Many people do not have a full understanding of what schizophrenia is and its affect on the individual diagnosed and its affect on society. So the question at hand is what exactly is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.” (NIH) Although schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders, it can be very disabling. Approximately 7 to 8 individuals out of 1000 will get schizophrenia in their lifetime. People with this disorder have many symptoms and issues. Those with schizophrenia may hear voices or see things that are not actually there. They may also believe that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. …show more content…
It can also be scary and upsetting to the people around them. Families and society are both impacted positively and negatively by schizophrenia. Positive symptoms are usually the symptoms that are not found in healthy people and can either come and go or will just stay stable over the span of the time they are diagnosed. Some examples of positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders. Negative symptoms are those that are harder to identify and recognize as part of the disorder or another separate condition. Examples of these negative symptoms are reduced speaking, difficulty beginning and continuing activities, reduced feelings of pleasure in everyday life, and activities they used to enjoy doing, and lastly having “flat affect” which is reduced expression of emotions by facial expression or the tone of voice. The last form of symptoms the individual diagnosed can have is cognitive symptoms. These symptoms are subtle, but are difficult to notice like the negative symptoms. Example of cognitive symptoms is poor “executive functioning” (the ability to understand information and use it to make decisions), trouble focusing or paying attention, and problems with “working memory” (the ability to use information immediately after learning …show more content…
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)
Reason for the contraction of schizophrenia is still not yet known. Many scientists believe that it is part hereditary mixed with environmental factors.
Treatments are becoming more widely available for those with schizophrenia. Researchers are still continuously developing more effective treatments and using new research tools to understand the causes of schizophrenia. In years to come, this work may help prevent and better treat the illness.
Substance abuse disorders occur when
Schizophrenia is characterized as a psychotic disease that dramatically affects one 's nervous system to a point of where every day basic functions can be inhibited. It is defined as the loss of contact with the external environment the person is in due to delusional thoughts and hallucinations. Perception and behavior of someone plagued with this disease is notably altered and their actions can become a concern of the people around them. Like many other diseases that affect the nervous system it is not curable at the current time but it can be treated to lessen the signs and symptoms of the disease.
Schizophrenia is a complex and puzzling illness. Even the experts in the field are not exactly sure what causes it. Some doctors think that the brain may not
While there is no cure for schizophrenia, research is leading to new, safer treatments. Experts also are unraveling the causes of the disease by studying genetics, conducting behavioral research, and by using advanced imaging to look at the brain’s structure and function. These novel approaches hold the promise of new, more effective therapies.
What is Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a mental disorder where the person suffering it is afflicted by numerous different symptoms, which primarily include vivid hallucinations and paranoia. People who suffer it tend to have abnormal perceptions of the world around them, and as mentioned above they tend to have hallucinations that appear very real to them, sometimes to the point where they are unaware that they are hallucinating. (John Nash, Professor who was notable for having Schizophrenia, is a good example of someone who was largely unaware that they were hallucinating). Conditions such as the ones mentioned above can be very disorienting and confusing or scary, to the people suffering them,
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that is thought to be brought on by certain genetic factors as well as environmental ones. It affects the way a person perceives reality. The person diagnosed with schizophrenia will often perceive auditory, visual, kinetic, and olfactory stimuli that aren’t actually present. The disease also affects how the person feels and acts as well.
Schizophrenia can occur at any age, the average age of onset tends to be late teens to the 20s for men, and the late 20s to early 30s for women. ("NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness | What is Schizophrenia?," n.d.) It’s very rare for schizophrenia to be diagnosed in a person younger than 12 or older than 40. Comorbid factors in schizophrenia are depression, anxiety, and substance abuse these are more common than others. (Mosey, A. 1986) They are common throughout the course of the illness with a prevalence of 15% for panic attacks, 29% for posttraumatic stress disorder and 23% for obsessive compulsive disorder. Depression can cause secondary negative symptoms, panic attacks can drive paranoia and cannabis abuse can worsen positive and disorganization symptoms.
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
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe brain disorder which causes people to have odd thoughts, disturbed emotions and motor abnormalities (Carpenter, 2015). It is usually followed by psychosis, disconnecting from reality. People sometimes hear thoughts; some may think others are plotting against them. Even though individuals with schizophrenia have split personalities, it does not mean they are violent or dangerous. Schizophrenic people do not make sense when they speak. Approximately 1 of every 100 people in the world suffers from schizophrenia during his or her lifetime (Lindenmayer & Khan, 2012). An estimated 24 million people worldwide are afflicted with this disorder, 2.5 million people in the United States (NIMH, 2015). This disorder tends to affect people in the lower levels of the social economical classes. It is called having a downward drift by which having schizophrenia can cause someone to function poorly and go from a high to low social economical level. People with schizophrenia often rely on families and their environments for help them daily with daily tasks (NIMH, 2015). Schizophrenia causes symptoms: positive, negative, and psychomotor. Current treatments for schizophrenia are the second generation antipsychotic.
Although the exact causes of schizophrenia is still unknown, scientists and psychologists have determined that a patient’s genetic history, living environment and pre-existing brain structure and chemistry are the major culprits for the development of the disorder. Unfortunately, narrowing down the specific genes that cause the disorder is difficult because the disease is often coupled with rare genetic mutations. These mutations can involve hundreds of different genes, resulting in an almost impossible-to-solve genetic code.
Schizophrenia is characterized as a chronic mental disorder that affects a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior (Bartol and Bartol, 2014). Individuals with schizophrenia experience positive psychotic symptoms that consist of hallucinations or delusions. Negative symptoms may also arise such as a diminished emotional expression known as flat affect, as well as poor attention and speech production (Bartol and Bartol, 2014). These symptoms are further categorized into five subtypes that include paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual categories. A person is diagnosed with one of these subtypes depending on how severe their most symptoms are. It affects both men and women equally but tends to appear earlier in men than in women (Bartol and Bartol, 2014). To this day, it is not known what causes schizophrenia and remains to be misunderstood.
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way a person thinks, acts, and view the world. People who suffer from schizophrenia perception of reality is altered. Schizophrenia may cause people to hear and see things that don?t exist, they
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that affects about 1% of the adult population and carries a high disease burden involving a number of health comorbidities and an average decrease in life expectancy by 12-15 years. Current drug treatments for schizophrenia primarily target the positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, but usually fail to treat negative symptoms such as social withdrawal, difficulty focusing, and lack of motivation. A major research challenge is to better understand the causes of schizophrenia so that more effective prevention and treatment plans can be developed.
Experts agree that Schizophrenia is a syndrome with signs and symptoms that are thought to co-occur in ways that distinguish it from other syndromes and from normal thoughts and behaviors. Schizophrenia can also be defined as a psychotic disorder with, impairments in reality, disturbances of perception and thought experienced as hallucinations, delusions, hearing voices, seeing things that are not there, and paranoia. Its onset usually starts in a person’s late teens to early twenties, and it affects about one percent of the global population. Its causes are unknown but experts are learning more and more about it every day. To contain
In some people's cases, Schizophrenia appears suddenly and without warning. But for most it comes slowly, with subtle warning signs and a gradual decline in functioning long before the first severe episode. “In the early phases of Schizophrenia people often seem eccentric, unmotivated, emotionless, and reclusive (Helpguide.org).” They may isolate themselves and not want to participate in daily activities such as playing with their children, going outside, or getting off the couch. They abandon their hobbies and they do not do well in their jobs. “The most common early warning signs of Schizophrenia include: social withdrawal, hostility or suspiciousness, deterioration of personal hygiene, having a flat and expressionless gaze, the inability to cry or express joy, inappropriate laughter or crying, depression, oversleeping or insomnia, odd or irrational statements, forgetfulness or the inability to concentrate, extreme reaction to criticism, and or strange use of words or way of speaking (Helpguide.org).” There are five types of symptoms of Schizophrenia. Positive is a symptom that involves having hallucinations or delusions. Negative is when one shows no emotion or flat behavior. Avolation is when a person shows little interest in whatever they are doing. Cognitive behavior is when you have disorganized speech or memory loss. Catatonic behavior is considered poor functioning such as your voluntary muscles
According to, The National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH), schizophrenia is defined as a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects the person mentally, physically and behaviorally. Even though it is not common, it is possible for children(15 and younger) to have schizophrenia. It is more common for people to start showing symptoms from between 16 and 30 years of age. There are three kinds of symptoms, of which are in their own groups. There are “positive” symptoms which are psychotic behaviors not generally seen in healthy people. People affected by positive symptoms may not have a strong sense of what is reality or not reality. The symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, thought process (atypical thinking), and movement disorders. There are also negative symptoms, which are associated with disruptions in behavior and emotions. These symptoms include flat affect(reduced expressions), reduced feelings of pleasure in regular life, and reduced speaking. Lastly, there are cognitive symptoms which might be subtle in some, but severe for others. The symptoms include poor decision making after obtaining information, trouble