Traci Bernard, age 16, of E1 Paso, Texas, for her question:
WHAT IS PARANOIA SCHIZOPHRENIA?
A mental illness in which the patient believes other persons are persecuting him, and he behaves accordingly, is called paranoia schizophrenia.
A paranoid schizophrenic often thinks people are talking about him all the time and that they wish to harm him. He even suspects members of his own family. He may accuse others of trying to poison him or of following him.
Schizophrenia is a mental illness in which there is a "splitting" of the personality. The patient's intelligence may often remain normal, but his emotions do not fit real life situations. A patient with schizophrenia does not have more than one personality, but he may be emotionally disturbed, aggressive and destructive. Sometimes he may revert to childish behavior and be unable to care for himself.
Many doctors consider paranoia a type of schizophrenia, although some consider it a separate problem. A person with simple paranoia will show megalomania, or an exaggerated degree of self love. He believes other people are hostile and are persecuting him. towever, unlike the paranoid schizophrenic, a person suffering from simple paranoia seems to be able to behave properly.
A similar illness is called hebephrenic schizophrenia. A affected person may talk and act irrationallt. He may behave childishly. Such patients often suffer rapid mental deterioration and often must be hospitalized throughout their lives.
A person with catatonic schizophrenia may become completely inactive and immobile, and not seem to respond to reality. His muscles may become rigid, and he may stay in one position for hours. Often he must be fed. The patient doesn't seem to know what is going on around him, even though he can hear, see and understand.
Doctors tell us that around 20 million people in the United States suffer from some type of mental illness today, and that more than a half a million of them enter hospitals annually. About one third of all hospital beds in the country are occupied by mental patients.
Medical science has not been able as yet to determine thespecific cause of all the various types of mental illnesses or ways of preventing and curing them.
Some experts believe, however, that early family life influences the development of some mental illnesses. They believe that a happy home life during the first years of life may do more than anything else to prevent many types of mental illnesses. A great deal of research is currently under way in the field of mental health by many of the country's top medical institutions.