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- Schizophrenia refers to a class of disorders in which severe distortion of reality occurs.
- Thinking, perception, and emotion may deteriorate; the individual may withdraw from social interaction; and the person may display bizarre behavior.
- A number of characteristics distinguish schizophrenia from other disorders.
- Decline from a previous level of functioning.
- Disturbances of thought and language.
- People with schizophrenia often have delusions—firmly held, unshakable beliefs with no basis in reality.
- People with schizophrenia may have hallucinations, the experience of perceiving things that do not actually exist.
- People with schizophrenia sometimes lack emotion.
- People with schizophrenia tend to have little interest in others.
- In process schizophrenia, the symptoms develop relatively early in life.
- In reactive schizophrenia, the onset of symptoms is sudden and conspicuous.
- The treatment outlook for reactive schizophrenia is relatively favorable; process schizophrenia has proved to be much more difficult to treat.
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