Schizophrenia

2

SCHIZOPHRENIA

1

Running Head: SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a habitual and serious mental illness that usually occurs within the ages of sixteen to thirty. An individual with schizophrenia affects a person’s feelings, thoughts and behavior. They are very disconnected with their reality. Schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders, but the symptoms can be very disabling. This disorder is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disrupted thinking, as well as effects an individual’s perception and disordered speech. Individuals with this illness typically have additional mental health illnesses like depression, anxiety and substance use disorder. The causes can be environmental and genetic. It is a very debilitating sickness and gradually begins in the adolescent year and last a lifetime. It is predominated among men and women, but it seems to be detected in men earlier than women. There are different types of treatment and are usually lifelong and involve different types of medication, psychotherapy and specialty services. There about three million cases that open a year with individuals that are diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, characteristics, anxiety, depression, medication

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affect about two million people in America. It can affect any age bracket, but it is most common in adolescence and until the age about 30. Children can be affected but it is very rare. This illness can be very debilitating and impairs an individual’s mental state and does not allow them to think or manage their emotions clearly. It can affect their decision making and enables them to relate to others.

Origin

There is a still a great deal of experimenting occurring in the medical industry. Several researchers that the origin of schizophrenia occur at a genetic level but some of those theories are hard to back up. To be completely honest when it comes to the diagnosis process and which mental illness is actual mental illness is affecting the patient. Different types of mental illness like Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder can be similar in their genetic, which are characterized characteristics of behavioral symptoms. This is due to the fact that,

“while classic presentations of euphoric mania and schizophrenia are easily distinguished by clinicians, mania is frequently marked by bizarre behavior and psychosis that can prompt a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Equally problematic for diagnosis are those patients with schizophrenia who present multiple affective episodes, whether they are diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia” (Martin et al., 2007 p. 1). Schizophrenia is unique in its origins, but not far from its symptoms.

Three Types of Symptoms

Some of the common symptoms are broken down by three categories, psychotic systems, disorganized and negative system. Some of the psychotic symptoms can include delusions and hallucinations. This is primary due to the individual losing touch with their reality. Delusions making an individual think that others are reading their thoughts or scheming things against them. To the point of them believing people are watching or are against them. Hallucinations can cause an individual to create an illusion that they hear and see people when they are not presently there.

Another symptom that people with schizophrenia is affected by feeling of being disoriented and confused in their thinking, speech and behavior. Some of their responses and behaviors does not make sense. Some can walk in circles and can carry on conversations and can be challenging the way they communicate. They are really challenged in making sense of normal everyday sounds, sights and feelings.

The last symptom can be negative. They have a hard expressing themselves and are challenged with following through. Typically, cannot get into a deep conversation and seem disconnected from the pleasures of life and seem disinterested. People with schizophrenia lack certain characteristics that are there (Patterson, 2011).

Even though the cause of schizophrenia has yet to be identified, studies suggest that it involves problems, with bran chemistry and structure. For a scientist they can only view and schizophrenia as a small part of an enormous structure. In my opinion they are not concerned about the individual that is being affected by this illness and only concern is too look and explore the disease. This illness separates people from what society indicates as “normal”. It is a problem that needs the solution of medication to allow it to control the symptoms. To be diagnosed with this illness a patient must have psychotic or loss of reality for at least six months. Scientist are currently investing infectio0ns, brain damage from complications during birth and genetic predisposition.

Medication and Side Effect

There is no cure for schizophrenia, but it is a treatable disease. It also has a treatment success rate of 60 percent which is higher than heart patients. Antipsychotic drugs are used to help treat schizophrenia. These types of medicine help to alleviate delusions and hallucinations and any type pf racing thoughts. It helps to correct an imbalance in the chemicals within the body and allows the brain cells to communicate to one another. At times it is a trial and error with the

antipsychotic medications to see which one works best for the patient before finding the one

that works best. At times doctors have to combine medications as well in order for it to help the

patient. What saddens is me that people that have schizophrenia have to take medication for

many years, usually their whole life and may have different side effects. Side effects are rare

and those with the side effects seems inconvenient or unpleasant, but nothing too serious. Some

common side effects are dry mouth, constipation, blurred vision and drowsiness. There are fewer side effects like decreased sex drive, menstrual changes, muscles that become stiff. There are more serious ones that can be concerning and problematic to the patient which are restlessness, slurred speech, tremors, and even deficiency in white blood cells (which will require monitoring). Some medications like Tardive have serious side effects that cause involuntary facial movements, jerking and twisting movements with other parts of the body. This happens in older patients and to patients that have been on the medication for years.

Areas that Schizophrenia Affects

Schizophrenia affects different parts of the brain and can lead to under development and abnormality. But only a small number of patients show any significant sign of abnormal development. Dr. Davidson did an experimentation on patients and found that “many, but not most schizophrenia patients have decreased frontal and temporal lobe volume and activation...indicating that none of the variable examined meet the criteria for a core structural abnormality in schizophrenia” (Davidson 2000, p. 7). Which showed that decreased lobe volumes do not make any changes in them anatomical area of the brain. She highlighted that the areas affected were the frontal lobes, prefrontal lobes, temporal lobes, hippocampus and the amygdala. Which the frontal lobes play a huge role in dysfunction in schizophrenia. This can lead to impairment of planning and thoughts. Which patients already have this struggle to complete sentences and organize their thoughts let alone give complete sentences. The prefrontal lobes monitor error and sequencing and are reduced in patients that have schizophrenia. The hippocampus and the amygdala that are found in the temporal lobes feature to the visual and auditory experiences. Davidson stated, “the temporal neocortex appears to mediate cognitive meanings such as the identification of sights and sounds, while the amygdala attributes emotional meaning to stimuli, and the hippocampus aids the learning of new associations” (2000, p.17-18).

Then we have the temporal lobes where schizophrenics record their auditory hallucinations and visual delusions, making these things appear real to the patient, leading to an emotional response from the amygdala. Pertaining to these lobes, and areas of the brain, it has volume decreased caused by schizophrenia. Davidson notes that, “There is evidence for an early neurodevelopmental lesion (pre- or perinatal) that may render the brain vulnerable to anomalous late neurodevelopmental processes (particularly postpubertal); these anomalous late neurodevelopmental processes may interact with other environmental factors associated with the onset of psychosis (e.g., stress, substance use), which together have neuroprogressive sequelae that may be neurodegenerative” (2006, p. 3).

This demonstrated that the abnormal development cannot trigger schizophrenia on its own. Which will require an environmental factor to intermingle with to set off the illness.

Culture

It saddens my heart that in this culture people with mental illness are looked down upon. People look at those with mental illness with certain looks and judgmental words. We can treat the illness as if it was the person and not what the illness is. No one comes out and says, they have mental illness due to being looked down upon. People need to become more educated to be able to understand the aspects of this mental illness and its origins. We fail to understand the feelings with those who are suffering from this illness. People prejudge without even knowing the history of that individual. This culture treats mental illness as being an outcast and can devastate those who are affected by it. People need to become more informed and recognize that this illness does not make up that person as a whole.

Spiritual Aspect

I never understood mental illness due to an upbringing of being very religious. My father never believed in any illness being of God and more on a demonic term. My heart truly goes out to those who have mental illness. Mental Illness is not discussed in the church and then that in itself creates a stigma in my opinion. We need to place mental illness along other illness. People with mental are very misunderstood, and I do have family that have been diagnosed with having a mental illness. I have seen how they have been made the center of jokes and also ridiculed on “Are they still taking their medication”. It is truly sad, and it hits home after going through an episode of seeing that in my husband side of the family. My niece was in the military and then had a mental break. Once she came back she has never been the same. We had to backer act her several times and when I would visit her, she would tell me, “Sandy they are poisoning my food”. Which odd to me at first and almost believable until I began to research some of her symptoms that were explained in this paper. She became very disoriented in her speech and her thoughts were coming through more than I could keep up with. She believed that people were watching her and that were going to kill her. Then came the diagnosis that she had schizophrenia. I was devasted and asked God why? But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9, English Standard Version). Part of me feels it can spiritual and also chemical imbalance. But I have learned to accept it and help top understand her regardless of my reality.

I continue to pray for her and encourage her.

References

Davidson, L. (2000). Neurobiology of the frontal and temporal lobes in schizophrenia: A meta -analytic review of neuroimaging and neuropathological findings. ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis, 113-238.

Martin, L. F., M.D., Hall, M., M.S., Ross, R. G., M.D., Zerbe, G., PhD., Freedman, R., M.D., & Olincy, A., M.D. (2007). Physiology of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(12), 1900-6.

Brown, A., & Patterson, P. (2011) (Eds.), The Origins of Schizophrenia. : Columbia University

Press,. Retrieved 15 Oct. 2018, from