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Treatments for schizophrenia psychology essay
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Schizophrenia is defined as a severe disabling mental illness. A person with this illness may be completely out of touch with what is going on around them. For example, the individual suffering from Schizophrenia may hear voices, see people who are not there (ghost in other words), and or feel bugs crawling on their skin when in actuality there are now. They may also have disorganized speech and behavior, physically rigid, emotionless, and delusions. The type of delusions where they believe that people are reading their minds, have control over their thoughts, and or plotting to hurt them. They have difficulty holding jobs and taking care of themselves. The word Schizophrenia has been used since 1911 on behalf of Eugen Bleuler. In 1887 it was just an independent mental illness recognized by Dr. Emile Kraepelin. It has been described in Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Greek, Roman writings with symptoms close to the symptoms of Schizophrenia now. During medieval times, Schizophrenia was just proof of the person being possessed by powers or evil spirits. The general population has a 1% chance of getting Schizophrenia. About 60% of schizophrenics have no family member with this illness, but it can run in the family. Though it cannot be directly passed from one generation to another. A person has a 10% more chance of getting Schizophrenia if their mother, father, brother, or sister has it. Also if a person is to have an aunt, uncle, cousins, or grandparents that has Schizophrenia they have a higher chance of getting the illness than the general population. Not one gene can cause Schizophrenia by itself. This illness may result from the gene that make important brain chemicals malfunctioning. This malfunctioning may affect the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ibility, this is where they may move their arm in a certain position and then keep it in that same exact spot for hours. Excessive mobility is where instead of being unable to move, they may move in an excited way that appears for no reason. They may pace, turn continuously, rapid movement of arms or make loud noises. With extreme resistance they may be very stubborn, they do not listen to instruction. They will resist attempts to be moved or may not speak at all. Peculiar movements occur when the schizophrenic has unusual posture, grimaces for long periods of time, or use of strange mannerism. They may also repeat certain behaviors, like repeating words, obsessively following a regiment or having to have objects exactly the same way. Mimicking speech or movement is when they repeatedly say a word someone just said or excessively copy a gesture made by someone else.
Even though the word schizophrenia is only around a 100 years old, there are written document containing “diseases” that are very similar to cases of Schizophrenia dating all the way back to ancient Egypt. Studies have looked into ancient Greek and Roman literature and have shown that it is very likely that the general population most likely had some awareness of psychotic disorders, however, they did not have any ways to diagnose or treat these disorders. In most points in history anyone who was considered “abnormal”, whether because of physical, mental, or emotional issues, was treated the same. Most early doctors believed that mental disorders were caused by demon spirits or evil that had possessed the body. So, in order to treat these “possessed” people, doctors used various techniques to exorcise the...
Schizophrenia: From Mind to Molecule. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. Kalat, J. (2004). Biological Psychology.
According to the DSM-IV, schizophrenia is classified under the section of “Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders”. Schizophrenia is one of the most serious major chronic brain disorders in the field of mental health; it is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of the human brain. People living with this incapacitating illness can experience multiple symptoms that will cause extreme strain in their own and their families and friends life. The individual can lose reality, unable to work, have delusions and hallucinations, may have disorganized speech and thought processes, will withdraw from people and activities, they may become suspicious and paranoid, may behave inappropriately in every day social situations. They may neglect personal hygiene and dress improperly, use excessive make-up; every day life is becoming chaotic for everyone involved.
In the 1700s, "mad doctors" or doctors specializing in the mentally ill. "They began to devise their own unique classification system for mental disorders. Many cases of what we would now call schizophrenia were probably classified under one or more of these early attempts to devise a more scientific method of understanding mental illness"(Noll, xix). Doctors at this time described the symptoms of schizophrenia somewhat differently (Berle, 14).
The chance of an individual in the general population without a family history of schizophrenia is currently at one percent. An individual with a parent with the illness has a 10 percent chance of developing the illness and an ind...
Schizophrenia - a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.
Schizophrenia is found to be more likely in relatives of a schizophrenia person. People with an aunt, uncle, cousin, or grandparent with the disorder are found most likely to get it more so than any other bystander. Someone with a parent or sibling that has the disorder has a 10% chance of getting schizophrenia. The most likely to have this disorder is an identical twin. The identical twins, twin (brother or sister) has a 40-65% chance of giving ...
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.
What is Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is brain disorder that makes it hard to see the difference between reality and imagination, have normal emotional responses, and act normal in social situations. Schizophrenia is relatively young, it has only been around for less than 100 years. It was first discovered by Dr. Emile Kraeplin in 1887. He believed it was a mental illness. A few documents take Schizophrenia’s origins back to Egypt during the Pharaoh’s rule around 1550 B.C. People originally thought schizophrenia was simply madness, and usually associated it with madness, even though it is quite different from madness. Symptoms of this disease include Positive symptoms, which are: hallucinations, or things that someone can see, feel, smell, or hear that do not really exist. Many people hear voices inside their heads, see people that are not there, or smell odors no one else smells. Delusions are another symptom, also known as bizarre beliefs, these may include paranoid delusions also, which are delusions that tell the person that others are trying to hurt them. Thought Disorders are a symptom in which the person thinks unusually or dysfunctionally. Movement disorders may be present in schizophrenic people, they may seem like twitches or small, sharp, and sudden movements. Schizophrenia’s “negative symptoms” are harder to recognize. These include the flat affect, in which the persons face doesn’t move and the voice is droning. The lack of pleasure in life is another once, along with the lack of ability to start and sustain activities, and little speech. These symptoms prevent or block the person from living a normal life because they cause social, physical, and emotional, and mental problems. This may lead to psychosis, insanity, or ...
Childhood Schizophrenia happens. Although this chronic brain disorder is more prevalent in adults, occurrences of hallucinations have been reported in children as young as 5 years of age. Still, parents need not panic, as pediatric schizophrenia only develops in about 1 in 40,000 children.
Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality and disturbances of thought, mood, and perception. Schizophrenia is the most common and the most potentially sever and disabling of the psychosis, a term encompassing several severe mental disorders that result in the loss of contact with reality along with major personality derangements. Schizophrenia patients experience delusions, hallucinations and often lose thought process. Schizophrenia affects an estimated one percent of the population in every country of the world. Victims share a range of symptoms that can be devastating to themselves as well as to families and friends. They may have trouble dealing with the most minor everyday stresses and insignificant changes in their surroundings. They may avoid social contact, ignore personal hygiene and behave oddly (Kass, 194). Many people outside the mental health profession believe that schizophrenia refers to a “split personality”. The word “schizophrenia” comes from the Greek schizo, meaning split and phrenia refers to the diaphragm once thought to be the location of a person’s mind and soul. When the word “schizophrenia” was established by European psychiatrists, they meant to describe a shattering, or breakdown, of basic psychological functions. Eugene Bleuler is one of the most influential psychiatrists of his time. He is best known today for his introduction of the term “schizophrenia” to describe the disorder previously known as dementia praecox and for his studies of schizophrenics. The illness can best be described as a collection of particular symptoms that usually fall into four basic categories: formal thought disorder, perception disorder, feeling/emotional disturbance, and behavior disorders (Young, 23). People with schizophrenia describe strange of unrealistic thoughts. Their speech is sometimes hard to follow because of disordered thinking. Phrases seem disconnected, and ideas move from topic to topic with no logical pattern in what is being said. In some cases, individuals with schizophrenia say that they have no idea at all or that their heads seem “empty”. Many schizophrenic patients think they possess extraordinary powers such as x-ray vision or super strength. They may believe that their thoughts are being controlled by others or that everyone knows what they are thinking. These beliefs ar...
WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA? The modern definition of schizophrenia describes it as a long-lasting psychotic disorder (involving a severe break with reality), in which there is an inability to distinguish what is real from fantasy as well as disturbances in thinking, emotions, behavior, and perception (Cicarelli, p. 557). SYMPTOMS Schizophrenia includes several symptoms.
Schizophrenia is a group of psychotic disorders with major impairments in thought, emotion, and behavior; there is a constant prevalence rate of one percent with the occurrence being slightly higher in men. Though different psychologists have various theories on whether the disorder is linked to genetics or social economic status, schizophrenia in all
Schizophrenia was not well known prior to the 19th century. Up until this point, not many accounts of schizophrenic like syndromes were recorded, whereas “reports of irrational, unintelligible, or uncontrolled behavior were common” ("Schizophrenia", n.d.). Schizophrenia is a difficult illness to understand and it took doctors and psychiatrist a long time to classify the illness and to figure out how it presents itself. “The history of schizophrenia is complex and does not lend itself easily to a linear narrative” ("Schizophrenia", n.d.).
The origin of Schizophrenia is not completely known. Though, it shows that Schizophrenia could be caused by the contact involving genetic and environmental factors. Biological interpretations have controlled in past studies. But now twin and adoption studies propose that environmental factors assist in sparking Schizophrenia. However, neither the biological nor the environmental categories is known to be the source, also there is no guarantee that one will make certain if he will or will not develop Schizophrenia.