Unknown Cause Of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia: A Disease of the Unknown

Schizophrenia is a disorder of the brain that results in the patient losing touch with reality. This loss of reality is defined by the patient hearing voices in their head, having hallucinations, or severely impaired reasoning and emotional stability. These effects happen to a person with the disease because of their inability to understand the signals around them. Milton Greek, a patient with schizophrenia, said, “I had all these real life issues that had been symbolized in the psychosis.” Milton was referring to the fact that doctors and scientists believe real life problems are being manifested in patients’ hallucinations. There is no known cure for schizophrenia but doctors are working relentlessly to find one. Also, there is no known cause of schizophrenia, but there are theories. People have argued for centuries over the cause of schizophrenia. One theory suggests that schizophrenia is passed on through genetics. Another says the disease is caused by a virus. One last theory states imbalances in the brain cause schizophrenia. To this day, scientists have not come to a consensus on which theory is correct.

A study mentioned in Jonathan Leo’s article, “The Search for Schizophrenia Genes”, found, “A person with schizophrenic relatives is ten times as likely to develop schizophrenia as someone who has no history of the disease in the family.” Though that may be true, that could be a result of intolerance to a virus that might cause the disease that is being passed on. Also, those results could be shown because chemical imbalances in the brain are passed onto offspring, making it look like the disease itself is being passed on through