On Schizophrenia and Beautiful Mind - Movie Review Example

One example of this destruction is that of the birth of his first child, he becomes so paranoid that he presents a real threat to his wife and the child. Eventually his marriage ends in divorce, but later, when he begins to come to terms with his illness, he and his wife are reunited. However, unlike, the 1950's, when Nash became ill, today, medical science has made it possible for this genetic illness to be controlled in some cases such as Nash's without medication. Two factors help to make this possible.

The first is the fact that if the affected individual receives medical help early enough, including cognitive therapy, he or she has a better chance of overcoming the disease. The movie is truthful in showing how, after Nash's acceptance of his illness, he is able to recognize that the voices are not real and to quit letting them run his life. The second is the fact that has become evident to scientists that the disease of paranoid schizophrenia improves in latter life. This is even truer if the afflicted has been treated early on.

In the respect of normalcy, the movie presents a distorted view of Nash's life regarding his compensation for the disease in maturity. While he did go on to achieve greatness as a mathematician, there are scientists who believe that this was not in spite of his illness, but because of it. Nash believed this himself as he stated in a radio broadcast in which he was interviewed. (1) (All things Considered) Otherwise, according to him, he may have accepted mediocrity-instead, in 1994 he was awarded the Nobel Prize!

However, the movie did portray the world of schizophrenic hallucinations such as hearing voices and/or these voices appearing to talk back to the individual; voices talking out loud among themselves; hallucinations which cause the interruption in the person's thoughts result in scattered speech, and paranoid hallucinations causing false perceptions about other people, including perceptions that cause the afflicted to become violent or fear violence from others. The onslaught of paranoid schizophrenia normally begins between " the ages of 15 and 34 with a preoccupation with one or more systematized delusions or with frequent auditory hallucinations related to a single theme.

In addition to suffering from hallucinations and the presence of voices, the person affected usually suffers delusions of grandeurThe main course of treatment for the disease is the use of medicines which arecommonly called 'atypical antipsychotic'Compared to the older convention' antipsychotic drugs such as Chlorpromazine (Thorzaine), fluphenazine (Prolixin), haloperidol (Haldo), thiothixene (Navane), and others, these drugs have fewer severe side effects. They are equally effective as the older drugs for helping reduce the positive symptoms like hallucinations and delusions, but may be better than the older medications at relieving the negative symptoms of the illness, such as withdrawal, thinking problems, and lack of energy.

The atypical antipsychotic drugs include aripiprazole (Abilify), risperidone (Risperdal), clozapine (Clozanl), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine