Stages of Schizophrenia
Scientists and researches have discovered that there are three stages of schizophrenia, the Prodromal Stage, the Acute Stage and the Residual Stage. The time period of each stage changes from patient to patient, for example the Prodromal Stage may last for 3 years in one person, but only for 6 months for another person. Below the three stages are explained and explored in-depth.
1. Prodromal Stage
The Prodromal Stage of schizophrenia is the time period before the actual onset of schizophrenia, when there are signs of the mental illness appearing. This is the stage where early symptoms and signs of schizophrenia become apparent. During the Prodromal Stage, people will commonly begin to isolate themselves and withdraw socially, they will lose motivation and enthusiasm in areas where they previously had it.
Symptoms in the Prodromal Stage aren’t exclusive to schizophrenia though and can instead be indicators of other mental illnesses, such as depression. Whilst it is possibly to correctly predict the development of schizophrenia during the Prodromal Stage, nothing is definite until the active symptoms of schizophrenia become apparent, such as delusions and hallucinations.
2. Acute Stage
The Acute Stage (also referred to as the Active Stage) of schizophrenia is the most dangerous stage, it is when people suffer psychotic symptoms, for instance these are commonly hallucinations, delusions or disorganized behaviour. When this stage is reached, it indicates that the schizophrenia has developed completely.
The behaviour of someone in the Acute Stage if often psychotic and extremely bizarre, usually the only solution is to hospitalize the patient to prevent them from harming themselves or others. The severity of the Acute Stage varies from person to person, whilst one person may experience unusually bizarre behaviour but harmless in nature, someone else may become extremely violent and agitative.
Some sufferers of paranoid schizophrenia may experience the Acute Stage only once in their life, whilst others will suffer from several episodes of the Acute Stage, with symptom free periods in between.
3. Residual Stage
The Residual Stage is extremely similar in nature to the Prodromal Stage, there are no positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions or hallucinations, but there can still be negative symptoms such as lack of emotion or lack of enthusiasm.
Louis Wain painted these pictures of cats, starting from the early onset of schizophrenia to the worse stages of the mental illness. The four paintings perfectly illustrate how schizophrenia can drastically change someone’s perception, and how the mental disorder develops gradually over time.
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