...prominent and intimidating. In the United States alone, about 3.5 million people are currently living with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that disrupt’s one’s notions, conduct, and emotional stability. Common symptoms of this disorder include hallucinations, difficulty interacting with others, low attention span, and poor decision making abilities. It is almost impossible to diagnose someone with schizophrenia based...
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...Shannon Law ENGL 30H Dr. Womack 04 November 15 Schizophrenia and its Causes “When I began hearing voices, I told myself that this was just some weird coping mechanism for my stress. I began sleeping to hide from the voices, which were getting worse and handicapping my ability to listen to my own stream of consciousness.” Imagine having to hear voices or screams coming from invisible bodies. This is what individuals who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia have to deal with every day. Schizophrenia is a severe mental disease characterized by unpredictable disturbances in thinking. The word “schizophrenia” comes from the Greek words meaning “split” and “mind.” It refers to the characteristic schizophrenic behavior of withdrawing from reality and thinking in illogical and confused patterns. The thought problems associated with schizophrenia are described as psychosis. Many people with schizophrenia develop delusions and behave as though they live in a fantasy world. They may hear “voices” that others cannot hear and they believe that these “voices” carry messages from important people, such as God. Schizophrenics often suffer from disturbances in mood and behavior. Some patients may be unresponsive or withdrawn and may have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations. Over the last few decades, schizophrenia has become embedded in mainstream vernacular as any behavior or emotional response that is out of touch with reality. However, even with its attention...
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...factors that cause schizophrenia: genetics, brain chemistry, and your environment. Heredity is a major constituent when it comes to schizophrenia. An individual, whose parents or siblings have the illness, is at a ten percent higher risk of developing schizophrenia. According to scientists, there is no specific gene that causes the illness, but rather that several genes are related to the increased risk of schizophrenia (“What Causes Schizophrenia?”). Genetics allows us to understand how the brain uses specific chemicals. The brain consists of neurons and neurotransmitters. Individuals with schizophrenia have a chemical disparity of neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. These neurotransmitters authorize for nerve cells located...
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...Explanations and Treatment of Abnormal Behaviour Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a type of abnormal psychology. Abnormality can be defined in three ways as a deviation from statistical norm, a deviation from the social norms and cultural relativism. However there are problems with defining abnormalities in terms of a system that relies on subjective judgment of a person’s behaviour. For example, someone experiencing hallucinations in Puerto Rico would be attributed to external forces (e.g. Spiritual visitations). However in the western world, the same hallucinations would be considered abnormal (Berry et al 1992). Mental Disorders are classified today by using, The Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria 295.40 (Schizophrenia), and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision(IDC-10) are used to aid in the psychiatric diagnosis of the disorder. Introduction The term ‘Schizophrenia’ was first used in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist, Eugen Bleuler, and literally means ‘split mind’. He used the term to describe a general class of disorders that are characterised by a number of similar symptoms. These were: * Disorganised thought processes. * A split between intellect and emotion. * A split between intellect and external reality Schizophrenia typically begins in early adulthood; between the ages of 15 and 25. Men tend to get develop schizophrenia somewhat earlier than women; whereas most males become...
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...PSYC 100 “I’m not a Schizophrenic, I have Schizophrenia!” December 7, 2011 The movie that I have chosen to write about is called “Identity” with John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and Amanda Peete as the big names. Its focus is on an inmate who is 24 hours from being executed. His defense team is giving it one last attempt to prove he has schizophrenia and was not aware of the murders he committed. The movie does not give much backdrop into the causes or symptoms, but shows one method of treatment. I will explain the symptoms, causes, treatments, and some other useful information on this disease. The best place to start is symptoms of Schizophrenia. They are broken down into 3 main categories. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in people without the disease. These people often “lose touch” with reality and these symptoms can come and go. Hallucinations are things that the person can see, smell, or hear but nobody else can. Hearing “voices” is one of the most common of these. The voices supposedly talk to the person suffering from schizophrenia by ordering them to do things, warn them of danger, or discuss their behavior. In the movie, the character had created several different types of people who all talked to him differently and pushed the character in different directions whether to act in a positive or negative way. Delusions are things the person may believe but are not true. Such as everyone talking on a cell phone must be listening to my...
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...Running head: SCHIZOPHRENIA 1 Schizophrenia Excelsior College SCHIZOPHRENIA 2 Abstract This paper discusses the features and symptoms of Schizophrenia. This paper addresses the issues associated with Schizophrenia such as stress. It also addresses the bio psychosocial explanations that are associated with the development of this disorder. In this paper I address the type of therapies used for the treatment of Schizophrenia. The remainder of this paper discusses the rationale uses of these therapies and the effectiveness for Schizophrenia. SCHIZOPHRENIA 3 Schizophrenia The key features of the disorder, including its symptoms Schizophrenia is a disorder that is characterized by unorganized thinking and odd perceptions that dysfunction in major activities within a person’s life. These sometime include withdrawals from society; they have delusions and also hallucinations. They also may not be able to show emotion, feel pain, pleasure. They also have a lack of facial expression. They suffer from depression, mania and paranoia. Schizophrenia is the main example of psychosis. Psychosis is a disorder that people suffer from, they become irrational and they have lost contact with reality. This...
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...Analyzing Psychological Disorders Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it hard to tell the difference between what is real and what is not real. Schizophrenia makes it hard to think clearly, and have normal emotional responses. Act normally in social situations is also affected by this disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has no exact known cause but is categorized as a brain disorder affecting the balance in neurotransmitter concentration of dopamine, glutamate and serotonin systems. Symptoms present in the disorder are positive, which means psychosis, or negative, which means affecting emotions and behavior. The primary areas of the brain implicated in schizophrenia are the forebrain, hindbrain and limbic system (LIVESTRONG, Aubri, John, 2011). The forebrain is the topmost and largest portion of the brain and includes the cerebral hemispheres which are divided into four lobes; they are the limbic system, thalamus, hypothalamus and corpus callosum. As a whole, the forebrain serves to control cognition which is the process of thinking, knowing, learning, judging, sensory and motor function, temperature regulation, reproduction, hunger, sleep cycle and emotional expression. It is within the frontal lobe where thought organization occurs, creating the delusional ideas that are a common positive symptom of schizophrenia. It is also in this lobe that overstimulation...
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...Psychological Disorder Psychological Disorder Schizophrenia is perhaps one of the most recognized of psychological disorders. The name is familiar to most but very few of those people have a clear concept of how a person develops schizophrenia or the affects it has on a person’s life. A person with schizophrenia has a different view of society and the world around him. Every person goes through the human development process. The human development process can take a different path than most people when a psychological disorder is involved. In this report a look at the relationship between human development, socialization, and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is defined as a psychological disorder where splitting of physic function occur (Pinel, 2007). The symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and disorganized or catatonic behavior (Shiraev & Levy, 2010). Schizophrenia is found in about 1% of the world’s population and the symptoms seem to be the same in every culture. If a family member has schizophrenia there is a 10% greater chance for another family member to develop the disorder as well (US Government, 2009). Genetics therefore play a part in this disorder. The studies have shown that genes are responsible for the development of schizophrenia. There are theories that the gene important in the making of certain chemicals in the brain are not working properly. Abnormal levels of Dopamine are common...
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...An Annotated Bibliography The topic of this paper will be the mental disorder schizophrenia, and what the potential is for the diagnosis to affect someone’s life. The paper’s main focus is to explain the harm of simply diagnosing an individual with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and relating mood and psychotic disorders will be explained versus the severity range of the associated symptoms.Other topics that will be examined include the potential for over diagnosing of schizophrenia and the disparate amount of diagnoses awarded to african-american patients. The term schizophrenia has been around since early in the 20th century. Schizophrenia and other similar mental disorders have been the targets of many extensive studies in recent medical history. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective and other disorders that fall under a broad spectrum of intermingling symptoms can have crippling effects on the affected patient’s life, potentially including all aspects of their personal and social life. Such mental disorders have had a long-standing history of association with the poor and underprivileged, despite this, many individuals with such disorders have managed to cope with their symptoms and lead successful lives. Despite extensive research, there are few definite answers as to a cause for such disorders and diagnosis do not include any sort of physiological evidence. Because of the history of violence or instability associated with such disorders there is now a social...
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...Schizophrenia, referred to as a split personality disorder, is a chronic, severe, devastating mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the population, equivalent to more than 2 million people in the United States. Statistics indicates schizophrenia affects men about 1½ times more frequently than women. (National Comorbidity Survey, 1994) It is a psychotic mental disorders characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. The thought problems linked with schizophrenia described as psychosis, in that the individual thinking is totally out of touch with reality. The individual with this disorder may also have disorganized speech, and behavior, physically or careless behavior, extensively decreased behaviors or feelings, as well as delusions, which are ideas about themselves or others that have no basis in reality. The term schizophrenia first introduced in 1911. In 1887, Emil Kraepelin deemed it a separate mental illness. Regardless of recent history, (Addington, Bouchard, Goldberg, 2005) described throughout written history. Ancient Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Greek, and Roman writings described symptoms comparable to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. During medieval times, schizophrenia, like other illnesses, often viewed as evidence of the sufferer possessed by spirits or evil powers. Schizophrenia is a multifaceted illness. Experts in the field are somewhat baffled as to what causes it. Some doctors believe that the brain may not be able to process...
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...Schizophrenia has affected people throughout history and is the least understood of the major mental illnesses. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Contrary to what people believe, schizophrenia is not a split personality or multiple personality disease. According to the “Mayo Clinic” (n.d.), “The word ‘schizophrenia’ does mean ‘split mind,’ but refers to a disruption of the usual balance of emotions and thinking.” Families and society are also affected by those who suffer from schizophrenia because people who suffer with schizophrenia have difficulty holding down jobs or even caring for themselves which means they have to rely on others for help. There are five types of schizophrenia and each type is based on what symptoms the person is experiencing during the assessment. • Paranoid schizophrenia is when the person is preoccupied with one or more delusions or auditory hallucinations but they do not have symptoms of disorganized schizophrenia. • Disorganized schizophrenia is when the person is showing prominent symptoms of disorganized behavior or speech and their affect is flat and or inappropriate. • Catatonic schizophrenia is when the person is experiencing at least two of the following symptoms: difficulty moving, resisting moving, excessive moving, and abnormal movements and or repeating what others do or say. • Undifferentiated type is when the person shows two or more of the following symptoms:...
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...Culture and Disease Schizophrenia has many different effects on a person’s ability to lead a normal life. This disease is found in all cultures throughout the world. Both genders are equally affected. However not all individuals with schizophrenia obtain treatment, in spite of the severity of the disorder. Introduction Schizophrenia is a severe brain disease that interferes with normal brain and mental function-it can trigger hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. Without treatment, schizophrenia affects the ability to think clearly and interact appropriately with other people. There are three different kinds of symptoms: Positive Symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and racing thoughts, negative symptoms such as apathy, lack of emotion, poor or nonexistent social functioning or inability to respond to different situations and cognitive symptoms which mainly include disorganized thoughts, difficulty concentrating and/or following instructions( medsinfo). Genetic Factors The symptoms of schizophrenia are very similar across many different cultures however the members of racial/ethnic minority groups are less likely to access mental health service. Caucasians show a higher rate of schizophrenia diagnosis because they access mental health services and are evaluated (Anglin para1). In the Caucasian population the genetic traits are what make this population vulnerable to the disease of schizophrenia. Genes have an effect on the external and internal factors that...
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...Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious and scary psychiatric illnesses in the United States. It’s a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history. Approximately 1% of all Americans suffer from this illness, but it occurs in 10% of people who have a first-degree relative with the disorder. A person with schizophrenia hears voices that no one else around them hears. They believe that people around them are constantly plotting to harm them. They act really agitated. Schizophrenia not only affects the person but it also affects their friends and family. The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three general categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors. Some of the positive symptoms of n,Disorders. Negative symptoms are related with interruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. Negative symptoms are often confused for Depression. Some of the negative symptoms are: Little or no interaction, Lack of beginning or completing a planned activity, & Flat affect which is when their face doesn’t move or they speak in a monotonous voice. Cognitive symptoms are more restrained. These symptoms are harder to recognize. They are often detected during more intense tests. Some Cognitive symptoms are: Having a hard time understanding information and using it to make decisions, hard time focusing or paying attention, and having a hard time using information immediately...
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...Schizophrenia Almar Lim CNI College ADN Program NSG 265 Holistic Health Concepts Ms Shadia Maksemous RN, MSN February 4th, 2015 Schizophrenia is not a single disease, but a broad category of mental illnesses. Schizophrenia is a psychiatry disorder where several structural disturbances occur in the brain. It normally takes place in the temporal and frontal lobes, changing the neural systems and affecting the neurotransmitters in charge of controlling the functioning that takes place in these areas. It is not a structural brain disease that shows up early on X-rays CAT scans, or EEGs. Schizophrenics also have defects in the handling of amino acids. Etiology The exact causes of schizophrenia are unknown, but research suggests that a combination of physical, genetic, psychological and environmental factors can make people more likely to develop the condition. Current thinking is that some people may be prone to schizophrenia, and a stressful or emotional life event might trigger a psychotic episode. However, it's not known why some people develop symptoms while others don't. (Smith & Segal, 2014) Clinical Manifestation There are two ways that schizophrenia begins. One way is called Acute Onset. This happens very fast, about a couple of weeks. It is easier to recover from this. You are able to get help faster because people notice it sooner. The other way is called Process Onset. This takes a longer period of time to show. It is gradual, sometimes up to years. You...
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...Schizophrenia and Psychosis, Lifespan Development PSY/410 August 22, 2011 Schizophrenia and Psychosis, Lifespan Development Different disorders can be diagnosed differently and the onset of symptoms can pin point exactly what disorder an individual has. Schizophrenia is a chronic severe brain disorder that affects individuals every day and it only affects about 1% of Americans. This psychotic disorder has a very severe impact on impairment, emotions and behavior. Individuals that have this certain disease can lead a normal and healthy life is they take care of themselves and take their medication as they should. We will discuss how schizophrenia has an impact on individuals and how it can affect them throughout the lifespan. Schizophrenia and Psychosis Schizophrenia can be characterized by different types of unusual behaviors and the most important aspect of schizophrenia is the human thought process. This type of disorder can be difficult to diagnose and it does not come out or be perssistant like some disorders. People can go with having schizophrenia for years until something happens causing it to come out of the wood works. Schizophrenia can be inherited or is known to be inherited from a family member that suffers from this disorder. Behavioral components can also play a role in schizophrenia as well as biological components. Types of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia can be put into sub types which are paranoid-type, disorganized-type, catatonic-type, undifferentiated-type...
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