The Biological And Psychological Explanations Of Schizophrenia

Kety asked two groups of adoptees: who had schizophrenia, and a matched group who didn’t. The disorder was related in the biological and adoptive families of the two groups of adoptees – this was larger among biological relations of the schizophrenic adoptees than between ones of the controls, this supports the genetic explanation.

“As with many mental disorders, the causes of schizophrenia are poorly understood. Friends and family commonly are shocked, afraid or angry when they learn of the diagnosis. People often imagine a person with schizophrenia as being more violent or out-of-control than a person who has another kind of serious mental illness. But these kinds of prejudices and misperceptions can be readily corrected (Physical Central, 2013)”. These are just some of the common misconceptions about this tragic disease. One of the best ways to describe this disease is as a “split mind” where literally the person feels as if they are in an unrealistic world that is real to them like a hallucination. “Family, twin, and adoption studies support the role of genetic influences in schizophrenia. Immediate biological relatives of people with schizophrenia have about 10 times greater risk than that of the general population. Given prevalence estimates, this translates into a 5 to 10 percent lifetime risk for first-degree relatives (including children and

Attention-getter: When you hear the word schizophrenia what comes to mind? Maybe someone that is psychotic with 20 different personalities. Such as in the movie split where the main character goes from a 9-Year-old boy named Hedwig to an Old woman named Patricia.

Adoption studies support the genetic theory that schizophrenia can be inherited as they provide evidence that the environment does not affect inheritance rate. The supporting study was carried out by Tienari in Finland. He investigated 164 adoptees that biological mothers have been diagnosed with schizophrenia and found 6.7% also received a diagnosis, compared to 2% of the control group of adoptees. This means that that there is a genetic liability to schizophrenia, as more of

Schizophrenia is a unique disease in its pathophysiology. For their early lives, patients appear healthy. However, symptoms begin to appear during adolescence or early adulthood and may be triggered by changes in the brain during puberty. The first signs of the illness include anxiety, depression, changes in friends, sleep problems, irritability, dropping grades, and having trouble concentrating (Picchioni and Murray, 2007; National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)). Delusions and hallucinations typically begin between the ages of 16 and 30 (NIMH).

No one really knows how schizophrenia is caused, but it can be seen that both environmental and genetic risks are factors in the development. The environment risks are the over use of marijuana, (add more thingy’s). The genetic risks of schizophrenia are the issues within growth during a pregnancy, brain chemistry and structure, passing of the schizophrenic gene from one generation to the next generation, (more thingy’s). As you can see in figure one both environmental and genetic factors work together in this unfortunate development.

The major support and refutation of the dopamine hypothesis has come from the examination of dopamine receptors in these regions of the brain. There are two main types of dopamine receptors, D1 and D2. However, within the category of D2 receptors, there are three subtypes, D2, D3, and D4. (5) Through PET scan analysis of dopamine usage in the brain and post-mordum molecular analysis of brain tissue, researcher were able to determine relative levels of dopamine receptors in patients with schizophrenia compared to non-schizophrenics. Overall analysis of dopamine

This paper defines schizophrenia from a biological and psychological perspective and also provides treatment to help combat symptoms of schizophrenia. This paper has three important contributions. First, by defining and expanding on schizophrenia from a biological perspective, I can identify the nature related predispositions. After expanding from a biological approach, secondly, I will analyze schizophrenia from a psychological aspect by determining if there is any environment or nurturing externals that can result to schizophrenia. Lastly, I will provide treatment details and also reveal early signs to schizophrenia. This paper is important because schizophrenia is an epic mental disease and it is crucially important to bring awareness to the public of how we can limit the illness. It is unclear whether schizophrenia have only a biological background or psychological background, but what was discovered is that both contribute to schizophrenia. Positive and negative treatment can be combatted undergoing pharmaceutical and psychotherapy,

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with attention. Schizophrenics seem to have an increased number of D2 dopamine receptors on receiving neurons. This theory is support by the fact that Phenothiazines bind with D2 receptors and reduce positive symptoms. Another piece of supporting evidence is that Parkinson’s disease drug L-dopa, increase the level of dopamine and causes schizophrenic like symptoms in some people. However excess dopamine can only explain some types of schizophrenia, usually positive rather than negative.

Biological theorists believe that individuals may have a genetic predisposition for the schizophrenia if a close family member has been diagnosed with the disorder. Stress during adolescent years seems to provoke the disorder among individuals who have a family history of the disorder. In addition, this theory suggests biochemical abnormalities related to the dopamine neurotransmitters may also contribute to the illness as the brains neurotransmission of the dopamine is too frequent in occurrence (Comer, 2005). CAT and MRI scans have also indicated that abnormal brain structuring may also play a role in the development of schizophrenia due to a common occurrence of enlarged ventricles within schizophrenia sufferers (Comer, 2005). Various parts of the brain may not develop for function properly which seems lead to Type II schizophrenia. Studies have also pointed towards the idea that exposure to certain viruses before birth may lead to the eventual development of schizophrenia (Comer, 2005).

Children (non schizophrenic) were adopted by individuals that later developed schizophrenia. As the child does not share any genes with the adopted mother/father, the environment is the only point that could determine whether or not they develop schizophrenia. There were extremely low or even no

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

Schizophrenia is a Psychological disorder that impacts the person 's ability to process thoughts, emotions and action. Schizophrenia symptoms are categorized as cognitive, positive and negative symptoms. There has yet to be a confirmed singular cause of schizophrenia. The dopamine hypothesis is a theory that attributes the cause of schizophrenia to an increase in dopamine levels. The antipsychotic medication mentioned in this theory is beneficial in the treatment of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Although the medication that treats increased dopamine levels it does not affect other

One out of ten children of a schizophrenic parent will develop schizophrenia. The risk of 10% is greater then frequency of schizophrenia in the general population which is about 1% which would mean that schizophrenia is more likely to develop is some families than others most children of schizophrenic parents are completely normal. The most interesting investigation that is still going on that remains a mystery of schizophrenia is that genes alone do not explain who gets ill. Example of this is twins as all there genes are in common but if one of the identical twins has schizophrenia the other twin has the highest risk of developing schizophrenia. About 40% of twins of a schizophrenic live completely normal lives without disease.

Schizophrenia is a very serious, long-term disorder that affects about 1% of the world’s population. It affects people anywhere from twenty years old, to forty-five years old. It is known to be one of the most disabling diseases in this age group. Schizophrenia can break down a person’s behaviors, emotions, and thoughts. People who suffer from schizophrenia usually show very inappropriate displays of their actions and feelings. Sufferers have been known to hear voices, even when there is nobody around them. They have problems controlling their thoughts, and sometimes blurt out things that are very inappropriate. This paper will outline the biological, social, and psychological