The nurse is caring for a patient admitted to the psychiatric unit with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. the patient has not bathed recently, and a family member states that the patient has not been out of the house for 10 days. on admission, the patient tells the nurse, "they are trying to hurt me; don't let them hurt me." this is an example of which symptom?

This is an example of persecutory hallucinations in which the affected persons believe they are being maliciously maligned, persecuted, obstructed, trick, spied on or physically hurt. Persecutory hallucinations or delusions are the most common form of delusions in paranoid schizophrenia. Generally, the patient thinks that harm is occurring, or is going to occur. Individuals with this kind of hallucinations are often resentful and angry, leading to an act of violence against those they believe are hurting them or their loved one.

an individual’s sex (i.e., whether they are a male or female) is determined by the sex chromosomes. most people have two sex chromosomes, one that is inherited from their mother and one that is inherited from their father. typically, females have two x chromosomes (xx) and males have one x chromosome and one y chromosome (xy). conditions caused by changes (“mutations”) in genes located on the x chromosome are considered x-linked.

x-linked recessive inheritance

most x-linked conditions are recessive. this means that in a person with two x chromosomes (most females), both copies of a gene (i.e., one on each x chromosome) must have a change or mutation whereas in a person with one x chromosome (most males), only one copy of a gene must have a mutation. a female with a mutation in one copy of a gene on the x chromosome is said to be a “carrier” for an x-linked condition. a male with a mutation in a gene on the x chromosome is typically affected with the condition. because females have two copies of the x chromosome and males have only one x chromosome, x-linked recessive diseases are more common among males than females. however, x-linked recessive diseases can occur in both males and females.

for x-linked recessive disorders, an unaffected carrier mother who has a mutation in a gene on the x chromosome can transmit either the x chromosome with this mutation or a “normal” x chromosome to her children. if the father is unaffected, none of her daughters will be affected and all of her daughters will be unaffected—since they will inherit at least one normal x chromosome from their father. however, each daughter will have a 50% chance of being an unaffected carrier like her mother and a 50% chance of both x chromosomes being normal.