Can Schizophrenia Affect Math Skills?

[jk22]

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when i was almost finishing my studies in physics. It took me 8 years to finish them. Then i had to stop and I am now living in a home for people with psychic diseases.
Can schizophrenia impair math skills so that i had to stop or can math cause that disease ?
Thanks for any comment.

 

[skeptic2]

There are three forms a schizophrenia, hallucinatory, paranoid, and delusional. Whether it will impair your math skills depends upon which form you have and how severe it is. There are many medications that can minimize its effects. There also have been brilliant mathematicians who have had schizophrenia, John F. Nash for instance. I doubt that math can cause the disease.

http://www.schizophrenia.com/famous.htm
http://www.quora.com/Can-intense-study-of-mathematics-make-someone-go-clinically-insane

 

[neyzentanburi]

I don't think your math skill have been impaired.
schizophrenia is a severe mental illness. it is very difficult for a schizophrenic to be functional.
and high doses of antipsychotics cause brains to have low cognitive functioning.
because of both the illness and the antipychotics, it is very difficult to work. it is a disability.
however, john nash has secceeded in being functional without any medication. a rare case.

 

[skeptic2]

I don't think your math skill have been impaired.
schizophrenia is a severe mental illness. it is very difficult for a schizophrenic to be functional.
and high doses of antipsychotics cause brains to have low cognitive functioning.
because of both the illness and the antipychotics, it is very difficult to work. it is a disability.
however, john nash has secceeded in being functional without any medication. a rare case.

You say you don't think his math skills have been impaired but then go on to describe why they would be. What is the basis for thinking his math skills have not been impaired or that they necessarily would be?

Schizophrenia CAN be a severe mental illness but isn't always.

Are all the cases in the list I posted also rare cases?

 

[zoobyshoe]

There are three forms a schizophrenia, hallucinatory, paranoid, and delusional.

This isn't exactly right. Check out what the Wiki says:

According to the revised fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, three diagnostic criteria must be met:[67]

Characteristic symptoms: Two or more of the following, each present for much of the time during a one-month period (or less, if symptoms remitted with treatment).
Delusions
Hallucinations
Disorganized speech, which is a manifestation of formal thought disorder
Grossly disorganized behavior (e.g. dressing inappropriately, crying frequently) or catatonic behavior
Negative symptoms: Blunted affect (lack or decline in emotional response), alogia (lack or decline in speech), or avolition (lack or decline in motivation)
If the delusions are judged to be bizarre, or hallucinations consist of hearing one voice participating in a running commentary of the patient's actions or of hearing two or more voices conversing with each other, only that symptom is required above. The speech disorganization criterion is only met if it is severe enough to substantially impair communication.
Social or occupational dysfunction: For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care, are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset.
Significant duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least six months. This six-month period must include at least one month of symptoms (or less, if symptoms remitted with treatment).
If signs of disturbance are present for more than a month but less than six months, the diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder is applied.[67] Psychotic symptoms lasting less than a month may be diagnosed as brief psychotic disorder, and various conditions may be classed as psychotic disorder not otherwise specified. Schizophrenia cannot be diagnosed if symptoms of mood disorder are substantially present (although schizoaffective disorder could be diagnosed), or if symptoms of pervasive developmental disorder are present unless prominent delusions or hallucinations are also present, or if the symptoms are the direct physiological result of a general medical condition or a substance, such as abuse of a drug or medication.

Schizophrenics are very often deluded, hallucinated, and paranoid all at the same time. Those aren't different types, they're different possible symptoms from a larger list of possible symptoms.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Are all the cases in the list I posted also rare cases?

Your list might be just about meaningless because none of those people were diagnosed by the current DSM, and, the further back in time you go the less likely anyone got a proper differential.

Differential
See also: Dual diagnosis
Psychotic symptoms may be present in several other mental disorders, including bipolar disorder,[70] borderline personality disorder,[71] drug intoxication and drug-induced psychosis. Delusions ("non-bizarre") are also present in delusional disorder, and social withdrawal in social anxiety disorder, avoidant personality disorder and schizotypal personality disorder. Schizophrenia is comorbid with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) considerably more often than could be explained by pure chance, although it can be difficult to distinguish obsessions that occur in OCD from the delusions of schizophrenia.[72] A small number of people withdrawing from benzodiazepines experience a severe protracted withdrawal syndrome which can resemble schizophrenia and be misdiagnosed as such.[73]

A more general medical and neurological examination may be needed to rule out medical illnesses which may rarely produce psychotic schizophrenia-like symptoms,[67] such as metabolic disturbance, systemic infection, syphilis, HIV infection, epilepsy, and brain lesions. It may be necessary to rule out a delirium, which can be distinguished by visual hallucinations, acute onset and fluctuating level of consciousness, and indicates an underlying medical illness. Investigations are not generally repeated for relapse unless there is a specific medical indication or possible adverse effects from antipsychotic medication.

I read a book that made a very persuasive case for Mary Todd Lincoln having been suffering from tertiary neurosyphilis, her symptoms fit that extremely well. If you can't physically examine a person you can make all kinds of diagnoses sound perfectly plausible. I suspect a lot of those rock stars listed have drug involvement, and that looked at by a different psychiatrist many on the list could be re-diagnosed as bipolar with psychotic features.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when i was almost finishing my studies in physics. It took me 8 years to finish them. Then i had to stop and I am now living in a home for people with psychic diseases.
Can schizophrenia impair math skills so that i had to stop or can math cause that disease ?
Thanks for any comment.

Schizophrenia could certainly distract you from being able to concentrate on math, but I don't think that's the same thing as impairing math skills.

I don't think any psychiatric expert has ever thought math could cause schizophrenia, either. John Nash is the one who put that idea out, referring to his own case. He felt that thinking so much about math had contributed to his losing touch with the real world.

 

[Hush]

Odds are you can lose yourself in a language. You have to call what you use a language. No one is willing to call music or math a language. I have been accused of making no sense whatsoever using the wrong language with monolinguals. I was making sense and out of touch with their reality. Multilingualism is an extension, not a separate language. Schizophrenia reminds me of neologism in a broad sense. No one else can understand that language except you. I can only understand John Nash's take if math is a language.

 

[jk22]

i was diagnosed with indifferentiated schizophrenia, it is a case when the symptoms do not fit in other categories. Also I was used to smoke cannabis before the diagnose but they told me it is not a cause but can reveal an underlying disease.