Aetiology Of Schizophrenia

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.

Let us discuss and dive into the study of a disease called schizophrenia. We will be taking a look at its symptoms, its causes, the areas of the brain it affects, its neural basis, and the appropriate drug therapies for the disease. Having an informed understanding of the disease and what it entails is crucial to making sure patients that suffer from schizophrenia receive the proper treatment and care from their psychiatrists. Afterwards, we will also be looking at a couple of case studies involving anxiety and drug abuse. As for now, our focus will be on the terrible disease of schizophrenia.

Many individuals in United States have been diagnosed with a mental disorder of some type. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) about 1% of the American people have been diagnosed with the devastating mental disorder called schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that deeply affects the everyday life of not only the patient but their family and friends as well. Although there are many people who suffer from this demoralizing mental illness, experts say one thing they are sure on is that there’s a lot they don’t know about the disorder.

Today, schizophrenia is understood through the cognitive and psychoanalytical model as well. In fact the cognitive approach to schizophrenia today is not as insular as typically thought when associated to mental illnesses. In fact, cognitive approach addresses the environment, neurological, and behavioral interactions within the stressors of schizophrenia (Beck & Rector, 2005).

In this essay I will try to explain schizophrenia and talk about the main biological and psychological explanations, also showing how similar and different they are. Schizophrenia is defined in the oxford dictionary as 'a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. '1 schizophrenia has positive and negative symptoms, the positive being delusions, hallucinations and disordered thoughts whereas negative symptoms consist of expressionless faces, poverty of speech and lack of motivation.2 The

The diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia are relatively broad, with no one essential symptom, there is a great deal of variability among patients in their symptom profiles. It has therefore been proposed that schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder with multiple causes. It is also the case, however, that patients must show a marked and persistent impairment to meet the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia. Thus,

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

Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder. Like many other illnesses, schizophrenia is believed to result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. All the tools of modern science are being used to search for the causes of this disorder.

Socially the term Schizophrenia has a certain caricature about it that society has turned into a very serious social stigma. Many associate the disorder with criminals, nut houses, and extreme uncontrollable violence. Schizophrenia is portrayed in literature, and in movies so horrendously negative that those who experience symptoms of this very serious mental disorder can be in a stage of denial that can ultimately cause them to go undiagnosed, that is until something goes wrong. In spite of myths and portrayals in pop culture schizophrenia is sometimes viewed as split personality, but the root of the word comes from the Greek word schizo and phrene which loosely translates into split mind (Internet Mental Health Initiative 2010).

Schizophrenia is a complex mental illness which has several differing theories exploring the underlining neurological causes. This paper will focus on giving insight into aspects of schizophrenia as well as discussing the following leading theories on the topic: neurodevelopment, dopamine, glutamate, and brain abnormalities. Methods of research focus on studying twins, adopted family members as well as genetics. As it is such a complex illness it presents many different symptoms that have been categorized as positive, negative, and cognitive. Treatment is crucial to managing a life with this illness which includes a combination of therapy and antipsychotic drugs. Since a wide array of the symptoms

Nonetheless, neuropsychiatric model derives from the medical and psychological model as it tries to explain schizophrenia as being a biological disorder of brain development. The neuropsychiatric model explains that “a variety of potential abnormalities in neurodevelopment, such as neurological soft signs and neuropsychological performance, are known antecedents of psychosis…consistently found in individuals who later develop psychosis” (Cuesta, Basterra, Torres, Peralta, 2009, p.1512). The neuropsychiatric model integrates cognitive and biological models to form a medical explanation to the etiology of schizophrenia; however, it also takes into account the psychological factors that may contribute to the biological and cognitive deficits.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is in a very small amount of the population, 1 in 100 people (1% of the population). Symptoms of schizophrenia include, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, not much emotion if any is present, as well as speech and socializations issues. Ways to treat schizophrenia are very limited to antipsychotic drugs and therapy. Although there is not one cause to this illness found, there are many factors that explain the cause or result in having schizophrenia. Substance abuse and stress are also contributing factors in schizophrenia when it comes to patients with this illness having violent personalities as well as suicidal thoughts.

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that causes people to interpret reality abnormally. The disease is chronic, allowing it to potentially last for a span of years and must be medically diagnosed, with the possibility of medical treatment which can help. Schizophrenia often can result in hallucinations, disordered thinking as well as delusions. Although the specific cause of the disease is not formally known, genetics may assist in playing a role. The disease proves to not be a single disease, but instead, it is composed of a group of eight genetically distinct disorders in which all have their own associated symptoms. A large percent of potential risk for Schizophrenia is known to actually be inherited. The Neuronal PAS Domain Protein 3 (NPAS3) is a protein coding gene and is a member of the basic helix-loop—helix and PAS domain containing family of transcription factors. Specifically, the encoded protein is localized within the nucleus and can regulate genes involved in the process of neurogenesis. Furthermore, NPAS3 has been linked with responsibility for the development of Schizophrenia. Mental and brain disorders are consistently growing in the amount of information and new developments that are being discovered. Furthermore, the amount of information that has been discovered in regards to the disorder Schizophrenia is consistently developing.

Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain that is expressed clinically as a disease of the mind. Once it strikes, morbidity is high (60% of patients are receiving disability benefits within the first year of onset) as is mortality (the suicide rate is 10%). (www.nejm.org/content/1999/0340/008/0645.asp). Because its symptoms and signs and associated cognitive abnormalities are diverse, researchers have been unable to find localization in a single region of the brain. This essay will discuss the symptoms, treatments and causes of schizophrenia.

Psychosis is a condition in which there is distortion of reality and disturbances of thought. The prevalence of schizophrenia in the general population is approximately 1 %, with 70% of affected individuals experiencing their first manifestations in late adolescence to young adulthood. Manifestations of the condition cause impairments in the workplace, in social relationships, and in self-care (page203). No specific cause of schizophrenia has been found. The origin of the neurodevelopmental condition is likely to be multifactorial, most probably stemming from interactions among genetic and environmental factors. There has been some evidence of structural changes and chemical disturbances in the brain of individuals with schizophrenia (203). Within this disorder, there three subtypes to this disorder and both negative and positive manifestations as well. The three subtypes of schizophrenia are paranoid, disorganized, cationic, undifferentiated and