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Analysis: The Puzzle Surrounding Schizophrenia

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The Puzzle Surrounding 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.
Schizophrenia is a very complex disorder and people who suffer from this disorder suffer in different ways. Schizophrenia is a psychological …show more content…

Experts think that schizophrenia is caused by many contributing factors according to the NIMH and Berstein. Although there is a lot about schizophrenia that experts may not know, they do know that it is a genetic disease hat runs in families. According to the NIMH, those affected individuals are highly likely to have a close relative such as a mother, father, sibling, or grandparent with the disorder. According to Tischauser, a person with one parent who has the disease is ten times more likely to develop schizophrenia than a member of the general public. Thirty-nine percent of people who have both parents afflicted with the disease also develop schizophrenia. Schizophrenia majorly affects a person’s brain. The disorder disrupts the way that the brain cells function and communicate with each other. In the affected persons’ brain, the neurotransmitters that carry signals from one cell in the brain to the other may be abnormal or the transmitter may be malfunctioning (Bernstein). It is believed that several genes are associated with an increased risk of having schizophrenia. No single gene causes schizophrenia by itself. In fact, the genetic differences may include up to hundreds of different genes and the disruption of brain development. Bernstein states that we do know that there is an affected gene that is key to making important chemicals for the brain. Also, experts say that the environment is a factor in people with schizophrenia. For example, some environmental factors may include exposure to viruses, malnutrition before birth, problems during birth and other not yet known psychological factors. According to Anushree Bose, other factors that contribute to having schizophrenia include an imbalance of brain chemistry and different structures of the brain (7). The NIMH also adds that a person’s brain who has schizophrenia will look similar to a healthy person’s brain, but only in small ways. They

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