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Schizophrenia Nature Vs Nurture

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Living in a world that is cold, cruel, and full of lies and false ghouls—a child’s imagination turned into an inescapable reality. This is the world of a childhood schizophrenic. Schizophrenia is noted as “a severe brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally,” and the disorder’s name is derived from the words “‘split mind,’ [which] refers to a disruption of the usual balance of emotions and thinking,” (Mayo). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, characterizes schizophrenia “by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, and other symptoms that cause social or occupational dysfunction,” (American). The usual onset of schizophrenia is between the ages of 17-45, but “there is …show more content…

Nature is based on what is considered “pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors,” (McLeod). While nurture “is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception,” (McLeod). So, nature would be when genetic factors determine the disorders existence before the child is born, like how a Trisomy 21, or when there are three twenty-one chromosomes instead of the two that are supposed to be there, determines Down Syndrome preceding the child’s birth. Solely nurture-based development of childhood-onset schizophrenia would mean that the disease has no genetic factors that regulate the existence of the disorder, but that environmental factors completely determine the condition instead. Nature-based causes of COS would be found in the genome while trauma is an example of a possible nurture-based factor for childhood-onset …show more content…

In a study completed solely on patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia, 10% of the sample “showed cytogenetic abnormalities,” or abnormalities within the chromosomes that all humans inherent from their parents (Addington). When compared to the 5.5% of the general population that show these abnormalities in its inherited chromosomes, there is clearly a higher incidence of genetic abnormalities in COS patients (“Incidence”). The existence of commonly-mutated genes across COS patients, along with the significant increase in genetic abnormalities in the patients, indicates a noticeable relationship between genetic abnormalities and childhood-onset schizophrenia—a connection that is too strong to be based on random genetic mutations. This all indicates that COS is influenced by a patient’s

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