Aberrant Inhibition Theory Paper

The cognitive explanation acknowledges the role of biological factors in schizophrenia, suggesting that the basis of the condition is abnormal brain activity producing visual and auditory hallucinations. Further features of the disorder emerge as people try to make sense of the hallucinations.

According to NAMI (), schizophrenia is a long term mental illness that interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, make decisions, and relate to others, impairing a person from functioning to their full potential when left untreated. For these persons affected, it is many times difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not. “Unfortunately, no single simple course of treatment exists.” Research has linked schizophrenia to a multitude of possible causes” (NAMI).

Over the last few decades Schizophrenia has become embedded in mainstream vernacular as any behavior or emotional response that is out of touch with reality. However even with its popularity heightened through movies and headline news stories, schizophrenia is still one of the most enigmatic and least understood disorders of the brain. With current research focused on the role of neurobiology and functioning on a cellular level, investigative analysis has merited new innovations towards its source, however a single organic cause for the disorder still eludes scientists. Although the foundation of the affliction is still unknown, its effects are well documented and over the next few pages will show the changes in the brain as the disease

Schizophrenia is mental disorder that disrupts how a person thinks by: negative, positive or cognitive symptoms. “People with positive symptoms often ‘lose touch’ with reality” (Schizophrenic 19). The most common and almost stereotypical

Additional, inferences about the disorder are provided by Whitcomb and Merrell (2013). The authors characterize the symptoms of schizophrenia as delusions that are “typically bizarre and implausible” and pronounced hallucinations such as hearing voices for long periods of time (p. 363). Additional, impairments noted by the authors include “severe disturbances in perception, thought and affect, a severe decline in personal and social functioning, poor personal hygiene, inability to function effectively at school or work, and a severe impairment in social relationships” (Whitcomb and Merrell, 2013 p.363).

Schizophrenics can display positive effect symptoms, negative effect symptoms, and cognitive symptoms, often differing in the strength of appearance (www.nimh.nih.gov). Positive effect symptoms describe an individual’s “loss” of reality, commonly in the forms of hallucinations and delusions like hearing voices and false beliefs; meanwhile negative effects show similarities to depression, in relation to a lack of pleasure and negative behavior. Subtly but also present, cognitive effects harm mental processing, attention span, and memory. Diverging from popular conception of dramatic, polar opposite thoughts and torn personalities, schizophrenic individuals possess a much larger and varying amount of symptoms and complications that are just as severe and destructive to one’s life.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and lack of motivation. Diagnosis is based on observed behavior and the person 's reported experiences. Genetics and early environment, as well as psychological and social processes, appear to be important contributory factors. Some recreational and prescription drugs appear to cause or worsen symptoms. The many possible combinations of symptoms have triggered debate about whether the diagnosis represents a single disorder or a number of separate syndromes. Despite the

Schizophrenia stands to be inherently rare, however, the illness is, “among the worlds top ten causes of long-term disability” (Meuser, 2015). The onset of the disorder takes place over a period of approximately five years and during this time, symptoms begin to appear. Schizophrenia has negative, positive, and cognitive symptoms all of which stem from a breakdown in relation between thought, emotion and behavior (Meyer). These symptoms include but are not limited to withdrawal, hallucinations and delusions; without proper treatment a person could potentially become a danger or threat to themselves and those around them, “Because of the disruptive effects of relapses on patients lives, and the

Although there is controversy in regards to which type of treatment is most successful in regards to initial episodes of schizophrenia disorder, there are also studies looking into whether or not there are issues associated with receiving no treatment at all. Ho et al. (2003) created a study to determine the effect of a first episode of schizophrenia remaining undetected and untreated for more than one year. It was hypothesized by Ho et al. (2003) that if psychosis has toxicity to the human body, psychosis could have detrimental effects on cognitive functioning and the structure of the brain if left untreated. This study included 156 subjects, all who had not had more than three months of previous antipsychotic treatment and all of which were in the midst of their first episode of schizophrenia. The mean amount of time in which the participants went untreated for psychotic symptoms at the beginning of the experiment was 74.3 weeks. Ho et al. (2003) stated that participants were put through a battery of thirty six cognitive tests in which their scores were scored against other standardized scores. The participants were divided into two groups around the median amount of time in which they were untreated since the onset of their symptoms, which was thirteen weeks (Ho et al., 2003). Neurocognitive tests included tests of verbal, memory and motor skills. Ho et al. (2003) stated that in comparison to each other, the two groups did not differ in any of the cognitive categories

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is characterized by a variety of symptoms and the disorganization of feeling and thought. It is an incurable disease whose causes are unknown, yet whose effects are mind and body crippling. (Young, 1988, p.13-14) This topic was chosen because it is interesting to study a disorder that worldwide, is viewed as a classic example of madness and insanity. Another reason of interest is because unlike many illnesses, schizophrenia doesn't have a noticeable pattern and its difficulty to be diagnosed as a disease makes the collection of statistics difficult. It is important to learn more about schizophrenia because a significant numbr of people are affected everyday

According to biological studies, schizophrenia has been defined as a severe long-lasting psychotic disorder in which people have abnormal perceptions of reality. The severe break from reality is often exhibited in disturbances in emotions, thinking, perception and behavior and may result in a combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extreme patterns of disordered thinking and behavior. Although it is often incorrectly used interchangeably with split personality or multiple personality, “schizophrenia” means “split mind” and more accurately describes the disturbance of the usual balance of thinking and emotions causing an inability to make a clear distinction between reality and fantasy. Researchers have not been able to definitively

Schizophrenia affects about 1 in every 100 people. Often times, the thoughts of a person with schizophrenia are fragmented, bizarre, and distorted by delusions. Some have paranoid tendencies, where they are prone to delusions. People with schizophrenia often cannot provide their full attention to a stimuli, which allows for distractions from other stimuli. This is called selective attention, one of the dozens of cognitive differences associated with schizophrenia. Hallucinations are also a part of these disturbed perceptions. Hallucinations are sensory experiences without sensory stimulation. Inappropriate emotions and actions are also accompanied with schizophrenia. They are usually split off from reality, or utterly inappropriate. In summary,

One of the main incentives for understanding the signature of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is the strong

In Telles-Correia et al. (2016) study, they analyzed about hallucinations and delusions experienced by the schizophrenic disorder and other psychotic disorders. Hallucinations are classified amongst the sensory modality: auditory, visual, tactile, est. They are known to occur in functional psychotic states and in sensory deprivation situations. Another symptom linked to psychotic disorders are delusions. Over years, Psychiatry have been studying the conceptual proximity between hallucinations and delusions. In this study, Telles-Correia et al. (2016) analyzed the dimensions of hallucinations and delusions in a sample of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

“Schizophrenia, a complex and often disabling mental illness, is among the most serious of brain diseases” (Veague 1).To some