Definition :
   Schizoid personality disorder is diagnosed in patients who display a life long pattern of social withdrawal. The discomfort with human intercutting, their invtroversion, and their bland, constricted affect are noteworthy. Schizoid personalities are often seen by othersas eccentric, isolated, or lonely.
Epidemiology :
   The prevalence of schizoid personality is not clearly establish. Schizoid disorders may affect 7,5 percent of the general population. The sex ratio of the disorder is unknown, although some studies report a two to one , male to female ratio. Persons with disorder tend to gravitate toward solitary job that involve little or no contact with others. Many prefer night work to day work so that they do not have to deal with as may people.
Clinical Features :
   Schizoid personalities give an impression of being cold and aloof and display a remote reserve and lack of involvement with everyday events and the concerns of others. They appear quiet, distant, seclusice, and unsociable. They may pursue their own lives with remarkable little need or longing for emotionalities with others. They are the last to catch on to changes in popular fashion. The life histories of such persons reflect solitary interests and success at noncompetitive lonely jobs that others find difficult to tolerate. Their sexual life may exist exclusively in fantasy, and they may postpone mature sexuality indefinitely. Men may not marry because they are unable to achieve intimacy women may passively agree to marry an aggressive man who wishes to do so. Usually, schizoid persons reveal a flifelon inability to express anger directly. Schizoid personalities are able to invest enormous affective energy in nonhuman interestssuch as mathematics and astronomy, and they may be very attached to animals. They are often engrossed in dietary and health fads, philosophical movements and social improvement schemes, especially those that require no personal involvement. Although schizoid personalities appear self absorbed and engaged in excessive daydreaming, they show no loss of capacity to recognize reality. Because aggressive acts are rarely include in their repertoire of usual responses, most threats, real or imagined, are deal with by fantasied omnipotence or resignation. Others experience schizoid personalities as aloof yet at times, such persons are bale to conceive, and give to the world genuinely original, creates ideas.
(Author is Consultant Psychiatrist at Raahat Hospital, Aurangabad.)