4 ms·
Did you mean "does not rule out misdiagnosis"? Going further than misdiagnosis, how many congenitally blind people are even tested for schizophrenia? Maybe lac
by dooglius 7y ago
Did you mean "does not rule out misdiagnosis"?
Going further than misdiagnosis, how many congenitally blind people are even tested for schizophrenia? Maybe lack of visual hallucinations make it less likely someone would get to the point of a test at all?
- bildung 7y ago> Maybe lack of visual hallucinations make it less likely someone would get to the point of a test at all? (I am not a psychologist!) Visual hallucinations are not a hard criterion for diagnosing schizophrenia. They do occur, but the symptoms are more about delusions, disorganised thinking and catatonic symptoms. IIRC hallucinations are more often auditory, like hearing voices.
- dooglius 7y agoI know, that's not my point, I'm saying the barrier may be that a blind schizophrenic person may not even be aware that there's anything seriously wrong or worth bringing to a doctor's attention, so he would never get to the point of a psych evaluation.
- bildung 7y agoThen by definition they wouldn't be mentally ill, as mental disorders have to cause significant distress for the patients to be diagnosed as such.
- jacobush 7y agoIt can be distress which is missed by the doctor. I think it's far more acceptable for us to "mishear" something and think nothing of it. The seeing also have the backup sense, sight to verify much of what we hear. "I heard the sound of an elephant stomping around in my living room." This statement made by a seeing person could be made by nobody thinking much of it. I wouldn't immediately ask if they actually thought an elephant were in the living room at the time. The same statement made by a (blind) schizophrenic person could have implied that the person actually believed there was an elephant in the living room, but the clinician might have missed the significance and not asked follow up questions. A bit of a contrived example, but you get the gist. To a seeing person it might
- Ensorceled 7y agoThis theory depends on hundreds, maybe thousands of doctors and peditricians, many of whom would be specialists focusing on blind patients, a similar number of teachers, social workers, care takers, blind training centers staff, parents ... ALL missed schizophrenia, which is often a debilitating illness, because they are "sighted".
- sopooneo 7y agoBy this logic we are speculating that perhaps being blind from birth blocks the symptoms of schizophrenia to the point that it is no longer a "disease". I don't know if this is correct, but a compelling idea.
- frenchyatwork 7y agoYeah that would be the speculation: that blind schizophrenics are asymptomatic.
- dooglius 7y agoI think you are assuming that significant distress will result in awareness that the distress is medically significant.
- bildung 7y agoI have no assumptions about schizophrenia, I just paraphrased how the definitions of the ICD-10 work. The fact of suffering is the distinction between a mental disorder and a quirky personality. Think of it as a continuous spectrum from the idealized normal person (the center of a bell curve) to the person having significant problems living a normal, fulfilling life. The eccentric personality is somewhere in between. This is all about definitions. The ICD-10 and similar categorizations essentially work by listing a number of symptons and a minimum count of symptoms a patient has to have to be diagnosed according to this definition. They don't make any assumptions about disorders existing per se.
- stef25 7y agoThey would still exhibit bizarre behavior, delusions, paranoia, catatonia etc. Patients heavily rely on family & friends to help manage their illness. It's very much something all-encompassing.
- whiddershins 7y agoThat’s confusing. Schizophrenia is horribly unpleasant for the person who has it, they aren’t “tested” so much as they are suffering terribly and seek help and are then given a diagnosis. It’s not like screening people for spectrum or personality disorders.
- bluGill 7y agoI the schizophrenic people I know are afraid of authority and avoid anything that might diagnose them. It takes a forceful family member to get them to a doctor (or in one case the prison system), and constant attention to get them to take the treatments. In general if they are not a harm to society or themselves it is best to let them live alone in a small town (small town because it gives the town gossips something useful to talk about: the talk helps ensure everybody knows to watch out for the victim, and small ensures even new people in town know about the situation) Note, my sample size is far too small to draw universal conclusions about schizophrenic.
- vintermann 7y ago> the schizophrenic people I know are afraid of authority and avoid anything that might diagnose them. Since blind people need to rely on others a lot more than people with sight, I think it would be even harder for them to avoid medical authorities than for other schizophrenics. For what it's worth, the schizophrenics I knew personally were not averse to seeking help for their condition, but were very distressed by side effects from medication (understandably!)
- wahern 7y ago> Schizophrenia is horribly unpleasant for the person who has it There's a strong cultural component to how schizophrenia manifests. Violent, paranoid thoughts are more common in societies like the United States. The extent to which their experiences can fit into a positive cultural narrative partly dictates their quality of life. The U.S. is exceedingly hostile in that regard. You're likely better off in a society where hearing voices is considered a gift from the gods, or where perceiving odd but intriguing cause+effect relationships suggests you can sense magic.
- stef25 7y agoVisual hallucinations are not at all the main symptoms of schizophrenia. Besides, blind people do "see things" under the influence of psychedelics.