Schizophrenia: What Is It? Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

The onset tends to happen later. Of the five categories, that's the one that seems to actually continue that way over time, whereas the other ones can change and not be that way the second or third time they have a breakdown.

MARTY MOSS-COANE: More fixed in their personality or their belief system?

JOSEPH BATTAGLIA, MD: More fixed.

MARTY MOSS-COANE: You wanted to add something.

ANTHONY SALERNO, PH.D.: What I'd like to add to that is, because an individual is paranoid and sees others not as supports or resources as threats, what happens is, they're not able to really commit themselves to the treatment, to the helpers that are available, to the services that are available, because trust is a critical element of any kind of helping relationship. So the supports that you could have within your family or friends, it's just often a matter of time before they become part of the entire group of people that you're suspicious, so it alienates you from others. In doing so, that also alienates you from the services and the treatments that could be beneficial.

NATHANIEL LACHENMEYER: At the same time, I think that -- if I'm wrong -- just from a strictly perspective rather than in terms of outcome, don't they tend -- because there's less cognitive deficit, there is a higher level of functioning that's maintained, right? Maybe outcome can be worse than other subtypes?

JOSEPH BATTAGLIA, MD: The issue about outcome is that if you're patient enough, if you go out 25, 30 years, the majority -- 50 to 60% -- actually have not returned, necessarily, to baseline, but can be functioning, having part-time jobs and an increased social network. So prognosis is really hard to make on the short-term basis. The paranoid type, in terms of its outcome, doesn't appear to be different than the other types, necessarily. The issue of how you alienate people -- for instance, your experiencing your own thoughts but you don't realize they're yours.

MARTY MOSS-COANE: There is much more to talk about. I hate to cut in there. I thank all three of you for joining us and telling us a little bit about what schizophrenia is. Thank you very much. And thank you very much for joining us. I'm Marty Moss-Coane.

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