Introduction
Schizophrenia is a mental illness characterized by a host of unpleasant symptoms. Among the symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, amnesia, slow thinking and processing of information, and a false sense of superiority. Patients with schizophrenia often display aggressive, compulsive, hyperactive, and disoriented behavior. When they speak, their words may be scrambled and difficult to comprehend. People with schizophrenia may also experience hallucinations which can often lead to paranoid and irrational thoughts. For example, these hallucinations often come in the form of auditory stimulus that they hear but does not actually exist in reality. Schizophrenia has also been linked with a decline in pleasure, called anhedonia. Not many studies have been conducted that involve the link between schizophrenia and the capacity to experience pleasure, although anhedonia has often been reported as one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Other negative symptoms include an inability to perform everyday tasks and a lack of movement in the face when the person attempts to speak. Positive symptoms include the ailments that separate people with schizophrenia and healthy people such as hallucinations and delusions. Despite these ailments, people with schizophrenia can lead a normal life in society, but many need help from others and medications. Treatments for schizophrenia include antipsychotic medications such as chlorpromazine and fluphenazine as well as atypical
Schizophrenia is a disease that ebbs and flows, which means that the people with the disease have acute periods called relapses. This is when a person with schizophrenia experiences a number of sensations that are an addition to their usual feelings, and because they are additions, they are called "positive symptoms." The term "positive symptoms" does not mean it is positive in the sense that it is wanted or a positive thing to have. They are hallucinations, and delusions and they are believed to
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.
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 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.
Children with a first episode of psychosis, typically before 18 years of age, are diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS). Compared to adult-onset schizophrenia (AOS) the disorder is associated with increased severity of symptoms, specifically of the negative subtype, and poorer outcome. Due to the extreme rarity of EOS, the current research is still in its initial stages and is often times based on findings in research that focuses on AOS. However, researchers have revealed valuable information that serve as a foundation for a more complete understanding of EOS that will aid in providing increased efficacy in treatment approaches. Future research should attempt to maintain consistency with other experiments’ inclusivity of
What is schizophrenia? The America Psychiatric Association explain schizophrenia in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV(DSM-IV) as a disarray with active symptoms for at least 1 month, consisting of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized/bizarre behavior, and/or a lack of organized speech, activity, or emotions. Usually, at least two of these sets of indication are present. The illness, with a prodromal stage prior to diagnosis and a residual stage after treatment (both having some often nonspecific behavioral symptoms), lasts at least 6 months with a continuous sign of some disturbance. During this period, an individual with schizophrenia is clearly considered impaired in his or ability to perform at work, attend school, or participate in social activities in a productive way (Jones& Bartlett, 2010).
It is a frightening disorder that strikes about one percent of the world population. It surfaces most frequently during puberty and has the potential to forever destroy the lives of the people who are unfortunate enough to be its victim. The disorder is schizophrenia and it manifests itself by disturbing normal psychiatric behavior. The symptoms of schizophrenia are characterized by both positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and other unusual or disorganized behavior. Unresponsiveness, lack of activity, and loss of interest characterize negative symptoms. Though it is possible for doctors to diagnose and treat patients with schizophrenia, the causes of schizophrenia are
A person diagnosed with Schizophrenia has a variety of symptoms which are divided into positive and negative symptoms and may vary depending on the severity. Some people might have more positive symptoms while others have more negative symptoms. Both positive and negative symptoms are usually present. The difference is that they are somewhat opposites of each other in how the symptoms are presented.
Schizophrenia is one of the most severe psychiatric disorders that affects both male and females, respectively. This illness is characterized by gradual increase in changes of perception, thinking, social activities, speech, feelings, and motivations. Many studies have shown that there is a clear difference in outcome between genders including symptom severity, age-at-onset and functional outcome (as cited in Gogos, Kwek and van den Buuse, 2011, p. 213). For example, schizophrenia occurs on average 1.5-4.5 earlier in men compared to women. Further evidence suggests that women who have a psychiatric disorder such as schizophrenia may have various levels of estrogen; the most severe phase of the disorder will be when there is low level of
Per MentalHelp.net, schizophrenia is rare with approximately one-percent of the worldwide population and 1.2 percent of the population of the United States suffering from the disease as of 2009. Accurate statistics are difficult to obtain because many sufferers do not seek help. Symptoms typically – but not always – present in teen years with different peak times for females and males. Females have two peak times of vulnerability – mid- to late twenties and again around 40 – whereas males have one between the ages of 18 and 25. (Nemade & Dombect, 2009)
Schizophrenia is characterized as a chronic mental disorder that affects a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior (Bartol and Bartol, 2014). Individuals with schizophrenia experience positive psychotic symptoms that consist of hallucinations or delusions. Negative symptoms may also arise such as a diminished emotional expression known as flat affect, as well as poor attention and speech production (Bartol and Bartol, 2014). These symptoms are further categorized into five subtypes that include paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual categories. A person is diagnosed with one of these subtypes depending on how severe their most symptoms are. It affects both men and women equally but tends to appear earlier in men than in women (Bartol and Bartol, 2014). To this day, it is not known what causes schizophrenia and remains to be misunderstood.
Aberration; noun; a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected, typically one that is unwelcome; something that is different from what is normal; Everyone knew that the teenager had an aberration, but they could not figure out why. He would always do weird things, such as laugh when someone died. Soon he was taken to a physiatrist, so diagnosed his aberration as schizophrenia. They realized the reason why he acted so different was because he would think one thing, but act the opposite way. Although the way he acted was an aberration for other people, it was not uncommon for people with schizophrenia to act this way.
Jaime is a 17 year old caucasian male, living with a younger brother and both parents. According to his parents, he has been suffering from hallucinations for the past 8 months and has has been dealing insomnia for the past 4 months. When meeting him, he showed signs of movement disorders and thought disorders. After Complete Blood Count tests and interviews with multiple mental health professionals, Jaime was confirmed to have paranoid schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that manifests itself in the patient by causing drastic changes in the person 's behavior and causing other symptoms that are divided into two categories: positive symptoms and negative symptoms (Mental Health America [MHA], n.d.). The positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized and deluded speech, and an exhibition of inappropriate laughter, tears, and aggressiveness (MHA, n.d.). The negative symptoms include having a toneless voice, expressionless face, having rigid bodies or catatonia, and extreme apathy (MHA, n.d.). Their decline in health would be evident when the patient’s symptoms start to prevent them from excelling in their work, social life, and school (Mental Help, 2009). The most common type of delusion is that of persecution and the most common type of hallucinations are auditory (MHA, n.d.). These persecution stories can be inconsistent, meaning they do not follow a timeline. In addition, the patient is unable to give a great amount of detail about who is persecuting them, why they’re are being persecuted and when the persecution started. Another type of delusion is grandeur in which people believe they are someone important such as a respectable scientist or the president. The positive symptoms are also manifested in the early stages of the disorder and the negative symptoms are presented in the late stages of the disorder. The disorder affects about 1% of the population worldwide, and
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that has a severe effect on the daily functioning of people that are diagnosed with it. People living with schizophrenia can easily lose their sense of reality as they may hear voices that others do not hear or witness stimuli that others may not see (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). These may be referred to as hallucinations as they are the one of the common symptoms of the disease that affects 1% of the population of the United States of America (National Institutes of Mental Health, n.d.). Another common symptom of schizophrenia are delusions, in which a person with schizophrenia can hold a belief that is not true or logical, such as believing that they are a famous celebrity, such as Channing Tatum (National Institutes of Mental Health, n.d.). It does not always mean that people living with schizophrenia cannot perform single or dual tasks related to