Catatonia is a complex syndrome, most commonly seen in people with underlying mood or psychotic disorders. People with catatonia have abnormal movement and behaviors, which vary from person to person and fluctuate in intensity within a single episode. People with catatonia appear withdrawn, meaning that they do not interact with the outside world and have difficulty processing information. They may be nearly motionless for days on end or perform repetitive purposeless movements. Two people may exhibit very different sets of behaviors and both still be diagnosed with catatonia. Treatment with benzodiazepines or ECT are most effective and lead to remission of symptoms in most cases.
Emil Wilhelm Georg Magnus Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. H. J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics.
Schizoaffective disorder is a mental disorder characterized by symptoms of both schizophrenia (psychosis) and a mood disorder - either bipolar disorder or depression. The main diagnostic criterion is the presence of psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks without prominent mood symptoms. Common symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and thinking, as well as mood episodes. Schizoaffective disorder can often be misdiagnosed when the correct diagnosis may be psychotic depression, bipolar I disorder, schizophreniform disorder, or schizophrenia. This is a problem as treatment and prognosis differ greatly for most of these diagnoses. Many people with schizoaffective disorder have other mental disorders including anxiety disorders.
In psychology, schizotypy is a theoretical concept that posits a continuum of personality characteristics and experiences, ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to extreme states of mind related to psychosis, especially schizophrenia. The continuum of personality proposed in schizotypy is in contrast to a categorical view of psychosis, wherein psychosis is considered a particular state of mind, which the person either has or does not have.
Timothy John Crow, was a British psychiatrist and researcher. Much of his research was related to finding the causes of schizophrenia. He also had an interest in neurology and evolutionary theory. He was the Honorary Director of the Prince of Wales International Centre for Research into Schizophrenia and Depression. He qualified at the Royal London Hospital in 1964 and obtained a PhD at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 1970. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Crow was, for twenty years, Head of the Division of Psychiatry of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Research Centre at Northwick Park Hospital and then a member of the External Scientific Staff of the MRC in Oxford.
Paraphrenia is a mental disorder characterized by an organized system of paranoid delusions with or without hallucinations and without deterioration of intellect or personality.
Oneiroid syndrome (OS) is a condition involving dream-like disturbances of one's consciousness by vivid scenic hallucinations, accompanied by catatonic symptoms (either catatonic stupor or excitement), delusions, or psychopathological experiences of a kaleidoscopic nature. The term is from Ancient Greek "ὄνειρος" (óneiros, meaning "dream") and "εἶδος" (eîdos, meaning "form, likeness"; literally dream-like / oneiric or oniric, sometimes called "nightmare-like"). It is a common complication of catatonic schizophrenia, although it can also be caused by other mental disorders. The dream-like experiences are vivid enough to seem real to the patient. OS is distinguished from delirium by the fact that the imaginative experiences of patients always have an internal projection. This syndrome is hardly mentioned in standard psychiatric textbooks, possibly because it is not listed in DSM.
Brief psychotic disorder—according to the classifications of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5—is a psychotic condition involving the sudden onset of at least one psychotic symptom lasting 1 day to 1 month, often accompanied by emotional turmoil. Remission of all symptoms is complete with patients returning to the previous level of functioning. It may follow a period of extreme stress including the loss of a loved one. Most patients with this condition under DSM-5 would be classified as having acute and transient psychotic disorders under ICD-10. Prior to DSM-IV, this condition was called "brief reactive psychosis." This condition may or may not be recurrent, and it should not be caused by another condition.
Postpartum psychosis (PPP), also known as puerperal psychosis or peripartum psychosis, involves the abrupt onset of psychotic symptoms shortly following childbirth, typically within two weeks of delivery but less than 4 weeks postpartum. PPP is a condition currently represented under "Brief Psychotic Disorder" in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Volume V (DSM-V). Symptoms may include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or abnormal motor behavior. Other symptoms frequently associated with PPP include confusion, disorganized thought, severe difficulty sleeping, variations of mood disorders, as well as cognitive features such as consciousness that comes and goes or disorientation.
Professor Helmut Beckmann was a German psychiatrist. He was one of the founders of neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia and biologically-based psychiatry in Germany.
In psychiatry, catastrophic schizophrenia or schizocaria is an outdated term for a rare, acute form of schizophrenia leading to chronic psychosis and deterioration of the personality.
Childhood schizophrenia is similar in characteristics of schizophrenia that develops at a later age, but has an onset before the age of 13 years, and is more difficult to diagnose. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive symptoms that can include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech; negative symptoms, such as blunted affect and avolition and apathy, and a number of cognitive impairments. Differential diagnosis is problematic since several other neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, language disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also have signs and symptoms similar to childhood-onset schizophrenia.
The diagnosis of schizophrenia, a psychotic disorder, is based on criteria in either the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Clinical assessment of schizophrenia is carried out by a mental health professional based on observed behavior, reported experiences, and reports of others familiar with the person. Diagnosis is usually made by a psychiatrist. Associated symptoms occur along a continuum in the population and must reach a certain severity and level of impairment before a diagnosis is made. Schizophrenia has a prevalence rate of 0.3-0.7% in the United States.
Charles Macfie Campbell was a psychiatrist in the United States. He was President of the American Psychiatric Association.
The Kraepelinian dichotomy is the division of the major endogenous psychoses into the disease concepts of dementia praecox, which was reformulated as schizophrenia by Eugen Bleuler by 1908, and manic-depressive psychosis, which has now been reconceived as bipolar disorder. This division was formally introduced in the sixth edition of Emil Kraepelin's psychiatric textbook Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Aerzte, published in 1899. It has been highly influential on modern psychiatric classification systems, the DSM and ICD, and is reflected in the taxonomic separation of schizophrenia from affective psychosis. However, there is also a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder to cover cases that seem to show symptoms of both.
Manfred Bleuler was a Swiss physician and psychiatrist. Following in the footsteps of his father, doctoral supervisor, and colleague, Eugen Bleuler, Manfred Bleuler was devoted primarily to the study and treatment of schizophrenia. For his contributions, he received the Stanley R. Dean Award in 1970 and the Marcel Benoist Prize in 1972.
James Vance May (1873–1947) was an American psychiatrist and an early proponent for statistical studies and classification of mental diseases. He was among the first to recognize mental disease as a public health problem, a view that did not gain recognition and acceptance for many years.
Visual hallucinations in psychosis is when a subject with psychosis endures visual experiences which occur in the absence of corresponding external stimulation of the eye in the awake state, in which the subjects do not feel like they have control over, with sufficient sense of reality to resemble a authentic visual perception.
Eugenia Hanfmann was an American psychologist and educator who was born in Russia. Early in her career, Hanfmann was associated with Kurt Koffka and the Gestalt movement of psychology. Later she conducted research and published on schizophrenia and personality assessment. Hanfmann established a counseling service at Brandeis University and helped form its psychology department with Abraham Maslow. Hanfmann is considered to be one of the early pioneers of women in psychology.
