What is Schizotypal (Personality) disorder?

“Schizoid personality disorder” is a pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior. The disorder begins by early adulthood and is indicated by five or more of the following:

• Ideas of reference (delusions that irrelevant occurrences in the world relate directly to oneself).
• Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g., superstitiousness, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy or “sixth sense”; in children and adolescents, bizarre fantasies or preoccupations.
• Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions.
• Odd thinking and speech (e.g., vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped).
• Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation.
• Inappropriate or constricted affect.
• Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar.
• Lack of close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives.
• Excessive social anxiety does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self.

The symptoms do not occur exclusively during the course of schizophrenia, a bipolar disorder or depressive disorder with psychotic features, another psychotic disorder, or autism spectrum disorder.

Is Schizophrenia a genetic disease?

Yes, genetics do play a role in schizophrenia. First-degree biological relatives of people with schizophrenia have a 10 times greater risk for developing the disease than the general population.

While schizophrenia tends to run in families, no single gene is thought to be responsible. It’s more likely that different combinations of genes make people more vulnerable to the condition. However, having these genes does not necessarily mean that a person will develop schizophrenia.