Harvey, Moriarty, Friedman, White, Parrella, Mohs and Davids (2000) conducted a study to analyze the preservation of cognitive functions in geriatric patients with lifelong schizophrenia in the hopes of discovering the success rate of long term institutionalization. The overall objective was of the study consisted of obtaining enough data to compare the scores on numerous cognitive skill tasks from the geriatric schizophrenia population and a population of healthy elderly individuals. Their experimental group consisted of 165 volunteers and they were matched one-to-one with an individual from the control group based on same age and education. The symptoms of schizophrenia were examined with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; PANSS. It contains thirty items with seven items rating positive symptoms, seven rating negative symptoms and sixteen items assessing their general psychopathology. The total scores obtained on the positive and negative subscales were used as dependant variables in this study.
Harvey et al (2000) also used the word list learning and delayed recall, pranix drawing, modified Boston Naming test and CERAD to assess cognitive function of both their control and experimental populations. The word list learning and delayed recall is a ten item list of words that is presented to the subject during three separate trials. After each trial the subject is asked to freely recall the words from the list. After a delay, which is filled with the pranix drawing task, the participants are asked to recall the list of words once again. The dependent variable in this task is the number of words recalled over the three trials and the number of words that were recalled after the delay. The scores ranged from 0 to 20 based the...
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...ric illnesses into old age. The results from study demonstrated that those in the experimental group showed lower cognitive functioning than those of the control group which opens the door for further research into why this trend appeared. Basically, the knowledge I am taking away from this study is that for undetermined reason, older individuals who have suffered from schizophrenia for most of their life are not as highly functioning in terms of cognition as those who did not suffer from schizophrenia.
Works Cited
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In 1887 Dr. Emile Kraepelin identified schizophrenia for the first time in history. Dr. Kraepelin used the term "dementia praecox” which means “early dementia,” separating it from other forms of dementia usually occurring later in life. Kraepelin believed that “dementia praecox” was primarily a disease of the brain. In 1911, a Swiss psychiatrist by the name of Eugene Bleuler, was the first to use the term “schizophrenia” and the first to describe the symptoms as “negative” or “positive.” Bleuler believed that the name given by Kreapelin was misleading, since the disease was not part of dementia since it did not lead to mental deterioration in all cases and it could occur in young age as well as in old age. Since Bleuler specified the term five types of schizophrenia were identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders –III (DSM), these include: disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, residual and undifferentiated. In the present DSM IV these defined terms are still being used, yet more and more people are turning to use their own methods of identifying the disease rather than focusing on the given DSM terms.
Schizophrenia affects nearly about two million people in the United States, according to the SARDAA ( Schizophrenic and Related Disorders Alliance of America). People who have schizophrenia often see and hear people's voices in their mind, they believe that such people are out to get them and trying to harm them. It is difficult to separate the people who have schizophrenia with the ones that have not. Until you hear someone speak during a schizophrenic episode, then it seems like they have lost touch with reality. This is from the lack of activity in the frontal lobe, but the parietal lobe of the brain is overactive. The frontal lobe controls organization skills, memory, and other cognitive skills while the parietal lobe of the brain controls sound, sight, and other functions. The overuse of the parietal lobe can cause these senses to be distorted (Stanley J.Swierzewski,lll, M.D.). People who are affected with this disorder tend to have varying factors. People have tried to figure out what starts schizophrenia, however little is known about this controversial disorder and it is classified as a genetic disorder. The treatments do not always cure the disorder and many people learn how to cope with it own their own. It is suggested that this complex disorder affects people differently and has many treatments available.
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Schizophrenia is a devastating and costly mental disorder that affects 1% of population worldwide. Patients manifest clusters of positive, negative and cognitive symptoms in early twenties and are often left with life-long severe mental disability and social stigma. Cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia are considered core symptoms of this disorder, and can manifest at the initial stage (Elvevåg and Goldberg, 2000). Atypical antipsychotics ameliorate positive symptoms but may only modestly improve cognitive symptoms (Richelson, 2010). In addition to this, some of the typical antipsychotics are even have deteriorative effects on cognitive symptoms (Heaton and Crowley 1981). To find the appropriate treatments for cognitive deficits of schizophrenia, it is important to know the underlying pathophysiology.
Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder where a defect of the brain affects a person’s actions, thoughts, and perspective of the world around them. Those diagnosed with schizophrenia are not able to discern between reality and fantasy. Symptoms of this mental illness are hallucinations, delusions, fumble of speech/behavior, decrease in emotional expression, and decrease in motivation (Queensland Government 2011). Such an illness occurs mostly in later teens and early twenties with a likelihood of being more severe in men. They are caused by environmental factors, prenatal infection, an abuse of drugs, etc. As stated in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Brain In People At High Risk Of Developing Schizophrenia, brain imaging technologies have brought light to the multifactorial disord...
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Arasse, Daniel. Complete Guide to Mental Health. Allen Lane Press,New York, 1989. Gingerich, Susan. Coping With Schizophrenia. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Oakland, 1994. Kass, Stephen. Schizophrenia: The Facts. Oxford University Press. New York, 1997. Muesen, Kim. “Schizophrenia”. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1998. Young, Patrick. The Encyclopedia od Health, Psychological Disorders and Their Treatment. Herrington Publications. New York, 1991.
Schizophrenia can be described by a wide-ranging spectrum of emotional and cognitive dysfunctions. These can include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior, as well as inappropriate emotions. Consequently, this disease can affect people from all walks of life. Since schizophrenia is such a complex disorder it can ultimately affect a person’s entire existence and their struggle to function daily. With a chronic disease like this, most people have a difficult time functioning in society. This can make it hard for someone who is schizophrenic to relate to others as well as maintain significant relationships. Life expectancy for those who suffer this illness tend to be shorter than average. This is due to the higher rate of accident and suicide. The symptoms of schizophrenia can be broken down into different categories: positive, negative and disorganized. Positive symptoms include hallucinations and delusions. These tend to be the more obvious signs of psychosis. On the other hand negative symptoms indicate deficits or absence of normal behavior which can affect sp...