a serious, deteriorating and relatively frequent neuropsychiatric disease in society. It deals with emotional, sensory, cognitive and behavioral alterations, affecting approximately 1% of the general population.
It usually starts in early youth as the typical starting age falls between the ages of 18 and 23, although it can start at any point in life.
It should be noted that not all patients with schizophrenia suffer from the same symptomatology, the same course or the same clinical characteristics.
In fact, there are different subgroups of schizophrenia depending on the presented symptomatology.
However, whatever the onset age of the disease, and the symptomatology and course of each patient, there is an enormous bibliography describing the nefarious consequences of schizophrenia.
Scientific evidence has been provided that highlights both medical consequences and social and familial consequences of these psychotic disorders.
In fact, the schizophrenia Is considered to be the most serious psychopathological disorder and causes greater repercussion in all areas of the patient.
What exactly is schizophrenia?
Popularly, schizophrenia is interpreted as a disease in which delusions and hallucinations are suffered.
However, although delusions and hallucinations make the pathognomic symptoms of schizophrenia, this disease goes much further.
In order to explain both the symptoms and the repercussions of the disease, a tetrasindromic model has been developed, ie a model in which the manifestations of schizophrenia are grouped into four categories. These are:
- Positive symptoms
They make up the delusions and hallucinations typical of schizophrenia.
- Symptoms of disorganization.
There are formal disorders of thought, strange behavior, and inappropriate affectivity.
- Negative symptoms.
They refer to affective alterations, cognitive impairment, apathy and anhedonia.
- Relational symptoms.
They cover all the consequences at relational and operational level that the patient suffers.
Consequences of schizophrenia in health, family and society
Here we will discuss the 8 main consequences of schizophrenia.
1- Cognitive impairment
As we have seen, schizophrenia not only produces positive symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations, but also produces negative symptoms.
The duality between positive and negative refers to the level of activity of the schizophrenic brain.
Thus, while some (the positive ones) increase in the level of activity and are manifested through an increase of the speed of thought or the appearance of delusions and hallucinations, the negative ones refer to a decrease of the cerebral activity.
More specifically, negative-type symptoms can be grouped into two main categories: those relating to affective status and those relating to cognitive status.
The affective symptomatology is characterized mainly by the apathy, the abulia And"affective indifference."
Thus, saving distances, these symptoms could be interpreted as a sort of depressive state in which the schizophrenic patient has no desire to do anything, enjoys nothing, and is incapable of generating Positive emotions .
As far as the negative cognitive symptoms are concerned, many schizophrenic patients manifest what is known as alogia.
The alogia refers to a series of symptoms that show a clear deterioration of the mental capacities of the patients.
Among other symptoms, people with schizophrenia may suffer from slow language and thought, poor thinking content, constant blockages in their reasoning, and increased Latency Of response.
These symptoms are usually less frequent at the onset of the disease but usually become more prominent over the years.
Thus, most patients with schizophrenia end up losing much of their mental abilities and exhibiting markedly marked cognitive impairment, which can often lead to a dementia syndrome.
2- Isolation
Another of the most typical consequences of schizophrenia is the isolation and poor social contact that patients suffer.
This repercussion of the disease refers to the fourth group of symptoms mentioned above, that is, to relational symptoms.
However, this highly damaging consequence for patients with this pathology can be explained in terms of the other symptoms.
That is, all the symptoms of schizophrenia can greatly hamper the person's ability to socialize and have a supportive circle.
Either a patient who mainly suffers from positive symptoms through hallucinations and constant delusions.
Or a patient suffering from negative symptoms through a clear dysfunctionality, and lack of motivation to perform anything and ability to enjoy most situations.
Or an individual who presents a wide range of disorganization symptoms and has a clearly extravagant behavior and way of relating.
Or what is usually more common, a person with schizophrenia who suffers from several of these symptoms.
In any of these four cases, the symptoms of the disease itself cause the patient to have many difficulties in relating and establishing personal relationships, so isolation is abundant among schizophrenic subjects.
3- Suicide
Contrary to what many people may think, suicide is a highly relevant aspect of schizophrenia since these types of behaviors occur relatively frequently.
In fact. Experts from the Spanish Association of Private Psychiatry, point out that 80% of suicide cases are associated with a Depression box , A schizophrenia, a personality disorder or one Drug addiction .
In the case of schizophrenia, suicide is closely related to the depressive symptomatology that can cause the pathology.
Both the isolation and the symptoms of psychotic disorder itself can lead the patient to a state in which suicidal behaviors are more possible and gain more prevalence.
This fact explains that suicide rates among schizophrenic patients are significantly higher than those of the general population and are one of the main consequences of the disorder.
4- Toxic habits
Substance use and schizophrenia have been two concepts that have always been closely linked.
This fact is explained by the fact that there are a large number of schizophrenic patients who present toxic habits and who consume different types of drugs .
In fact, the vast majority of subjects with this disease present what is known as Dual pathology , Ie a table in which two disorders (schizophrenia and substance abuse) occur and in which both pathologies feed back.
There are many currents that link schizophrenia and toxic habits in a unidirectional sense, in which drug use can lead to the onset of schizophrenia.
However, thanks to the research that has been carried out in recent years, it has been concluded that substance use alone can not cause schizophrenia.
It is true that consuming certain drugs Like cannabis Can increase the risk of an outbreak and motivate the onset of psychotic disorder.
However, schizophrenia is interpreted as a neurodevelopmental disorder, so that for this to occur, the subject must previously have a predisposition to suffer from this disease.
Thus, there is some consensus today in interpreting substance use as a consequence of schizophrenia itself.
Schizophrenia is understood as the primary mental illness that can lead to substance abuse behaviors.
Also, drug use itself can increase the symptoms of schizophrenia, maximize its negative consequences, limit recovery and worsen the patient's prognosis.
In conclusion, the relationship between toxic habits and schizophrenia is bidirectional.
On the one hand, schizophrenia increases the likelihood of dependence on certain drugs and, on the other hand, substance use is a risk factor for schizophrenia itself.
5- Skills deficits
This consequence of schizophrenia is especially relevant among those subjects suffering from the onset of the disease during adolescence or early stages.
Schizophrenia causes a clear deterioration in all areas of the patient, which loses a great number of abilities and usually acquires a degree of dependence remarkably high.
This fact makes the development of basic skills such as making food, cleaning the room, or carrying out proper hygiene and personal image care become very complicated activities for the patient.
Also, other types of more complex skills such as Communicate properly , Managing personal administrative or economic aspects, or performing a work activity are almost unattainable actions.
In fact, training in personal and social skills is one of the main objectives of psychological treatment in people with this pathology, and are key to limit the dependence of the subject.
This consequence (like all others) can vary in each patient and can be reduced if appropriate treatments are received.
However, the skill deficit is one of the most observed factors among patients with schizophrenia.
6- Consequences to the world of work
Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that affects multiple areas of the person's life and, therefore, also has an impact on the world of work.
First, the onset of pathology in adolescence or the young adult period means that in many cases the patient lacks sufficient job training to get a job.
Also, following the previous point, the deficit of skills that causes the debut of schizophrenia, also has an abundance repercussions on the ability of the individual to be inserted in the world of work.
In addition, the symptoms of schizophrenia itself, independent of the group of symptoms presented by the patient (positive, negative, disorganized or relational) are also important factors that call into question the relationship between schizophrenia and the world of work.
In general terms, the factors that are most directly involved in the achievement of an investment are:
- Age : It has been demonstrated as an older age, the more difficult it will be for the patient suffering from schizophrenia to acquire a satisfactory working situation.
- Cognitive Function : In many cases, schizophrenia causes a clear cognitive impairment, a fact that is related to the patient's work failure.
- Prior social and educational functioning : As we have discussed at the beginning of this point and the previous one, the sooner schizophrenia begins, the less personal skills the patient has been able to develop.
- Disease awareness : The lack of awareness about being ill is a phenomenon that occurs in a large number of patients and is directly related to a worse future job.
7- Impact on families and caregivers
As we have been able to see throughout the previous 6 points, schizophrenia is a pathology that causes an important dependence on the patient.
He will need the care and supervision of his relatives in order to guarantee minimum levels of functioning and to lead a satisfactory life.
For this reason, the burden on relatives or caregivers is one of the most important consequences of this pathology.
In fact, a WHO study attributed 31.7% of all years of life with disability to neuropsychiatric disorders, of which schizophrenia ranks third (2.8%), only behind depression and he Alcohol consumption .
8- Economic Cost
Finally, the economic cost of schizophrenia is very high, both in terms of direct costs and indirect costs.
However, it is striking to see the limited data currently available on the total economic impact this disease can have on society.
A recent study estimated that in European countries, the cost of schizophrenia is between 3 and 4% of gross national product (GNP), surpassing 182,000 million euros per year. Important for society.
References
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