Schizophrenia: Its Causes and Forms

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At 3:40 on July 18th 1984 James Huberty killed 21 people at a San Ysidro McDonald’s and was shot and killed by a sniper after 77 minutes of continuous shooting (Noe). Huberty’s episode is attributed to his hearing voices before his excursion, a symptom of Paranoid Schizophrenia, a disease that Huberty was diagnosed with (Coon, Mitterer 488). This incident shows, in a very extreme way, that Schizophrenia of any type has the ability to alter ones realization of reality and may be caused by several things.
In order for Huberty to be diagnosed with schizophrenia he would have had to have shown signs of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, or other symptoms that cause social or occupational dysfunction for six months which would have had to have include at least one month of active symptoms. In his day only one of the symptoms would of have to been present but the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders requires that at least two symptoms be present for a patient to be diagnosed with Schizophrenia(“Schizophrenia”).
Another change that was made in the fifth addition of the DSM is the eradication of subtypes of Schizophrenia as they were generally unclear and caused much confusion. Instead the edition calls for “specifiers” to help with treatment. These specifiers are similar to the old subtypes, but instead of using them to narrow the field of a patient’s treatment they are instead used to broaden the horizon on what may be helpful to the patient based upon specific symptoms (“Schizophrenia”),
One thing that may be used as a specifier is the almost complete personality disintegration that characterizes Disorganized Schizophrenia. This classification is further characterized by ...

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...ts for one category, and is more likely that they will display a few symptoms of each, or bounce between the categories. And like it is hard to categorize Schizophrenic patients it is difficult to pinpoint what may cause the disease. Currently scientists believe that while some people may have a hereditary disposition to develop Schizophrenia due to the make-up of their brains it is also likely to occur in those with no chemical disposition if they have been exposed to the correct stresses.

Works Cited
Coon, Dennis, and John O. Mitterer. Introduction to Psycology. 13th ed. Belmont, Ca: Cengage Learning, 2013. 484-91. Print.
"Schizophrenia." American Psychiatric Publishing. American Psychiatric Association, May 2013. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
Noe, Denise. "James Huberty and the McDonald's Massacre." Crime Library. Turner Entertainment, 20 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Dec. 2013.

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