The Symptoms, Risk Factors and Treatments of Schizophrenia

Introduction to Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that “disrupts the function of multiple brain systems, resulting in impaired social and occupational functioning” (Lewis & Sweet, 2009, pg. 706). Lewis (2009) suggests these functions usually consist of the confluence of disturbance in perception, attention, volition, fluency and production of language, recognition and expression of emotion, and capacity for pleasure. Schizophrenia has calamitous effects on people, and such devastating illness afflicts “0.5%-1% of the world’s population” (Lewis & Sweet, 2009, pg. 706). Lewis (2009) states that people with schizophrenia are at high risk of cardiovascular disease as well as excessive nicotine, alcohol, and substance abuse; 5%-10% commit suicide; and most experience a lifetime of disability and emotional distress. “Schizophrenia is one of the most severe and disabling of all mental disorders” (Bernstein & Nash, 2008, pg. 480). The purpose of this paper is to inform readers about the symptoms, risk factors, aftermaths and treatments of schizophrenia.

Types of Schizophrenia

Lewis (2009) states that schizophrenia manifests as a wide range of disturbances in perceptual, emotional, cognitive, and motor processes that are arranged in three categories.

The first category is characterized by positive symptoms, or the presence of abnormal brain function. It consists of “delusions, false beliefs firmly held in the face of contradictory evidence; perceptual disturbances and hallucination, which may occur in any sensory modality but are most commonly auditory and experienced as hearing voices distinct from one’s own thoughts” (Lewis & Sweet, 2009, pg. 706). Lewis (2009) also mentions that other pos...

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...life. I have noticed that it is such a horrific mental disorder, because when one suffers from schizophrenia, one also suffers from the possibility that his/her offspring may have schizophrenia, and the possibility of dying from a cardiovascular disease, which may be caused by the antipsychotic taken to treat the illness. Besides the hereditary factors of schizophrenia, one can also be afflicted due to environmental factors, such as prenatal maternal stress, which the baby has no control over. So if the mother already has schizophrenia and is worried about her children getting schizophrenia, she would feel stressed, which increases the chance of her children of getting schizophrenia even more. On the matter of schizophrenia, we should definitely set it as a priority for more scientific studies and research; it is one of the many great challenges of the 21st century.