Nursing Care Plans For Patient With Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances (for at least 6 months) in thought content and form, perception, affect, language, social activity, sense of self, volition, interpersonal relationships, and psychomotor behavior. The DSM-IV-TR recognizes catatonic, paranoid, disorganized, residual, and undifferentiated schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects approximately 0.85% of individuals worldwide, with a lifetime prevalence of 1% to 1.5%. Onset of symptoms usually occurs during late adolescence and has an insidious onset and poor outcome. It can progress to social withdrawal, perceptual distortions, chronic delusions, and hallucinations This disorder produces varying degrees of impairment. As many as one-third of schizophrenic patients have just one psychotic episode and no more after that. Some patients have no disability between periods of exacerbation; other patients need continuous institutional care. The prognosis worsens with each...