Analyzing Psychological Disorders 3/8/2013 Psy/240 Dr. Elizabeth Kindell

Biopsychology is the study of the central nervous system and how it affects mental health or illness. In this paper I will discuss the psychological disorder known as Schizophrenia. I will evaluate the brain areas that are affected by this disorder, some of the possible casual factors, the characteristics symptoms, the neural basis and the drug treatment that works. The case studies I have chosen to review are Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Anorexia Nervosa, the eating disorder. I will use the nature vs. nurture theories to analyze these two disorders. I will also discuss the accepted drug therapies and alternative treatment for these two disorders.
Part A: Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is known as a “splitting of psychic functions” (Pinel 2001, pg. 467). It is a chronic brain disorder that affects close to 2.5 million Americans and more than 24 million people worldwide. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it hard for the person suffering to tell the difference between what is real and not real. They have a difficult time having normal emotional responses and acting normally in social situations. A person that has Schizophrenia has a significant loss of brain gray matter. Neuroscientist have detected up to 25% loss of brain gray matter in some areas of the brain. This kind of damage started in the parietal, or outer, regions of the brain but spreads to the rest of the brain over a five year period. People that have experienced the worst damage or brain tissue loss tend to exhibit the worst symptoms. Some of the symptoms included hallucinations, delusions, bizarre and