| schizophasia | The disordered speech (word salad) of the schizophrenic individual. Origin: schizo-+ G. Phasis, speech (05 Mar 2000) |
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| schizophrenia | <psychiatry> A mental disorder or heterogeneous group of disorders (the schizophrenias or schizophrenic disorders) comprising most major psychotic disorders and characterised by disturbances in form and content of thought (loosening of associations, delusions and hallucinations) mood (blunted, flattened or inappropriate affect), sense of self and relationship to the external world (loss of ego boundaries, dereistic thinking and autistic withdrawal) and behaviour (bizarre, apparently purposeless and stereotyped activity or inactivity). The definition and clinical application of the concept of the concept of schizophrenia have varied greatly. The DSM III R criteria emphasise marked disorder of thought (delusions, hallucinations or other thought disorder accompanied by disordered affect or behaviour), deterioration from a previous level of functioning and chronicity (duration of more than 6 months), thus excluding from this classification conditions referred to by others as acute, borderline, simple or latent schizophrenia. Originally called dementia praecox and characterised as a psychosis with adolescent onset and a chronic course ending in deterioration. The term schizophrenia was introduced by Bleuler because neither early onset nor terminal deterioration is an essential feature, he emphasised the splitting and lack of personality integration seen in the disorder. Origin: Gr. Phren = mind (18 Nov 1997) |
| schizophrenia and disorders with psychotic features | Marked disorders of thought (delusions, hallucinations, or other thought disorder accompanied by disordered affect or behaviour), and deterioration from a previous level of functioning. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophrenia, catatonic | A type of schizophrenia characterised by abnormality of motor behaviour which may involve particular forms of stupor, rigidity, excitement or inappropriate posture. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophrenia, childhood | An obsolete concept, historically used for childhood mental disorders thought to be a form of schizophrenia. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophrenia, disorganised | A type of schizophrenia characterised by frequent incoherence; marked loosening of associations, or grossly disorganised behaviour and flat or grossly inappropriate affect that does not meet the criteria for the catatonic type; associated features include extreme social withdrawal, grimacing, mannerisms, mirror gazing, inappropriate giggling, and other odd behaviour. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophrenia, paranoid | A chronic form of schizophrenia characterised primarily by the presence of persecutory or grandiose delusions, often associated with hallucination. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophrenic | A serious mental illness which results in delusional thought patterns, hallucinations and inappropriate affect. These patients will often suffer from social and occupational difficulty in addition to personal disability. (27 Sep 1997) |
| schizophrenic language | The artificial language of schizophrenic patients - neologisms (words of the patient's own making with new meanings). (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophrenic psychology | Study of mental processes and behaviour of schizophrenics. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophreniform disorder | A disorder whose essential features are identical with those of schizophrenia, with the exception that the duration including prodromal, active, and residual phases is less than six months. (05 Mar 2000) |
| schizophyllum | Fleshy shelf basidiomycetous fungi, family schizophyllaceae, order aphyllophorales, growing on woody substrata. (12 Dec 1998) |
| schizophyte | <biology> One of a class of vegetable organisms, in the classification of Cohn, which includes all of the inferior forms that multiply by fission, whether they contain chlorophyll or not. Origin: Schizo- + Gr. A plant. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| schizopod | <zoology> One of the Schizopoda. Also used adjectively. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| schizopoda | <zoology> A division of shrimplike Thoracostraca in which each of the thoracic legs has a long fringed upper branch (exopodite) for swimming. Origin: NL. See Schizo-, and -poda. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |