Schizophrenia And Its Symptoms, Causes, Treatments

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe disorder which is equal in both Men and Women and affects one percent of the worlds population, it is the most common mental illness (Carlson 2014). Schizophrenia is the suffering from a split mind which can start at a very early age and remain as a lifelong disease. (Tsuang 1982) In the UK currently 250,000 people are suffering from Schizophrenia. (Crow 1991) There are several symptoms which are found in Schizophrenics which are characterised by positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. However some people may differ differently due to their diagnosis of Schizophrenia. Some individuals may show all the symptoms listed, whereas others may only display a small number of them. (Jones et al.) In addition, the description of the symptoms of Schizophrenics indicates that the disorder has been around for thousands of years. (Jeste et al.1985). According to the Biological approach, Schizophrenia occurs due to brain abnormalities which involves the absence of normal behaviour. Although, due to Schizophrenia being strongly genetic and heritable, the presence of unusual behaviour may be due to underlying biological factors. (Carlson 2014) The main types of biological treatments available for Schizophrenia are Electro convulsive therapy (ECT) and Psychosurgery, however there are other drugs therapies available for Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a disorder that is characterized by a broken thought process and poor emotional responses. Typical symptoms of this disorder include delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, social dysfunctions,

Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that is the base of several psychological symptoms. There are many people out there who suffer from this disorder and have no idea on how to cure it. Some people tend to spend their whole life with this disorder; whilst others get it treated as soon as they see first sign or symptom of it. Schizophrenia is not a disorder that cannot be treated; with the right kind of treatment, the disorder can be controlled and the individual suffering from it can be cured. The paper will discuss the schizophrenia disorder in detail, causes, risk, signs & symptoms, and treatments of it.

Schizophrenia is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of an individual. The cause of this illness is unknown, but there are several theories of how an individual may acquire schizophrenia. Because there are many symptoms of the disease and because the symptoms can vary quite dramatically among several individuals and even within the same individual over time, the diagnosis of schizophrenia can be quite difficult.

According to NAMI (), schizophrenia is a long term mental illness that interferes with a person’s ability to think clearly, make decisions, and relate to others, impairing a person from functioning to their full potential when left untreated. For these persons affected, it is many times difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not. “Unfortunately, no single simple course of treatment exists.” Research has linked schizophrenia to a multitude of possible causes” (NAMI).

This paper defines schizophrenia from a biological and psychological perspective and also provides treatment to help combat symptoms of schizophrenia. This paper has three important contributions. First, by defining and expanding on schizophrenia from a biological perspective, I can identify the nature related predispositions. After expanding from a biological approach, secondly, I will analyze schizophrenia from a psychological aspect by determining if there is any environment or nurturing externals that can result to schizophrenia. Lastly, I will provide treatment details and also reveal early signs to schizophrenia. This paper is important because schizophrenia is an epic mental disease and it is crucially important to bring awareness to the public of how we can limit the illness. It is unclear whether schizophrenia have only a biological background or psychological background, but what was discovered is that both contribute to schizophrenia. Positive and negative treatment can be combatted undergoing pharmaceutical and psychotherapy,

Many people may have the following questions about schizophrenia. How long has schizophrenia been around? How does someone know if they have schizophrenia? How is this disorder treated? How does this disorder affect family members or caregivers? And how does schizophrenia affect the brain? This paper will answer a few of these questions surrounding the mental psychotic disorder called schizophrenia.

Mental illnesses has been recorded since the beginning of history. Mental illness is a condition that impairs a person’s thoughts, actions, mood and social skills. Daily activity becomes a difficult task to those with a disorder. Every person reacts differently to diagnosed mental conditions. (NAMI, 2015) Mental disorders include a wide range of problems made up of anxiety, mood disorders, depression, schizophrenia, psychotic disorders and etc. The focus of this paper will examine the disorder of schizophrenia; how it became, who is affects and to live with it.

There are three ways that symptoms of schizophrenia are categorized by; positive, negative, and cognitive. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not generally seen in healthy people. These symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders (NIMH). Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to to normal emotions and behaviors. These symptoms include “flat affect” (reduced expression of emotions via facial expression or voice tone), lack of pleasure in everyday life, lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities, and reduced speaking. Cognitive symptoms consist of loss of the capacity for very basic human functioning. Symptoms include inability to focus attention, impaired “working memory”, and lack of fundamental individual initiative to do anything (Psychology Today). “It (schizophrenia) has definitely made everything a lot more stressful. It makes it a lot harder for me to be devoted and have the motivation to do basically anything” (Dickey, Madeline).

Schizophrenia, a chronic severe disabling disorder of the brain affects 1% of the Americans. It stays among the top 10 incapacitating conditions worldwide for adults. In US the expense of treatment and loss of productivity are estimated to be above $60 billion annually. Symptoms are characterized by positive symptoms including delusions, hallucinations and disorganized thinking; negative symptoms including flat affect, asociality, avolition, anergia and anhedonia; cognitive symptoms including poor executive function, poor attention and poor working memory. The typical stages of schizophrenia include a prodromal, active and residual phase.

Throughout this paper I will discuss schizophrenia, what the characteristics associated with it are, how schizophrenia is diagnosed, treated, side effects, prognosis and how it impacts the person and people involved with them. I will also discuss how this disease has personally impacted my patient who has struggled with this disease for many years.

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.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is characterized by a variety of symptoms and the disorganization of feeling and thought. It is an incurable disease whose causes are unknown, yet whose effects are mind and body crippling. (Young, 1988, p.13-14) This topic was chosen because it is interesting to study a disorder that worldwide, is viewed as a classic example of madness and insanity. Another reason of interest is because unlike many illnesses, schizophrenia doesn't have a noticeable pattern and its difficulty to be diagnosed as a disease makes the collection of statistics difficult. It is important to learn more about schizophrenia because a significant numbr of people are affected everyday

“A severe mental illness characterized by persistent, bizarre disturbances in thought, communication, perceptions, emotions, and behavior. Schizophrenia is considered a psychosis because people with the disease become detached from reality.” (Schizophrenia)1. Millions of people in the United States suffer from different psychological disorders. One of the least common of these disorders is Schizophrenia. This paper will discuss the prevalence of Schizophrenia, how it is diagnosed, how it effects the social life and relationships of those affected, and the area of the brain and the neurotransmitters involved.

Schizophrenia is the worst of all mental health disorders because it is many severe disorders all put into one such as mood disorders and psychological disorders. It is a mental health disorder that affects a persons’ reality. When the word Schizophrenia is broken into two, schizo means “Split” and phrenia means “mind” (DeWall & Myers, 2014, p.562). According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about 1% of Americans have schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has many different components such as causes, the people it affects, types of symptoms, and types of schizophrenia all of which will be discussed in this paper. Within schizophrenia symptoms in can be positive or negative and treating these symptoms come with different approaches.