Taking a Look at Schizophrenia

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

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).

(Salinger 173). Holden has molded his life around this fantasy and fails to realize that

The debate of whether schizophrenia is a brain disorder has been a controversial issue for decades. Most researchers consider schizophrenia a brain disorder for numerous reasons. The evidence revolves around the symptoms that can impact a patient biologically, psychologically, and socially. Some speculations suggest that schizophrenia begins in the womb which also contributes to the evidence towards schizophrenia being a brain disorder.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that inhibits a person’s ability to think clearly, manage their emotions, make their own decisions, and associate with others. It is a complicated, long term illness that affects one percent of Americans. Even though Schizophrenia can occur at any age, it is more common for men in their early twenties and early twenties to late thirties in women. It is possible to lead a happy, fulfilling life with Schizophrenia. (Nami 2016)

Many people today believe they are experts on schizophrenia due to hollywood titles such as 1948 blockbuster The Snake Pit or the 2001 hit A Beautiful Mind. However, many people do not know the cause, the symptoms, or the experiences people who suffer from schizophrenia face. Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder characterized by a split between thought and emotion where a person has difficulty distinguishing whether altered thoughts, perceptions, & conscious experiences are real versus imagined (Grison, Heatherton, and Gazzaniga, 2015, p. 518).

Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder. Like many other illnesses, schizophrenia is believed to result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. All the tools of modern science are being used to search for the causes of this disorder.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects an estimated 3.2 million people in America alone (Nemade). Often, people have scattered reactions when they hear the word “schizophrenia.” Some may associate this word with uncontrollable actions that could potentially cause harm to those around them. People may think of serial killers, rapists, or any form of negative archetype seen in the the media. According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), schizophrenia is characterized by a patient experiencing delusions, hallucinations, and/or disorganized speech for more than a month. Delusions include, but are not limited to, the belief one is going to be harassed or harmed, environmental cues are directed at oneself,

Schizophrenia is a disorder that has an effect on about 25 million people around the world (Myers, 2010). Schizophrenia is a brain damage, naturally created by the human body, that is caused by the genetically determined vulnerability of the blood-brain barrier (Voronov, 2013). This psychiatric disorder, like most others, is characterized by changes in behavior, thinking, reduced ability to feel normal emotions, and mood (Abad et al., 2011). The unique thing about schizophrenia is that the symptoms are split into two different sections: positive symptoms (the presences of behaviors and or feelings that are not usually present in humans) and negative symptoms (the lack of behaviors and or feelings that are usually present in humans). Positive symptoms are characterized by the patient having delusions and or hallucinations while negative symptoms are characterized by the patient having affective flattening, alogia, avolition, anhedonia, and asociality (Nasrollahi et al., 2012). Although these are general symptoms for schizophrenia, the symptoms differ between genders.

Socially the term Schizophrenia has a certain caricature about it that society has turned into a very serious social stigma. Many associate the disorder with criminals, nut houses, and extreme uncontrollable violence. Schizophrenia is portrayed in literature, and in movies so horrendously negative that those who experience symptoms of this very serious mental disorder can be in a stage of denial that can ultimately cause them to go undiagnosed, that is until something goes wrong. In spite of myths and portrayals in pop culture schizophrenia is sometimes viewed as split personality, but the root of the word comes from the Greek word schizo and phrene which loosely translates into split mind (Internet Mental Health Initiative 2010).

Schizophrenia is a complex mental illness which has several differing theories exploring the underlining neurological causes. This paper will focus on giving insight into aspects of schizophrenia as well as discussing the following leading theories on the topic: neurodevelopment, dopamine, glutamate, and brain abnormalities. Methods of research focus on studying twins, adopted family members as well as genetics. As it is such a complex illness it presents many different symptoms that have been categorized as positive, negative, and cognitive. Treatment is crucial to managing a life with this illness which includes a combination of therapy and antipsychotic drugs. Since a wide array of the symptoms

Schizophrenia is a common neurobiological disorder, striking approximately 1–2% of the world's population, with the average age of onset between 21 and 27 years (Keefe 2). The term schizophrenia refers to an individual split off from the environment, not to be confused with the splitting of an individual's personality into parts (as with multiple or split personality disorder). Clear definitions in psychology, however, are hardly possible; likewise, one for schizophrenia has been difficult to arrive at because of the fact that there is no single symptom or set of symptoms that

Schizophrenia is a mental illness characterized by psychosis , apathy and social withdrawal in combination with cognitive impairment, abnormalities that cause substantial disruptions in performance work , school, family and recreation. Among psychiatric disorders, schizophrenia is the most disabling disease and demand a disproportionate amount of resources to health . However, there have been considerable advances in the treatment and at present many sufferers can lead a reasonably normal life. The estimated annual incidence is 0.2 to 0.4 by 1000. The frequency of schizophrenia is similar in both sexes but in women tends to occur later and present a more benign course, probably due to the effect of estrogen on D2 receptors.

Schizophrenia is a considered a severely chronic, disabling brain disease. Sufferers that have schizophrenia tend to experience hallucinations, delusions and sometimes distorted reality. When an individual is diagnosed with schizophrenia, they are physically inept to acting out “everyday functions”. With careful research, it is now known nearly one percent of the American population develops schizophrenia. Unfortunately, that portion is about two million american citizens and the numbers are slowly growing. Schizophrenia affects men and women equally, the disorder often appears in men earlier, usually in the late teens or early thirties (Barbour 14).

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