ACUTE SCHIZOPHRENIA: See Reactive Schizophrenia.

AFFECT: Emotional feeling, tone and mood attached to a thought, including its external manifestations.

AUTISM: Pervasive developmental disorder beginning in infancy involving a wide range of abnormalities, including language impairment, abnormal behaviour and social withdrawal.

BLUNTED AFFECT: See Flat Affect.

CATATONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA: Type of schizophrenia in which the central feature is pronounced motor symptoms, marked by stupor or mania, which sometimes makes it difficult to differentiate this condition from a psychotic mood disorder.

CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA: See Process Schizophrenia .

DELUSION: Fixed belief opposed to reality and not logically sound.

DISORGANIZATION: Severely impaired integration.

DISORGANIZED SCHIZOPHRENIA: Type of schizophrenia that usually begins at an earlier age and represents a more severe disintegration of the personality than in the other types of schizophrenia.

EXPRESSED EMOTION (EE): Type of negative communication involving excessive criticism and emotional over-involvement directed at a patient by family members.

FLAT AFFECT: Absence of or diminution in the amount of emotional tone or outward emotional reaction typically shown under similar circumstances.

HALLUCINATION: A perception in which things are seen or heard that are not real or present.

HEREDITY: Genetic transmission of characteristics from parents to their children.

INAPPRORIATE AFFECT: Emotional tone or outward reaction out of harmony with the idea, object, or thought accompanying it.

NEGATIVE SYMPTOM SCHIZOPHRENIA: Schizophrenia characterized by an absence or deficit or normal or desirable behaviours, such as communicative speech and emotional reactivity.

NEUROLEPTIC DRUGS: The standard drugs currently used to treat symptoms of schizophrenia.

NEUROPHYSIOLOGY: Branch of biology concerned with the functioning of nervous tissue and the nervous system.

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT: Use of psychological tests that measure a subject's cognitive, perceptual, and motor performance to determine the extent and locus of brain damage.

PARANOIA: Symptoms of delusions and impaired contact with reality but without the severe personality disorganization characteristic of schizophrenia.

POLYGENIC: Caused by the action of many genes together in an additive or interactive fashion

POSITIVE-SYMPTOM SCHIZOPHRENIA: Schizophrenic disorders characterized by elements added to normal behaviour, such as delusions and hallucinations.

PROGNOSIS: Prediction as to the probable course of and outcome of a disorder.

PROCESS SCHIZOPHRENIA: Schizophrenic pattern – marked by seclusiveness, gradual lack of interest in the surrounding world, diminished emotional responsivity, gand mildly inappropriate responses – that develops gradually and tends to be long-lasting; alternatively known as poor premorbid schizophrenia and chronic schizophrenia.

PSYCHOSIS: Serious mental disorder involving a loss of contact with reality, as when hallucinations or delusions are present.

REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA: Schizophrenia pattern – marked by confusion and intense emotional turmoil– that normally develops suddenly and has identifiable precipitating stressors.

RESIDUAL SCHIZOPHRENIA: Diagnostic category used for people regarded as having recovered from a schizophrenic episode but still manifesting some signs of their past disorder.

SCHIZOAFFECTIVE DISORDER: Major mood disorder in which a person also has at least two major symptoms of schizophrenia, such as hallucinations and delusions.

SCHIZOPHRENIA: Psychosis characterized by the breakdown of integrated personality functioning, withdrawal from reality, emotional blunting and distortion, and disturbances in thought and behavior.

SCHIZOPHRENIFORM DISORDER: Category of schizophrenic disorder, usually in an undifferentiated form, of less than six months duration.

SCHIZOPHRENOGENIC: Schizophrenia-causing.

THOUGHT DISORDER: A symptom of schizophrenia. Clear, goal-directed thinking becomes increasingly difficult, as shown in a diffuseness or "woolliness" and circumstantiality of speech.

WITHDRAWAL: The process of retreating from society and relationships with others. Usually indicated by aloofness, lack of interest in social activities, and difficulty in communicating with others.

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