Cardet EM, Álvarez EOA, Meneses ÁS

Language: Spanish
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ABSTRACT

Background: Schizophrenia is the most common cause of chronic mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the population and is a group of psychotic disorders that is frequent in adolescents and young adults. The municipality of Holguín provides a significant number of cases. Objectives: to describe the clinical behavior: predominant clinical form, age of onset of symptoms, history of attempted suicide, symptoms reported by cases; epidemiology: distribution of cases by age and sex, skin color and school level, and genealogy of disease. Methods: a descriptive cross- sectional study was carried out. The universe comprised 30 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and pathological family history of this disease of Alcides Pino Bermudez health area. The information was collected through an interview. Disease was classified by the Tenth Classification of Mental Diseases (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Also was developed the pedigrees of the families of these patients. Results: The age group between 30-39 years in both sexes was the predominant. A higher number of male patients were observed. Paranoid clinical manifestation was the predominant one (70%), as well as positive symptoms, such as visual hallucinations and delirium (66.6%), 63.3% of them had history of suicide attempts. The age of onset of symptoms was early, 15 - 19 and 20-29 years. The secondary level of education, were frequents. Conclusions: the appearance of the first symptoms of the disease at an early age of life highlights the need to promote strategies for family counseling for better prevention and treatment of disease.