Essay about Psychosocial Examination in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe, disabling and chronic disorder that affects people. Schizophrenia is diagnosed as a psychotic disorder. This is because a person suffering from schizophrenia cannot tell their own thoughts, perceptions, ideas, and imaginations from the reality. There is continuing debate and research as to whether schizophrenia is one condition or a combination of more than one syndrome that have related features. People suffering from schizophrenia may seem perfectly fine until the time they talk actually talk about they are thinking. People with schizophrenia rely on others for help since they cannot care for themselves of hold a job. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there is treatment that relieves some of the symptoms. People having the disorder will cope with the symptoms all their lives. There have been cases of people suffering from schizophrenia leading meaningful and rewarding lives. There are five types of schizophrenia namely paranoid, disorganized, residual, undifferentiated, and catatonic schizophrenia. This paper will discuss paranoid schizophrenia.

In this week’s readings chapter twelve is about schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder in which personal, social, and occupational functioning deteriorate as a result of strange perceptions, unusual emotions, and motor abnormalities. This disorder is very interesting, but also kind of scary to me. They literally end up in their own world, losing contact with reality. With that, they also experience hallucinations or delusions, which can cause them to do abnormal, possibly dangerous actions. These symptoms must last six months or more before the person can be diagnosed with schizophrenia. It will affect 1 out of 100 people in the world during ones lifetime. This disorder, unlike many others, is just as common among men and women,

rapidly from one unrelated topic to the next. They may make up their own words

Schizophrenia is a life-long disorder that affects about one percent of the population (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). The cause of this mental illness is still unclear. Studies have suggested that Schizophrenia does not arise from one factor but from a combination of genetic, environmental, and social factors (Liddle, 1987). People diagnosed with Schizophrenia struggle to deal with a multitude of symptoms that make it difficult to function (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). Antipsychotic medications are a popular treatment of the symptoms of Schizophrenia (Mueser & McGurk, 2004). Research is constantly being done to develop these medications to enhance the quality of life of those diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

Approximately 22% of the American population suffers from some kind of mental disorder at any given time. (Passer and Smith, 2004) Schizophrenia is one of the most serious of these mental disorders, and there are many different kinds of treatment. While all mental disorders offer diagnosis and treatment challenges, few are more challenging than schizophrenia. It is both bizarre and puzzling, and has been described as “one of the most challenging disorders to treat effectively.” (Passer and Smith, 2004, 534)

There is no cure for schizophrenia but it can be controlled with treatment. In this paper I will discuss the different types of treatments. Treatment with medications and psychosocial therapy can help relieve many symptoms of schizophrenia. A psychiatrist experienced with schizophrenia is usually the one to treat a person with this disease. Antipsychotic medications are the most commonly prescribed drug to treat this disease. They help to control symptoms by affecting the brains neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.

The mental health disorder was identified by the german physician Dr. Emile Kraepelin in 1887 as “dementia praecox” (early dementia), and the term schizophrenia was first introduced by Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist in 1911, formed from the Greek schizo (split) and phrene (mind) to describe the disruption of cognition and emotion.

There are many myths surrounding Schizophrenia (Owen, 2007). Almost all of them are very misleading. Most of these myths are outlined below with the

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects you mind and thoughts. It can affect the way we live our lives. 1 in a 100 people have schizophrenia, it’s a very common illness.

The general theory of psychosis has been present for thousands of years. There have been written forms of documentation on this disorder dating back to the time before Christ. Schizophrenia did not become categorized as a specific disorder of the mind until the year 1887. Emile Kraepelin who was a German physician was given credit for the disorder. He was the first man to differentiate between the psychological ailments dementia praecox and severe depression. The word schizophrenia is over a hundred and twenty years old. The disorder was initially labeled as dementia paecox. This author/physician of schizophrenia initially deemed this disorder a disease of the mind and more specifically a method of dementia. He utilized the term dementia praecox,

The above study (Zalesky et al., 2015) investigated whether adolescents with childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) and their unaffected siblings displayed abnormal development of corticocortical connections compared with healthy controls. The authors hypothesised that patients with COS and, to a lesser extent, their unaffected siblings would display delays in cortical connectivity development. They further hypothesised that these delays would be greater in COS compared with the adult-onset disorder. Corticocortical connectivity between cortical region pairs was mapped prospectively, on average, every two years from 12 to 24 years of age using brain magnetic resonance imaging. Significant left-hemisphere occipitotemporal development

Life altering stressors in an individual’s life are frightening. Stressors are varied and, often, unpredictable. Obtaining medical treatment for a physical illness brings hope and perseverance in the fight for health. Losing a job with health insurance and benefits is overwhelming; however, an independent functioning person, with adequate personal and community resources, begins applying for new employment or career change. Enjoyment of life hobbies and interests will be limited, but basic needs are met and health care obtained. However, there are those who have great difficulty obtaining resources for maintaining basic needs. Persons with mental illness, those who are homeless, pregnant teens, or substance abusers are individuals of the

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is diagnosed in 0.5%-1% of the population in their lifetime (van Os et al, 2010). Its literal translation is ‘split-brain’, though it does not refer to multiple personality disorder, but rather a split from reality characterized by its disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking and inappropriate emotions (Myers, 2010). Much research has been carried out to gain a better understanding of the causes of this serious disorder. A popular theory is the diathesis-stress model. This theory of schizophrenia proposes that stress can elicit a pre-existing vulnerability to the disorder (Jones & Fernyhough, 2007). This model focuses on the interaction between genetic heritability of the disorder, and the environments interaction

Jerry was a rambunctious thirty-four year old woman who lived life to the fullest everyday. One day, she had a schizophrenic meltdown. She jumped out of a moving vehicle to get away from the “voices” in her head. They found her several hours later stripped of her clothes and cold to the touch. She was placed in the psychiatric ward until further examination.

Adolescents are, at the same time, a critical period for the development of self identity. The process of acquiring a sense of self is linked to physiological changes and learning to negotiate social and psychological demands of being young adults.