Schizophrenia

"Understanding the Causes of Schizophrenia." Editorial. The New England Journal of Medicine 340.8 (1999): 645-47.

Diagnosing Schizophrenia: Past, present, and future. Journal of Orthomelecular Medicine. 3-15. Long, Phillip. (1999).

It will discuss the symptoms and treatment for the disorder in a non-scientific, more familiar way. There are many different sub-types of schizophrenia with the paranoid type being the most well-known and common-place sort. Some of the signs and symptoms of the illness include audio and visual hallucinations; people hear and see things that are not there. In most cases, individuals also suffer from delusions; these people think that other people whether it be friends, family or even strangers are plotting against them to do them harm in some way. Other psychological symptoms of schizophrenia include distractibility, and a poor attention span [2-5].

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 26 (4), 396. Lysaker, P.H., Wickett, A.M., Wilke, N. & Lysaker, J., (2003). Narrative incoherence in schizophrenia: The absent agent-protagonist and the collapse of internal dialogue. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 57 (2), 153 Marder, S.R., (2000). Integrating pharmacological and psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia.

The paper then goes on to discuss how these views affected what was considered to be effective treatment for schizophrenia (e.g., sedation) and delineates how the notion of what should constitute effective treatment changed over the years. The paper also explores various medications that were used to treat the condition. Introduction Butcher, Mineka and Hooley (2003) define schizophrenia as a brain disorder in which there is a failure of the brain's chemical or electrical systems to function properly, resulting in a variety of unusual neural twists, such as disjointed ideas, confused or disconnected thoughts, and sounds or other sensations experienced as real when they exist only in the person's mind. The prevalence of the disorder is estimated to be about one percent of the population in most countries including the United States. Butcher, Mineka and Hooley also note that there are no sex-related difference for the prevalence of schizophrenia among men and women with the exception of a slight difference in the average age of onset with men showing symptoms a few years earlier than women.

Schizophrenia was once thought to be an artifact of Western civilization, but it is now known that this is not the case. It is likely a neurodevelopment brain disorder with both genetic and non-genetic causes, that best fits within the disease perspective. As well as being common, schizophrenia is a serious, chronic, often disabling illness. It can begin at any age, but most commonly does so in adolescence or early adult life. With such unorganized and incoherent thoughts, disorganized schizophrenics have difficulty communicating and are confused.

Hamilton, M. Fish?s Clinical Psvchopathology, ed. 2, Wright, Bristol, 1985. Henn, F. A., Naerallah, H. A,, editors: Schizophrenia as a Brain Disease. Oxford, New York, 1982. Naerallah, H. A., Weinberger, D. R. The Neurology of Schizophrenia, In Handbook of Schizophrenia, H. A. Nasrallah, editor, Vol.

(1999). NMDA receptor hypofunction model of schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 33: 523-533. Stanley, J.

Although this does not give us an understanding of the causes of the disorder, it does help to clarify and assist with classifying people with the symptoms associated with the disorder (Johns Hopkins Medicine). Experts, researchers, and scientists have come to believe that schizophrenia is potentially caused or influenced by a few factors: genes and environment as well as different brain chemistry and structure. Over time the broader term of schizophrenia has also been further divided into five categories or subtypes which include: paranoid type, disorganized type, catatonic type, undifferentiated type, and residual type. These subtypes are delineated based on the persons presenting symptoms and the hope is to give a better understanding of the causes of the disorder itself (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Symptoms of schizophrenia are also referred to in terms of positive and negative.

Schizophrenia & It’s History The purpose of this paper is to explore schizophrenia as a psychological disorder. Schizophrenia is a chronic and usually serious mental disorder affecting a variety of aspects of behavior, thinking, and emotions (DSM-IV-TR., 2001). Schizophrenia is one of the most disabling and puzzling mental disorders (Pierangelo & Giulani, 2007). Individuals with this disorder may experience delusions and hallucinations, in which case they are considered psychotic (Chan & Chen, 2011). Schizophrenics may also experience social withdrawal and disinterest.