Schizophrenia Essay

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects the brain. It interferes with mental functions in a person and may cause changes to a person’s personality. It usually starts from adolescence unto adulthood which also affects the elderly. At first the illness may be rapid due to acute symptoms or it can develop slowly and prolong into months or even years. People with schizophrenia show symptoms of hearing voices that others are unable to hear, they believe that people are reading their mind or trying to harm them. The illness affects men and women,

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that has no cure, (2) affects 1.1% of the population -most of which who are over eighteen-, and it makes it difficult to see the difference between what’s real and not real. Unfortunately, there are more than 200,000 cases in the US alone, and there’s no cure, only treatments that can help. Scientist believe the cause for schizophrenia is because of genetics, experiences, or something else that traumatizes them. “Schizophrenia can be hard to treat, but it's not impossible. With the right medicine and therapy, about 25% of people with this disease will recover completely.” ~WebMD

I chose to write my research paper over Schizophrenia. It is a psychological disorder that I have always found fascinating. Approximately 20% of North Americans will be affected by a mental illness during the course of their lifetime. (MHA, ‘What You Should Know About Mental Illnesses) More specifically, 1 in 100 Americans will suffer from schizophrenia. That means that 300,000 people in America will, at some point in their life, be affected by a very serious and highly misunderstood mental disorder. (Schizophrenia Society of America) It is a serious disorder that consumes a person 's life and is nearly impossible to control. In this paper, I will talk about the definition of Schizophrenia, the symptoms of Schizophrenia,

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).

Schizophrenia is a chronic, lifetime mental disorder that cannot be cured, but can be effectively treated and managed. Research conducted in developed countries revealed that about 20 to 35 percent of patients undergo a rapid improvement when treated. Approximately, 70 percent of the patients suffer a relapse of acute symptoms within the next 2 to 5 years after being discharged from hospital. The risk of relapse usually decreases 10 years after the initial onset.

Worldwide about 1 percent of the population is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and approximately 1.2% of Americans (3.2 million) have the disorder. About 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with schizophrenia this year around the world. In the United States, this means about 100,000 people will be diagnosed, which translates to 7.2 people per 1,000 or about 21,000 people within a city of 3 million who are likely to be suffering from schizophrenia (Rashmi Nemade , Ph.D. & Mark Dombeck, Ph.D. Schizophrenia symptoms, patterns and statistics). Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that affects the way a person thinks, acts and expresses emotions. People

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.

    What is Schizophrenia you may ask. According to the National Institute of Mental Health Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects how people think, feel, and even behave. Someone that has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia may

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that affects millions of people and it should not be underestimated or ignored.

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

Treatment of schizophrenia may vary according to what clinicians believe to be its causes. For example, some believe (and this is backed by evidence) that the condition is caused by over activity of the dopamine system, so that the person experiences too much stimulation. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, so that in effect too much activity is occurring in the brain. Clinicians who believe this is the case are likely to use drug therapies to correct this over activity, and will use antipsychotic drugs.

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder of the brain, which is incurable but treatable to live a close to a normal life. There are different types of schizophrenia and they each have different symptoms and affect a person's life in different ways.

Approximately 1 percent of the world’s population is affected by schizophrenia. This illness does not discriminate. The symptoms usually start between ages 16 and 30. Once an individual reaches the age of 45, it is rare that schizophrenia manifests. Schizophrenia seldom occurs in children; however, awareness of childhood-onset schizophrenia is increasing (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). The symptoms tend to effect men more severely than women and those who suffer from schizophrenia are known to have a higher risk of substance abuse and suicide rates. Approximately 10 percent of the schizophrenia communities commit suicide. The most common addiction shared by these individual is (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2009).

Negative symptoms involve a decrease in, or loss of normal functions including loss of motivation, an inability to feel emotionally as well as a reduction in the quantity and quality of speech (SFNSW n.d.). Elder et al. (2009) state that negative symptoms to be; anhedonia (loss of the experience of pleasure), alogia (poverty of speech), blunted or flat affect and anergia (loss of energy). According to Varcarolis et al. (2006) psychosocial

“Schizophrenia, a complex and often disabling mental illness, is among the most serious of brain diseases” (Veague 1).To some