Paranoid Schizophrenia Case Study

The True Life episode, I have Schizophrenia, documented the struggles of three adults who suffer from Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective disorder. This paper will focus around Josh and whether he actually has Schizophrenia.

Phoenix is a 28 year old woman who is currently a full-time student and unemployed. She is in a domestic partnership and she has a son, which is not legally her partner’s. She stays at home most days and waits for her son to come home from school and her partner to come home from her job. Phoenix constantly ponders thoughts of her partner’s fidelity to their partnership.

Valerie believes that the last four years of her marriage are what brought about her development of paranoid schizophrenia. During her last four years of marriage Valerie experienced a great deal of stress and strain to keep her marriage together. Because Valerie did not believe in divorce she turned to her religion and became deeply involved in her church. Her first delusion began during this period when she believed bad people were infiltrating her church and trying to destroy the

The risk is even greater for those relatives who are genetically similar to the schizophrenic. This theory poses important debates however. If schizophrenia is caused by simple genetics, identical twins should both be affected by schizophrenia if one twin has been diagnosed. It is rare to find a majority of identical twins affected. Studies have found there to be a weak genetic link to schizophrenia. A recent study of high-risk children found there to be little proof of a genetic link.

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that changes the way certain people interpret reality. (Schizophrenia) Around the world, in the general population a normal person only has about a 1% chance of developing this disease in their lifetime. It can however be passed along genetically. Say a second degree relative i.e. aunt/uncle, grandmother/grandfather or cousin is schizophrenic, you have a 5% chance of becoming schizophrenic sometime in your life. If your mother or father is a schizophrenic, your chances go up to 12%. If your brother or sister have the illness your chances rise to 8% but if you are the fraternal twin to a schizophrenic, your chances of becoming one are about 14%. If both parents are schizophrenic you now have a 39% chance but if you are the identical twin of a schizophrenic your chances of

Scientist have used genetic similarities to try and determine a pattern people who are affected by schizophrenia, and how likely their relatives are to also develop the disease. The incidence is unusally high amongst twins, with some numbers indicating that twins have a fifty percent to develop schizophrenia if their sibling has already developed it. This number can also be higher between identical twins compared to fraternal twins.

Therapy for psychosis often works best when combined with medication, although this is not always

It has been long understood that schizophrenia runs in families. People who have a close rela-tive with schizophrenia are more likely to develop the disorder than are people who have no relatives with the illness. A child whose parent has schizophrenia has about a 10 percent chance of developing schizophrenia themselves. Identical twins carry the same genes. In iden-tical twins, if one twin develops schizophrenia, the other twin has one in two chance of de-veloping it too even if they are raised separately. People who have second degree relative,

Schizophrenia occurs in 1% of people and that percentage shoots up to 10% when a person is a direct family member of a Schizophrenic. Even aunts, uncles, grandparents, or cousins to Schizophrenics are even more likely to develop Schizophrenia than a person with no relation to a Schizophrenic. An identical twin of a Schizophrenic is at the highest risk, with a 40-65% chance of developing this disease (The National Institute of Mental Health "What is Schizophrenia?"). It is EXTREMELY uncommon for a person before 12 years old or after 40 years old to be diagnosed with Schizophrenia ("What Causes Schizophrenia?" NAMI Fact Sheet). "I estimate that 10% of people have one episode of schizophrenia and recover...To become schizophrenic in America, you have to be ill for 6 months...under ICD-10 criteria, you have to be psychotic for 1 month...10% won't need continuing psychiatric treatment to function in

One of the 5 subtypes of schizophrenia in which the person has a false belief that they are in danger of being exploited, harmed, or otherwise deceived by something or someone that is “out to get them” and their loved ones. May also strongly believe in conspiracy theories so much so that they may act upon the “bad guys” and harm innocent people, or themselves.

One of biological explanations for schizophrenia is Gotessman (1991) theory. He proved that the probability that a patient's sibling becomes ill with schizophrenia is 9%. If both parents have a schizophrenic then there is a 46 % probability that their children will be also ill. Tienari (2000) analysed 361 Finnish children where 164 biological mothers has schizophrenia. It turned out that there is a high probability of schizophrenia in children adopted, but it is about 20% increased when adoptive families have experienced relationship disorders (child has been stressed). (Cardwell, 2012)

Although the exact cause of schizophrenia has not yet been discovered, there have been observed trends in those who have it. A child whose parent or sibling has schizophrenia has a 10% chance of developing schizophrenia, while a person whose second-degree relative (aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.) has schizophrenia has a lower chance. The

The mental disorder primarily known for distorting reality is schizophrenia, but there is much more to it. It strongly affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. The several symptoms schizophrenia consists of influences a person's ability to function. In regards to this, the National Institute of Mental Health states the symptoms include delusions, hallucinations or disorganized speech. Some more symptoms that are psychotic behaviors, not generally seen in healthy people are movement disorders and dysfunctional ways of thinking. Additionally, the symptoms associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors include a lack expression of emotions, difficulty performing activities, and reduced speaking. It does not come from just

The topic of this social science research essay is Schizophrenia and Paranoia. The research question is what is Schizophrenia? What are currently considered possible causes of Schizophrenia? What are common effects on the patient? What are challenges that people who live with Schizophrenia may experience? What suggestions could be made to help deal with those challenges? What is Paranoia and how might it affect people with Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects the way patients understand and interact with the world. There is no known cause of Schizophrenia, although genetics and environmental factors are considered at least partially responsible. Common effects on the patient may include having trouble thinking and

One out of ten children of a schizophrenic parent will develop schizophrenia. The risk of 10% is greater then frequency of schizophrenia in the general population which is about 1% which would mean that schizophrenia is more likely to develop is some families than others most children of schizophrenic parents are completely normal. The most interesting investigation that is still going on that remains a mystery of schizophrenia is that genes alone do not explain who gets ill. Example of this is twins as all there genes are in common but if one of the identical twins has schizophrenia the other twin has the highest risk of developing schizophrenia. About 40% of twins of a schizophrenic live completely normal lives without disease.