Schizophrenia Essay

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by abnormal social behaviour and failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include false beliefs, unclear or confused thinking, auditory hallucinations, reduced social engagement and emotional expression, and inactivity. A person with schizophrenia often hears voices, experiences delusions and hallucinations and may believe thoughts, feelings and actions are controlled or shared by someone else.

The actual term “Schizophrenia” was coined by a Swiss psychiatrist name Eugen Bleuler in around 1911. Bleuler believed that Krapelin’s name for the disease was inaccurate because Schizophrenia did not always lead to a mental deterioration of the brain and it could occur at almost any time in a person’s life. The word Schizophrenia come from two Greek roots Schizo (meaning split) and Phrene (meaning mind) because people who develop this disorder often have fragmented thinking. Schizophrenia can be defined as “a long-term mental disorder of a type 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

Symptoms in this category include hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders. When first thinking of Schizophrenia, hallucinations come to mind. Patients that have the hallucinations see things that are not really there. These things they are seeing could put themselves in danger. Negative symptoms are when your normal emotions and behaviors are far from normal. The “Flat affect”, enjoying everyday life, difficulty staring and continuing activities, and reduced speaking are all symptoms of negative symptoms. The “Flat affect” is when the patient is not able to express themselves emotionally as they could before. Lastly, cognitive symptoms are different for each patient. For some patients, they may be subtle while for others they are quite serious to the point where they can learn something and then forget it within the next few minutes. The symptoms include struggling with making decisions, trouble with paying attention, and having a difficult time remembering things. A lot of patients tend to deal with suicidal thoughts causing the lifespan of these patients to shorten. Most times, the illness will get the best of them and they will eventually commit

When I lived in Germany, I had a friend who played on my High School tennis team. On a sunny afternoon after our tennis lessons we decided to drink an ice tea and have a little snack at the tennis snack bar. We started talking about tennis strategies, but my friend, Thomas, was kind of depressed and sad. When I asked him what was really bothering him, he started tell me about his sick mother. He tried to explain her disease to me, but I could not understand it. He said, “ my mother is suffering from persecution mania and in addition, she sometimes talks about things that make no sense. Nevertheless, I saw Thomas again after the summer holidays and I asked him how his mother was doing now. He responded with a very sad voice and also had

SCHIZOPHRENIA Schizophrenia, from the Greek word meaning “split mind”, is a mental disorder that causes complete fragmentation in the processes of the mind. Contrary to common belief, schizophrenia does not refer to a person with a split personality or multiple personalities, but rather to a condition which affects the person’s movement, language, and thinking skills. The question of whether schizophrenia is a disease or collection of socially learned actions is still a question in people’ mind. People who are suffering from schizophrenia think and act in their own the world and put themselves in a way that is totally different from the rest of society. In other words, they have lost in touch with the reality. Most schizophrenics accept

Schizophrenia, although affecting only one percent of the population, has a direct affect on society today. This disease, if left untreated, poses threat to health care professionals (including psychiatrists), law enforcement personnel, and family members responsible for the care and support of the schizophrenia patient. This paper addresses the causes of schizophrenia and the myths surrounding this complicated ailment, the affect of untreated or misunderstood aspects of schizophrenia has on society and important crisis intervention strategies for those in close contact to victims of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a metal illness which is characterized by a disruption in cognition and emotion that affects the most fundamental human attributes, such as thought, perception, language, and the sense of self. There are a large number of symptoms of schizophrenia which can include hearing internal voices, hallucinations, and delusions. No single symptom can diagnose a person as schizophrenic, but rather the collection of multiple symptoms which persist for a prolonged period of time. Symptoms of schizophrenia are divided into two categories, positive and negative. These categories define how the symptoms are defined and treated.

Schizophrenia is the most commonly diagnosed psychotic disorder (Steel, 2012), affecting 1 out of every 100 hundred people on average (Taurier & Wykes, 2004). Symptoms of the disorder include positive symptoms, which are auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as disordered patterns of thought such as delusions (Taurier & Wykes, 2004). Auditory hallucinations are the most common positive symptom, and often come in the form of voices (Steel, 2012). Delusions, which are the most common symptom of schizophrenia, involve a false belief that exists despite evidence being available that suggests otherwise (Steel, 2012).

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that has haunted man-kind for centuries. Documents have been found aging this disease to the times of the Pharaohs in Ancient Egypt. The first diagnosed case was in 1887 and made a huge impact in mental disease (Burton). Emile Kraepelin was the one who first diagnosed schizophrenia and his work still impacts the DSM-classifications (Ebert). Schizophrenia has typically been looked down upon by cultures throughout time. There are many stereotypical and incorrect thoughts on schizophrenia that have stemmed from past generations. Past cultures have thought of schizophrenia as the devils entrance into the present world. Their views of “becoming crazy” stem from the demonizing of a person through

Depending on the type and severity of symptoms, there are several clinical forms of schizophrenia. The most common include: simple schizophrenia, paranoid, hebephrenic and catatonic. To the common symptoms can

Schizophrenia is one of the most serious and disabling of all mental disorders, and its core symptoms are seen in virtually all parts of the world (World Health Organization, 1979). The history of schizophrenia is hard to identify because people who had a mental illness, mental impedance or physical abnormalities were largely treated or diagnosed the same. Schizophrenia occurs in 1 percent of the population in the United States of America. Schizophrenia was called dementia praecox by Emil Kraeplin in 1896. Dementia praecox was identified by gradually poorer functioning.

Schizophrenia has been identified as a syndrome called dementia for thousands of years, dating back to the age of Hippocrates (Preston, O 'Neal, & Talaga, 2013). In the late 19th century, the German physician, Emile Kraepelin formulated the concept of the disorder and called it "dementia praecox" (Jablensky, 2010). He delineated the essential features of schizophrenia as a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which results in executive dysfunction and severe deterioration of cognitive and behavioral functions (Jablensky, 2010; Preston et al., 2013). The Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler modified Kraepelin’s concept of the disease and coined the term “schizophrenia” in 1911 (Ashok, Baugh, & Yeragani, 2012). The term was derived from the Greek words “schizein” (splitting) and “Phren” (mind) (Ashok et al., 2012). Bleuler observed splitting

Schizophrenia is a brain disease that interferes with normal brain functioning. It causes patients to have irrational thought and behavior. The disease alters understanding, feeling and cognitive skills. Having a disorder to think diminishes the ability to think logically and clearly (Baier). The disease shows incapability to participate in conversation and contribute to the patient 's family, friends, and society. Delusion is also experienced by patients which make them believe that people may be conspiring against them. Also patients may hear voices warning them of danger telling them what to do.

There are three major types of schizophrenia, Paranoid, disorganized, and catatonic. Paranoid schizophrenia is when an individual develops absurd or suspicious ideas and beliefs. Their hallucinations and delusions typically revolve around an organized theme or "story" which consists over time. Disorganized schizophrenia generally appears at an earlier age than other types. It causes those to have disorganized speech, behavior, and have inappropriate emotions. These patients usually have trouble taking care of them and are unable to perform simple tasks. They sometimes suffer hallucinations and delusions, but their fantasies and imaginings aren’t consistent or organized like those who suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. Catatonic schizophrenia in general is a disturbance in movement with two different states (Veague 24). Stuporous state is when there is a decrease in motor activity. During this state, a patient can cease

"My room was almost totally black. The window was covered by a sheet of steel with small holes drilled in it, just enough to let light in. That sheet of steel got awfully damned hot, ... it just about killed me. ... I started thinking ... we are going to have a tough time if we are here for any length of time, because the problem is going to be a psychological problem"(Hunter). A veteran goes through psychological torture and will need the proper treatment when they return home to help cope with the disorders caused by fighting for our country. The amount of time Veterans fight or are held in captivity affects how bad the psychological problems become. The victims are sheltered for so long, which forces them to forget how to interact with one