Nursing Diagnosis For Schizophrenia

In people suffering from Schizophrenia, the treatment goes for their whole life. Schizophrenia can cause serious complications if not treated early. On the other hand, early diagnosis and treatment may help in improving the long-term outlook.

Symptoms

In Schizophrenia, a wide range of problems are involved, including problems with behavior, emotions, and thinking (cognition). Signs and symptoms usually involve delusions, disorganized speech, or hallucinations. These signs and symptoms may vary from person to person and reflect an impaired ability to function. Symptoms of Schizophrenia may include:

Delusions: Delusion is a condition where false beliefs are not based on any real-life situation. For example, people with Schizophrenia might think that they are being harmed. They tend to think anything but not reality. They might think that they are being harassed, someone is in love with them, or even see someone not even present in the particular situation. People with Schizophrenia have exceptional ability or frame to see things in their way. Delusions are the most common symptom in people with Schizophrenia.

Hallucinations: In this, people usually see or hear things that do not even exist. People with Schizophrenia feel the presence of people, which is a normal experience for them. In hallucinations, a variety of sense organs might work and signal unreal things to the brains of people having Schizophrenia. The most common unreal experiences people with hallucinations face hearing voices that are not present in reality.

Disorganized thinking and speech: One can easily infer the symptoms of disorganized thinking from the speech of a person having Schizophrenia. Communication is impaired in such people. They cannot answer questions or might answer partially, or the answer might be completely unrelated to the question. Sometimes, people with Schizophrenia may even talk using meaningless words put together that are completely un-understandable.

Extremely abnormal motor control and disorganized behavior: People with schizophrenia exhibit extremely abnormal behaviors. The motor senses in these people are disorganized and totally out of control. These people might show unpredictable agitation or childlike silliness. The behavior of such people is not focused on a particular goal, which makes it quite difficult to do tasks. People with such disorders may show resistance to instructions, inappropriate posture, excessive movements, and a complete lack of response.

Negative symptoms: The meaning of negative symptoms is that people with Schizophrenia can not function normally. They mostly lack emotions, are unable to make eye contact, have monotonous speech, etc. These people tend to lose interest in activities of daily living and withdraw themselves from society.

Symptoms can vary from person to person according to the type and severity, with remission of symptoms or periods of worsening. But some of the symptoms may always be present in people with Schizophrenia. These symptoms usually start in the early to mid-20s in men and the late 20s in women. Children being diagnosed with Schizophrenia is quite uncommon, and it is rarely found in people older than 45 years of age.

Nursing Diagnosis for Schizophrenia

Getting familiar with the nursing diagnosis of Schizophrenia is important as Schizophrenia is an illness that can cause a variety of symptoms differing from one individual to another. People suffering from such a disabling illness have real issues while differentiating between what is real and what is not. In addition, their ability to think rationally is hampered in such conditions, thus making them socially detached.

Risk of Violence

PanicAngerRigid posture with clenched fistsNot being attentiveRestlessnessIrritabilityAggressive communication