As far as high intelligence SZs go, I do believe that SZ affects people regardless of their smarts.
There are some of us who are extremely capable of navigating certain subjects with ease.
…And there are some of us who are just not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
What I’m trying to say is that intelligence levels vary wildly amongst our population.
SZ can and does affect cognitive functioning to a certain degree. Cognitive functioning is different than intelligence though-- I think of it as the accessing of given intelligence, rather than the actual intelligence itself.
I don’t know if there should be a separate category for highly-intelligent SZs or not. It’s kind of an interesting topic, but I’m more interested in recovery rates across the board, regardless of brains.
No, it’s proposing a subtype of schizophrenia characterised by superior intellectual functioning (i.e. very high IQ) with characteristics that are more similar to bipolar disorder than in typical schizophrenia.
They still have schizophrenia. But more affective symptoms and fewer negative symptoms, better functional outcomes, etc.
There’s a quite a bit of research on high IQ schizophrenia and this is just one of the proposed explanations for the differences that are seen in high IQ sz patients compared to average and low IQ sz patients.
I was diagnosed with my first psychotic disorder at 17. In college I was IQ tested and got a 148. I feel like I’ve had a pretty significant decline in cognitive ability, though. My negatives aren’t terrible, positives are definitely much more severe.
Cognitive impairment has been noted to be more marked
in men than in women with this disease. What has been less
frequently noted is that the opposite is also true – that an
exceptionally high intelligence quotient (IQ) in this disease is
also more frequently seen in men. Both ends of the cognitive
spectrum are prevalent in males in the general population
[57,58], and in schizophrenia as well [59]. Anecdotally, this
may have clinical implications in that very high IQ patients
with psychosis are said to be especially hard to treat because
they can become litigious when they do not agree with the
diagnosis or treatment plan.IQ can influence the prognosis of a psychotic disorder in
important ways. Studies suggest that higher IQ may lead to
greater insight [60] and, perhaps as a result, to thoughts of
suicide.
Whether it be the general public or schizophrenic people , very few % wise are gifted . Then amongst that relatively small % of people not all have the strength of character to make good use of being gifted.
According to the IQ tests I’ve taken pre/post developing schizophrenia my intelligence has remained constant. However, I don’t think I could handle a course load like I did before. If I went back to school it would be part time. I could handle 2 courses but I don’t think I could handle the normal 5.