...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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...2010 An Inside Look at Schizophrenia “If depression is the disabling but common cold of psychological disorders, chronic schizophrenia is the cancer” (Myers). Today, there are many abnormal disorders that have become better understood; one of which being schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic, disabling brain disease that almost two million Americans will suffer from in a given year. Although schizophrenia may appear to be a dysfunctional disorder, there is more to this disease that meets the eyes. Most likely to develop earlier, more severely, and more often in men, schizophrenia affects both the male and female populations, and “it knows no boundaries” (Myers). Symptoms begin to arise in the late teens to early twenties for men, and in the twenties to early thirties for women. Although only one percent of the population will develop such a chronic disorder in their lifetime, schizophrenia should not be pushed aside. Found in many different individuals, schizophrenia’s symptoms and long-lasting pattern often results in a high degree of disability. People with schizophrenia have various symptoms that vary for each individual; “hallucinations of sound, sight, smell, taste, or touch may occur” (Berkow), the most common being hearing voices. People with schizophrenia tend to hear internal voices that can’t be heard by others; this may result in one talking to oneself or...
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...Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects the human brain. This mental disorder is characterized by delusions and hallucinations, but other characteristics include disorganized thoughts, poor concentration, and bundled emotions (Nordqvist, 2016). The many obvious effects of schizophrenia an individual has are not the only symptoms taking place in the life of that individual. Many of the effects that schizophrenia has on a person connect deeper than just their personalities, linking to abnormal brain development, flat affect, delusions and hallucinations, catatonia, and genetics. Schizophrenia is a severe disorder in which the person suffers from disordered thinking, bizarre behavior and hallucinations, and is unable to distinguish between...
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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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...finally develops enough strength to defy his father and study at the Royal College in London. The consequence he faces is disownment and a lifelong estrangement from his father, which sadly never mends. While in London he begins to experience the beginnings of his mental decline with what appears to be schizophrenia. After achieving notoriety as a musician, the musical world loses him to his mental illness. David finds himself living in psychiatric hospitals, and with support of others, eventually lives back on his own. Through a series of events, he finds himself reunited with the piano, first in a local restaurant and eventually returning to the concert hall. His reclamation of music parallels his reclamation of relationships as he adjusts to a functional life with schizophrenia. The movie instills hope as it shows a marked return to positive functioning as David finds love and fulfillment in his life. Client name: David Helfgott Psychiatric diagnosis: Schizophrenia—Disorganized Type DSM-IV-TR criteria: * Client has two or more of the following characteristic symptoms for a significant portion of 1 month: 1. delusions 2. hallucinations 3. disorganized speech 4. grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior 5. negative symptoms (affective flattening, avolition, or alogia) * Client has...
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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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...2015 Critically discuss how people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia are able to live positively with their disorder Student No: 47851449 Due date: June 17th 2015 Assignment 3 PYC4802 Psychopathology Fatima-H TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction.............................................................................................. 3 2. Definition of Schizophrenia...................................................................... 3 3. Diagnostic criteria of Schizophrenia......................................................... 4 4. Hallmark features of Schizophrenia......................................................... 5 5. Living positively with Schizophrenia......................................................... 7 5.1 Pharmacological Intervention................................................................. 8 5.2 Cognitive- Behavioural Therapy............................................................. 9 5.3 Psychosocial treatments........................................................................ 9 5.4 Positive psychological interventions...................................................... 10 5.5 Community-based rehabilitation for people with schizophrenia............. 11 5.6 Occupational Therapy............................................................................ 12 5.7 Living a healthy lifestyle.............................................................
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...“About a Boy” 1. Does “Mamau” have any symptoms of a psychiatric disorder, mood, personality, schizophrenia, etc.? “Mamau” has a factitious disorder which is a “mental disorder in which the symptoms of physical or mental illness are deliberately induced or simulated with no apparent incentive.” (p. 127) More specifically, she has Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This is normally when an adult caretaker produces or lies about illness in another person under his or her care. One example is when “Mamau” claims Robert kicked her and gave her bruises in a fit of rage. In a session with his therapist, Dr. Fee, Robert does not remember doing anything like that; however, his grandmother says it is because the drugs have blanked his memory. Another example is “Mamau” constantly tells Robert that he can be taken away because of his mental problem. “Mamau” has symptoms of histrionic personality disorder. It is characterized by “self-dramatization, exaggerated expression of emotions, and attention seeking behaviors.” (p. 173) She also has characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder. These people have “an exaggerated sense of self importance, an exploitative attitude, and a lack of empathy.” (p. 174) We can use the above example to support for these. There was also a part where “Mamau” calls up the hospital to see if the person treating her daughter had a doctorate. She didn’t trust the doctors and it showed that she was trying to over power her daughter. There is another scene...
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...the most hindering of these disorders is schizophrenia, which affects about one percent of the entire world population. Once the symptoms of schizophrenia occur, usually beginning in early adult hood, they continue for the entire lifetime of the patient and are almost totally disabling (Sawa & Snyder, 2002). Schizophrenia is a severe psychopathology which is categorized by positive and negative symptoms (Breedlove, Watson & Rosenzweig, 2010). This disorder distorts thoughts and perceptions. It is described as a loss of contact with reality and a disturbance in one's thoughts, perception, mood and movement. This mental disorder starts to become apparent during early adulthood and usually carries on for the rest of an individual's life (Bear, Connors & Paradiso, 2001). Symptoms of schizophrenia can be divided into two categories: Positive and negative. Positive symptoms "reflect the presence of abnormal thoughts and behaviours" (Bear, et al., 2010, p. 695). These symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and catatonic behaviours. Positive symptoms may be related to an excessive amount of dopamine function in the brain, such as the use of antipsychotic drugs which are highly effective in treating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia (Iversen, L., Iversen, S., Bloom & Roth, 2009). Negative symptoms on the other hand reflect the absence of responses that normally present themselves with schizophrenia (Bear, et al., 2010). These include reduced...
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...Professor Sharemah Barlow “Schizophrenia rolls in like a slow fog, becoming imperceptibly thicker as time goes on” (Saks, n.d.). Schizophrenia is a complex psychological disease, complex in diagnosis and treatment, as well as an enormous complexity surrounding the many layers of the disease. Schizophrenia affects individuals with a wide range in symptoms, delusional thoughts, fits of psychosis, disorganized variations of emotion and communicating, and bizarre, child-like behavior patterns. Schizophrenia has been placed into categories based on whether they have positive or negative symptoms. The bizarre behavior patterns, otherwise known as “pathological excesses”, fall under the positive symptoms; delusions, hallucinations, inappropriate affect, and disorganized speech and thoughts. Negative symptoms are those related to social withdrawal, alogia or reduction in speech, avolition or extreme fatigue and a lack of motivation and interest. Comer (2011) tells us delusions are believed wholeheartedly by the sufferer, although there is no basis in fact. Delusions can guide the patient throughout their entire life or the delusions can vary and they experience many different types of delusions. Disorganized speech and thoughts leave the individual unable to articulate their thoughts into words, or they may not make sense, and they may repeat what someone is saying to them (Comer, 2011). People who suffer from schizophrenia are often unable to respond to...
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...Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder. English term schizophrenia comes from two Greek words that mean “split mind” it was found in 1908 by Eugene Bleuler Swiss doctor. Main characteristic of schizophrenia splitting apart of mental functions. Schizophrenia is a group of disorders, which affects thinking, emotions, behavior. Most of the people who diagnosed with schizophrenia disorder may have enhanced perceptions of sounds, and colors. There are two different types of such disorder type one and type two. It is split in to five different subtypes Paranoid, Disorganized, Catatonic, Undifferentiated, and Residual. Schizophrenia is one of the mental disorders that is more common in one racial group than the other, and have different effect on the person according to their racial group. Many times schizophrenia is misdiagnosed with autism especially in children by the persistence of hallucinations and delusions for at least six months, and a later age of onset seven years old. Children with schizophrenia is educated in special schools where they get extra help and surrounded with the faculty that trained to work with children that have mental disorders. When it comes to outside world people might be discriminated against because of schizophrenia, there for law were created to protect you if you are schizophrenic. There is a lot of treatments and medication to treat such disorder but actual cure is not found. ...
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...Lesson on Schizophrenia As an overview, schizophrenia is a disease to the brain. It is one of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses known to man. It has been misunderstood for a long time. It has a biological basis, so it is like other diseases. It is a very common disease; one percent to one and a half percent of the U.S. has been diagnosed within some point in their life. There is no cure for this disease, although there is treatable medicine. Schizophrenia is not a multiple personality disorder. People who take medicine for it are able to lead normal fulfilling lives. 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 may say or do strange things every now and then. It could be a long time before you go to the doctor. There are three main types of delusions a person can have. Delusion of Persecution is when the person thinks that people are out to get him or her. For example the government. Grandeur is when the person thinks he or she is very important, rich, famous, ect. Reference is when the person thinks that the TV is talking directly to him or her. They also think some outside source is talking to them. Schizophrenia has three main...
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...mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. His genius in mathematics was counterbalanced by his affliction with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, (DSM-IV-TR) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 299), schizophrenia is characterized by positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, illusions, disorganized speech and paranoia) and negative symptoms (deficit or loss of normal functions relating to degree of emotions, fluency and productivity of thought and speech and initiation of goal-directed behavior). It is characterized by a person’s perception of reality which can be very different from the way most other people perceive the same reality. It allows viewers to learn about the illness and its effect on people who have it, their families and their friends. This movie provides an excellent opportunity to learn about schizophrenia, a disease that impairs an individual’s perceptions, concentration, and social interaction and thus, making it quite disabling. The symptoms of schizophrenia that were identified in the movie were: antisocial behavior, hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and paranoia. The great thing about this movie is that is written and filmed from the perspective of a person with schizophrenia as well as the perspective of others. It presents not only what is observed about John through society’s reality; it also...
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...Schizophrenia Symptoms for schizophrenia vary and their impact on everyday life can range from troublesome to life-altering. Work, school and home life can all be affected by schizophrenic symptoms. Even the early signs of schizophrenia can impact school and social life. Initially, when schizophrenia signs and symptoms begin, it’s not obvious what they are. Often these schizophrenia symptoms occur during adolescence and are mistaken for normal teenage behavior or perhaps depression or another mental illness. The earliest symptom of schizophrenia may be cognitive impairment and this can occur at a young age. Other early symptoms include: 1 Change in friends or social isolation 2 Difficulty at school 3 Sleep problems 4 Irritability 5 Difficulty telling reality from fantasy (hallucinations and delusions) 6 An increase in unusual thoughts, perceptions and suspicions or paranoia 7 Odd manner of thinking and speaking Effects of Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia at Work and School These early schizophrenia symptoms can easily result in a failure to thrive at school. The person may push away all their friends and become withdrawn, no longer willing to take part in things they once enjoyed, like sports or music. The cognitive impairment and difficulty thinking may result in a drop in grades. Once a person gets older, the symptoms of schizophrenia tend to become more pronounced as schizophrenia becomes a full-blown illness. At this point, signs and symptoms of schizophrenia...
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...Schizophrenia Schizophrenia can be an extremely devastating disorder, affecting many aspects and self-perceived quality their life. The diagnosis unfortunately affects both the life of the victim as well as their friends and families. “People with schizophrenia can exhibit multiple communication impairments. One type of communication impairment is speech that is difficult to understand or disorganized, or formal thought disorder. Another type of communication impairment is decreased verbal productivity or poverty of speech” (Kerns 2007). As a devastating disorder, treatment, awareness, and having an active involvement to recovery for both the patient and their family is an important aspect of those affected with the disorder. Schizophrenia exists within Axis II, categorized as a personality disorder. Describing the first two dimensions, psychoticism consists of hallucinations and delusional experiences, expressed through disorganized speech and behavior, inappropriate affect, motor disturbances and disordered thought. The third dimension is the occurrence of negative symptoms which arise before the onset of illness, as displayed through social function. Treatments may involve programs combining drugs with psychotherapy, support counseling, behavior therapy, and family intervention to adjust communication patterns. In a research study supported by National Institute of Mental Health, researchers examined whether formal thought disorder, a form of communication impairment...
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