According to Mathers et al., (1996) “Schizophrenia ranks among the top ten causes of disability worldwide and affects one in one hundred people at some point in their lives.” (Cardwell and Flanagan, 2012). Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which is commonly diagnosed in 15-30 year old individuals. It disrupts a person’s cognition, perceptions and emotions, making it extremely difficult to diagnose. Bleuler (1911) introduced the term schizophrenia, which translates as ‘split-mind’ or ‘divided self’ and accounts for the earlier interpretations of the disease. These misunderstandings and the ongoing misrepresentations, especially within the media, has stigmatised the illness. This raises the need for better understanding and explanations as to the cause or causes and symptoms of schizophrenia. This essay will evaluate the significance and reliability of biological and psychological explanations used to determine diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of schizophrenia.
The symptoms of all sub-types of schizophrenia are complex, although they are typically classified into positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. Schneider (1959) stated the ‘first rank’ (positive) symptoms to be: thought disturbances, such as the insertion or extraction of thoughts from the sufferer’s mind – often this manifests through incoherent disordered speech; hallucinations which are commonly auditory, but can be visual, olfactory or tactile; bizarre delusions causing paranoia or feelings of grandeur; and reference of personal meanings in unrelated points. Diagnosis here is subjective as it can only be assessed from the patient’s account of their episodes.
The negative symptoms are similar to depression and low moods, which typically surface in ...
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...re likely to suffer a relapse than those who returned to a family with low EE. Finally, the labelling theory explains how a negative mindset for all can take root once the label is adopted.
In conclusion, there is ample research supporting both biological and psychological explanations for schizophrenia and the theories often show a strong link suggesting that one is not possible without the other. It is a popular argument that the diathesis-stress relationship is key and a co-existence of a biological pre-disposition and environmental stimuli are interrelated in determining a diagnosis. Whilst treatments are limited, the positive effects brought to patients must not be undermined until a working alternative or cure is found from either biological or psychological disciplines or indeed a joint development.
Works Cited
cardwell and flanagan
Gross
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