Culture and Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder. It is also quite a complex illness that affects daily functioning of those who suffer from it. Professionals across several fields who treat schizophrenics do not share a consensus regarding the cause of schizophrenia, though there are a few theories regarding potential and definitive causes. The on-set of schizophrenia often takes place in adolescence and adulthood, but there are cases when there is childhood on-set schizophrenia. Schizophrenia in children will be the focus of this paper. Children who show signs of schizophrenia may begin doing so at around age five.

Schizophrenia is a disorder of mental illness. Another way to describe this disorder is to lost the touch with reality. Schizophrenia is less common than any other mental disorder; therefore, treatments can be different. This disease is likely to occur between age of 16 to 30, or may develops in children if problem occurs during the birth. In that regard, a person with the schizophrenia suffers six months or a month or less, if proper treatments given. One of the main reason to identify the schizophrenia type is to observe specific behavior of the person. If the person has a sense of feeling, touching, and smelling without any physical source is called Hallucination. However, Delusions are the result of

Schizophrenia is a mental illness which affects millions of people throughout the world. Scientists have begun to understand more and more about the possible causes, predisposing factors, types, and possible treatments for schizophrenia. (Torrey, 1995) It is very rare for schizophrenic symptoms to appear before the age of 12 but it does occur. Recently, there has been a growing interest in childhood schizophrenia. It is less than one-sixtieth as common as the adult-onset type but the characteristics are very similar. Childhood schizophrenia also tends to be harder to treat and to have a worse prognosis than the adult-onset form. (Rapoport, 1997)

This research paper focuses on the issue of child onset schizophrenia, specifically looking at the prognosis, symptoms, stigma, and most effective treatment options for children. This topic has become a significant social issue as a result of the recent mass school shootings throughout the nation and the associated stigma. Severe mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia, are being severely impacted by stigma. Society today views schizophrenia as “dangerous”, furthering this stigma. Further, little research has been done of childhood onset schizophrenia (Hollis, 2003). However, research has shown that individuals with an earlier onset or diagnosis experience more persistent and debilitating symptoms than those with an older age of onset (Findling & Schulz, 2005). Along with a higher occurrence of more severe symptoms, child onset schizophrenia is a complicated issue because children are being prescribed psychotropic medications at an early age during a period of critical brain development (Butcher, Mineka, Hooley, 2014). This greatly affects development and exposes children to very severe side effects of the medication, resulting in a lot of patients refusing medication and the treatment they deserve.

Believe it or not, schizophrenia is a serious mental problem that has been around for much longer than most people tend to think. Most professionals are certain that schizophrenia is a disease process that takes place within the brain and that the disease is, in fact, influenced greatly by certain life experiences(Anderson 80). The one significant problem surrounding schizophrenia is that no one is absolutely positive as to what causes schizophrenia and of how it actually exists in the brain. Most of what people actually know about schizophrenia today comes from medicine books and research from Europe during the 19th century. Behaviors that actually resemble the known symptoms of schizophrenia

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) characterizes Schizophrenia as a psychological disorder that is diagnosed using specific criteria that includes five different symptoms (McLean et al., 2014). The criterion requires the diagnosis to include at least two of the following symptoms for at least six months duration: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms (McLean et al., 2014). Diagnosing schizophrenia requires clinicians to follow these rigid guidelines that are meant to be universal (Bauer et al., 2011). However, due to the strict nature of these guidelines, psychologists have questioned how variations in culture might influence the manifestation of

The last thing a parent wants is to consider the possibility that their child may have some type of mental illness or brain disorder. Yet, it's important that parents not ignore symptoms of schizophrenia in children if they see them. While most people are diagnosed in their mid-to-late-twenties, there are still cases of children as young as seven exhibiting the signs of schizophrenia. It's child's play to have an imaginary friend, but it's a red flag if a child hears voices saying nasty things about him/her or remarks that there are voices conversing in his/her head. Kids who have no interest in friendships, who talk to themselves frequently or stares at things that are not really there may have schizophrenia.

This disease has a major impact on a person’s brain. As the child gets older the disease may progress and his or her symptoms can get worse. Anyone could have schizophrenia. As of right now there really isn’t a known cause of schizophrenia, in other words schizophrenia is an idiopathic disease. Children may develop this disease based on if their mother had pregnancy complications. From the information I gathered I now know that there could be a connection to schizophrenia from the chemical changes and genetics. Hebephrenic, paranoid, catatonic, disorganized, residual and undifferentiated are all types of

being sound mentally and emotionally that is characterized by the absence of mental illness and by adequate adjustment especially as reflected in feeling comfortable about oneself, having positive feelings about others, and being able to meet the demands of daily life. With this information it is clear that mental health has a major effect on how a person lives their life and art work is no exception. One of the most difficult mental illnesses to understand is schizophrenia, one in a hundred people have schizophrenia (Moderating factors for the effectiveness of group art therapy for schizophrenia: secondary analysis of data from the MATISSE randomised controlled trial, 2013) making it hard to study accurately. According to

Individuals with schizophrenia can still be before or after those ages but is more unlikely after the age of 45. Childhood diagnosis of schizophrenia has become more and more advanced recently. Early onset and diagnoses during the teen years is very difficult. To diagnose a teen is difficult due to the overlap in behavior between schizophrenia and regular teenage behavior. Teens that are diagnosed usually show the first symptoms of change of friends, a drop in grades, sleep problems, and irritability. These symptoms are exactly identical to how regular teens act, causing the problem with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Usually the first of the symptoms to occur are the hallucinations and delusions. But, many other factors can help diagnose youth that have schizophrenia. Some factors that can “predict schizophrenia in up to 80 percent of youth who are at high risk of developing the illness.” (NIH)

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects one percent of the world’s population. Schizophrenia is describes as an illness characterized by psychotic symptoms and significant interpersonal dysfunction that lasts for at least six months. Psychotic refers to symptoms that reveal a destruction in a person’s inability to comprehend

Most commonly, schizophrenia strikes a person between his or her late teens and early 20s. Nonetheless, it can affect children as young as 12-years-old, or may lay dormant in a person until their late 20s (Saha, et al., 2008; Ueland & Rund, 2005). The cause of Schizophrenia is not fully known.

Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. The exact cause of schizophrenia isn't known, but a combination of genetics, environment, and altered brain chemistry and structure play some sort of role. Treatment is usually lifelong and often involves a combination of medications, psychotherapy, and coordinated specialty care services. Schizophrenia usually first appears between the person’s late teens and mid-thirties. Although its course varies widely from case to case, many sufferers seem to go through three phases—prodromal, active, and residua. During the prodromal phase, symptoms are not yet obvious, but the person is beginning to deteriorate.

Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis, which are mental illnesses that are characterized as unusual behaviors exhibited as out of touch with reality. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thoughts or speech, and catatonic behavior. While negative symptoms range from cognitive deficits to restricted emotional affect. According to the Harvard Mental Health Letter (2009), there are five stages of progression of schizophrenia: premorbid, prodromal, psychotic, transitional, and chronic. Early on-set schizophrenia develops in children who experience odd or unusual auditory hallucinations and olfactory delusions in the prodromal stage. It is thought that schizophrenia is fully developed at the psychotic level, once an individual has reached their first psychotic episode. However researchers suggest looking into the prodromal stage through assessment and diagnosis to learn more about the etiologies of schizophrenia, and therefore contribute further research into preventative methods. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, childhood-onset schizophrenia is a rare form of schizophrenia which has its onset before

population in the United States and typically presents in early adult life. It is commonly associated with social and psychological deficits, erratic behavior, and hallucinations. It is not known what actually causes schizophrenia in adolescents, however it is believed that brain neurotransmitters, genetics, and the environment contributes to the development of this disorder. Early diagnosis of schizophrenia in adolescence is an intriguing topic that has been researched for numerous years, but further research is needed. Early intervention is extremely critical, not only because the disease becomes harder to treat