DSM -5 criteria needed to have schizophrenia
According for a person to be diagnosed with schizophrenia a person must experience at …show more content…
Also, a person’s level of functioning must have decrease after the symptoms appear. Finally, the disturbances caused by the symptoms. Schizophrenia symptoms can be placed in three categories positive, negative and psychomotor. Positive symptoms add something to a person’s behavior. Examples of positive symptoms include delusions which are where has a “strange false belief” that they hold even though it is ridiculous; disorganize thinking, speech, inappropriate affect and hallucinations. Hallucinations are when a person hears, sees or feels something that is not present. The most common hallucination is auditory and people can hear negative voices in their head (Comer, 365). …show more content…
Antipsychotic drugs were discovered in the 1950s and are also known as neuroleptic drugs due the unwanted effects of the drugs (Comer,670 ). While Jack was taking this medicine, he experienced “painful twisting and contracting of his muscles”. The side effects are called extrapyramidal effects; these effects normally resemble Parkinson’s symptoms such as shaking or convulsions. After, suffering from these effects he switched over Haldol is also an antipsychotic but has less side effects. These drugs work by blocking the overactive neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain (Comer,372). Also, if a person who is on antipsychotic medication stops taking their medicine the symptoms of schizophrenia will return. This is important to know because Jack needs to stay on his medicine or he will not improve. Jack needs to remember to take his pill every day in order keep his symptoms under control