Behavioral Approaches to Schizophrenia

Description of the Strategy

Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic mental disorder characterized by various behavioral, emotional, and cognitive disturbances. Although the phenomenology of the disorder is highly heterogeneous, common characteristics of the illness can generally be classified into four domains: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, cognitive impairment, and social dysfunction. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganization of thinking, speech, and behavior that schizophrenia patients experience. Negative symptoms consist of deficiencies compared with nonpatients, such as a reduced range of emotional experience and expression, social withdrawal, and diminution in goal-directed behavior. In addition to positive and negative symptoms, schizophrenia is associated with diminished life satisfaction, poor social and occupational functioning, neurocognitive impairments, and profound deficits in social competence. Cognitive impairment is now recognized as ...