Exploring Schizophrenia

WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA? Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder involving a breakdown in thought, emotion, and behavior. This brain disorder affects a person’s overall mental health state. Those suffering from schizophrenia experience one or more of the following symptoms: o Delusions, such as feeling that people are trying to hurt them o Hallucinations, such as hearing or seeing things that are not actually there o Bizarre behavior, such as talking to themselves or acting inappropriately o Disorganized speech, such as using disorderly speech patterns and sentence arrangements o “Negative” symptoms, such as lacking interest in personal hygiene, disinterest in social interactions, and lack of motivation Schizophrenia affects about 1 percent of the American population.

Schizophrenia: A Mind Suffering Today, scientists at the University of Iowa are studying abroad how people suffering from the mental disorder, schizophrenia, may have less brain tissue than those who do not have the disorder. Schizophrenia deeply affects the brain and causes individuals to lose touch with reality and have unorganized thoughts, troubled perceptions and unsuitable emotions and actions. “Schizo” means split and “phrenia” means mind, however this does not mean that this is a split mind or personality disorder, like most people commonly mistake this as. In order to understand this disorder, we need to take a look at the actual condition and how it is defined, apart from other disorders, speculated causes, such as genes from parents, treatments with psychotic medications, and case studies taken by doctors that show us some detachment from the real world.

Schizophrenia: a disorder with impairments to reality, disturbances of perception and false thoughts such as hallucinations, delusions, stimuli (hearing voices) and seeing things that are not there (B, Dave). It is a disorder without a preference that has no logical explanation. Although signs of having schizophrenia commonly show itself in early adolescents, it can affect anyone no matter race, age or gender at any time in their life. Throughout the world one percent of today’s population suffer from schizophrenia, approximately 3.3 million are Americans and 0 have ever been cured. There are multiple medications that can help keep schizophrenia under control but it is still far from the requirements to develop a cure.

According to the statistics, about 1% of the population has schizophrenia. Although it “strikes men and women equally, the symptoms may appear later in women than in men, however it most commonly begins between the ages of 15 and 25” (Arango, Bartko, Gold, & B...

Schizophrenia: A guide to the New Research on Causes and Treatments. New York: Macmillan, 1994.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that affects neurotransmitters in the brain. Schizophrenia causes its victims to have, hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking, and disheveled speaking and behaviors. Although there are no clear or exact causes to Schizophrenia, some have linked this illness to factors that include: genetic make-up, pre-natal viruses, early brain damage, stress, and poverty. The susceptibility of S...

Neuropathologists have been researching schizophrenia for approximately a hundred years. But, even with a hundred years of research, the neuropathology of schizophrenia is still obscure. Although scientists have come a long way since the beginning of research, when they first believed that it was a "functional" psychosis, a disorder with no structural basis," the cause of the chronic disease remains a mystery" (1). However, with technological advances in science, researchers have found a common trend in diagnosed patients- physical abnormalities of their brains. These revelations cause scientists to wonder if brain abnormalities are a cause for schizophrenia and, if so, how these abnormalities arise.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that causes severe mental disturbances which disrupt ones thoughts, speech, and behavior. According to Paul Thompson, Associate Professor of Neurology, one percent of the world’s population suffers from this disorder. There is no one specific cause of schizophrenia, because it is caused by a combination of problems during development. It is a disorder which not only affects the patient, but their family and society as well. Schizophrenia can be a debilitating disorder, however, there are many treatments that can allow people who suffer from it to lead normal lives.

Straube, Eckart R and Oades, Robert. (1992) “Schizophrenia, Empirical Research and Findings”, Academic Press, p3

Schizophrenia: Reality Distorted Insanity, then, is inordinate or irregular, or impaired action of the mind, of the instincts, sentiments, intellectual, or perceptive powers, depending upon and produced by an organic change in the brain. ---W.A.F. Browne, MD, 18371 Schizophrenia is considered a disease of the brain, a physical disorder that, thanks to modern technology, is able to be visualized. Schizophrenia, along with other diseases of the brain, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and multiple sclerosis, are all brain diseases which alter both functionality and structure of the brain.