Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Anna Samora
PSY/340- Biological Foundations of Psychology
Stephanie Fernandez
September 2, 2013
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that can and had affect many people thought out history. There is many symptoms that can help diagnose this disorder. After there is way you can treat the disorder as well. I have thought is there a way to better the way we diagnose and treat people with this disorder.
The first thing I am going to talk about is what is schizophrenia? This is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder. People with this disorder think people are reading their mind. There no telling what they are think in tell they talk. When they talk they do not make sense at all. They can sit still without say a word for hours. They also have a hard time holding down job, so they need other to take of them. They can barely take care of themselves or other.
People that have schizophrenia is not the only one that is affect by this disorder. Their family and community is affect by it to. If they have right treatments or therapy to control their symptoms they can live normal life within the community and with their family. This disorder has five subtypes and they are paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual.
Potential problems I am assume that it something that has to do with symptoms and medication to help people with some disorders. There is many symptoms that doctor separate in to three categories and they are positive, negative, and cognitive. The first I will talk about the positive symptoms and some of them are hallucination. That is when you may see, smell, or hear something that it not there. An example of that, one day I was smelling Clorox in my car and there was none in my car. Another one is delusions and that is believe something that does not really not there.
Some negative symptoms are emotional flatness. I believe that have a lack of emotion for anything at all. Another one is a general loss of interest in life. That is when they do not want to do anything. They are not interest the daily life. The next type of symptoms is cognitive. That is something to do with the way they think. They cannot pay attention or stay focus on their daily activities.
They next thing that I am going to talk about is type of medication that may help them to cope with the disorder. There two type of medication classes the doctor can use the first one is typical antipsychotics. The second one is atypical antipsychotics is another one that the doctor may use. Both medications block receptors to the brain chemical dopamine. As I was talk about medication and symptoms I was wondering what cause it and how it diagnosis?
If a person may have this if they have two active flare-up in the last few months. If there flare-up have two or more of the symptoms. If the daily life is affected by the flare-up especially in work, school, and self-car. Also, if the symptoms last more than six months with no flare-up. One important thing is to rule out that the doctor rule out any other possible medical problem. There is many causes for this disorder such as genetic factors, and brain chemistry and structure. Some of the risk factor is age, gender, family history, and environmental factor.
Some of the treatment is medicines and therapies. Medicines is the first thing that the doctor use to treat the brain disorder. Take any medicines can have some side effect. A study that was in the New England journal of Medicine held a study with a total of 1493 people with schizophrenia. About 74% of those people drop out of the study cause of the side effect of the medicines they were given.
Some other treatment is psychosocial, illness management skills, integrated treatment for co-occurring substance abuse, rehabilitation, family education, cognitive behavior therapy, and self-help group. Each of these of treatment along with medicine will help the person live a normal life. This disorder does not only effect the person but other around them as well. There is place as well to the people that have the disorder to cope with it. Those same place also will help family to learn about and how to help the love one to cope with it.
The future of schizophrenia I do see it moving forward to make medicines and other treatment for it. There a lot of people that do not like to depend on medicine but other treatment to control it. I do not know if there will be a better way to diagnose schizophrenia. I do think the treatment will be better. To prevent it I do not think it will ever be possible. We cannot change family history. Well if we go straight to the brain and somehow stop it there.
Think about I wonder if there ever be a way to control it without medicine. Other treatment like therapy will not work on its own. I do think there should be other choose for people with disorder. Not a lot people like to do some of the stuff. I also think that there need to be more information on this disorder and that information should also include information on treatment and place that can receive help and support. This all coming from me personally because I have family members that have this brain disorder. It hard for them to cope with and it does affect other member.
I also wonder if there anything for me to do for them? The only thing that I can do is be there for them and support them in any way I can. In conclusion, schizophrenia is something that can be very bad for someone that have the disorder. If they do not have the proper treatment. Important thing to remember is you cannot help someone that does not want to be help. All we can do is provide the material to live a normal life and do their daily activity.
References
National institute of mental health. (Unknown). Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml#part7
University of Maryland Medical center. (2011). Retrieved from http://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/articles/schizophrenia
The New England journal of medicine. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa051688#t=article