Schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia


Schizophrenia is the most common of the psychoses. About one to two percent of people in Western countries are treated for schizophrenia at some time in their lives, and many additional schizophrenics never receive clinical attention. About half of the inpatients in U.S. mental hospitals are schizophrenics. The syndrome was first described as an intellectual deterioration and symptoms first occur in early adulthood. Then it was later discovered that the disorder is a splitting of psychic functions. Ideas and feelings are isolated from one another; a patient may speak incoherently, for example, or express frightening or sad ideas in a happy manner. Contrary to some popular accounts, schizophrenics do not have a split personality, even though schizophrenia is Greek for split mind. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness characterized by a variety of symptoms including loss of contact with reality, bizarre behavior, disorganized thinking and speech, decreased emotional expressiveness, and social withdrawal. Usually only some of these symptoms occur in any one person. To observers, schizophrenia may seem like madness or insanity. Schizophrenia has a debilitating effect on the lives of people who suffer from it. A person with schizophrenia may have difficulty telling the difference between real and unreal experiences, logical and illogical thoughts, or appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Schizophrenia seriously impairs a person’s ability to work, go to school, enjoy relationships with others, or care for oneself. In addition, people with schizophrenia frequently require hospitalization because they pose a danger to themselves. About 10 percent of people with schizophrenia commit suicide, and many others attempt suicide. Once people develop schizophrenia, they usually suffer from the illness for the rest of their lives. Although there is no cure, treatment can help many people with schizophrenia lead productive lives. People with schizophrenia account for at least ten percent of the homeless population. Clear consciousness and intellectual capacity are usually maintained, although certain cognitive deficits may evolve in the course of time. Hallucinations, especially auditory, are common and may comment on the individual’s behavior or thoughts. Perception is frequently disturbed in other ways colors or sounds may seem unduly vivid or altered in quality, and irrelevant features of ordinary things may appear more important than the whole object or situation.


There are several symptoms of schizophrenia. Some of these are delusions, hallucinations, thought disorders, loss of boundaries between self and nonself, blunted or inappropriate emotional expression, socially inappropriate behavior, loss of social interests, and deterioration in areas of functioning such as social relations, work, and self-care. The symptoms fluctuate in occurrence and severity. Delusions are false beliefs, usually absurd and bizarre. Thus a patient may believe that he or she is an important historical personality, or is being persecuted by others, or has died, or that a machine controls his or her thoughts. Hallucinations are false sensory experiences. Most schizophrenic hallucinations are auditory, but some are visual or olfactory. The content is often grandiose, hypochondriacal, or religious. Some hallucinatory voices speak of matters related to the patient’s emotional problems or delusional concerns; others transmit apparently irrelevant messages. Schizophrenic thought disorder may include a general lowering of intellectual efficiency, a free-associative rambling from one topic to another, a loss of the distinction between figurative and literal usages of words, reduced ability to think abstractly, invention of new words, and idiosyncratic misuse of common words. Schizophrenia usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood, between the ages of 15 and 0. Social withdrawal is another characteristic of schizophrenia. They may avoid others or act as though others do not exist. Memory problems are another symptom of schizophrenia. Difficulties with memory, attention span, abstract thinking, and planning ahead are related to schizophrenia.








Schizophrenia appears to result not from a single cause, but from a variety of factors. Most scientist believe that schizophrenia is a biological disease caused by genetic factors, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, structural brain abnormalities, or abnormalities in the prenatal environment. In addition, stressful life events may contribute to the development of schizophrenia in those who are predisposed to the illness. Research suggests that the genes one inherits strongly influence one’s risk of developing schizophrenia. Studies of families have shown that the more closely one is related to someone with schizophrenia, the greater the risk one has of developing the illness. For example, the children of one parent with schizophrenia have about a thirteen- percent chance of developing the illness, and children of two parents with schizophrenia have about a forty-six percent chance of developing schizophrenia. This increased risk occurs even when such children are adopted and raised by mentally healthy parents. In comparison, children in the general population have only about a one- percent chance of developing schizophrenia. Some evidence suggests that schizophrenia may result from an imbalance of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters. These chemicals enable neurons to communicate with each other. Some scientists suggest that schizophrenia results from excess activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine in certain parts of the brain or from an abnormal sensitivity to dopamine. Support for this hypothesis comes from antipsychotic drugs, which reduce psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia by blocking brain receptors for dopamine. In addition, amphetamines intensify psychotic symptoms. Brain imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron-emission tomography, have led researchers to discover specific structural abnormalities in the brains of people with schizophrenia. For example, people with chronic schizophrenia tend to have enlarged brain ventricles. Nutrition and influenza can affect prenatally.





There are several types of schizophrenia. The first type of schizophrenia is paranoid schizophrenia. It includes a preoccupation with one or more delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations. None of the following is prominent disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, or flat or inappropriate affect. The second type is catatonic type. This type must have at least two of the following characteristics motoric immobility as evidenced by catalepsy or stupor, excessive motor activity, extreme negativism or mutism, peculiarities of voluntary movements, or echolalia or echopraxia. The third type is disorganized type. Disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect are prominent in disorganized schizophrenia. The next type is undifferentiated type. This type has symptoms that are similar to all of the other types. The last type is residual type. Absence of prominent delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior accompanies this type.





Several other psychiatric disorders are closely related to schizophrenia. In schizoaffective disorder, a person shows symptoms of schizophrenia combined with either mania or severe depression. Schizophreniform disorder refers to an illness in which a person experiences schizophrenic symptoms for more than one month but fewer than six months. In schizotypal personality disorder, a person engages in odd thinking, speech, and behavior, but usually does not lose contact with reality. Sometimes mental health professionals refer to these disorders together as schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.





Bibliography


“Schizophrenia”, Microsoft ® Encarta ® 8 Encyclopedia. �1-17 Microsoft Corporation.


“Schizophrenia”, 1 Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.


Schizophrenia articles found online at


http//www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p1-ps01.html


http//www.mentalhealth.com/icd/p-ps01.html


Flach, Fredric M.D. Rickie. New York. Fawcett Columbine, 10.


Young, Patrick. Schizophrenia. New York. Chelsea House Publishers, 188


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