Form of Mental Illness - Essay Example

Can you just imagine if someone close to you has been irritable, withdrawn, and assumes a very unusual posture? Such symptoms are associated with schizophrenia, a form of mental illness. Experts believe that such disorder is the result of the interplay of biological and environmental forces. Describing the physiological process, its symptoms, and diagnostic criterion may help in a better understanding of schizophrenia to come up with a possible effective treatment.

Physiological Process

The physiological process of schizophrenia is not clearly defined. However, experts link chemical abnormality to be associated with the signs and symptoms of the illness. The imbalance of dopamine and glutamate affects the way a person’s brain reacts to the stimuli making the schizoid person overwhelmed by sensory stimulation which other people without such a condition may easily handle.  The study by Dalya and company ( 2007) supported such a claim by explaining that changes in the neural circuits as a result of neurotransmitter abnormality may cause patients to experience auditory hallucinations. Other studies have also shown that abnormalities in brain structures and death of tissues in the brain may cause changes in its cells and that relay of sensory information is altered.

Symptom Manifestations

Manifestation involves hallucinations in the form of hearing voices, delusions that are persecutory in nature, and disorganization in speech and thinking. The individual when communicating to others may present a loss of thoughts and sentences that are incoherent with their meaning or it is a combination of loose ideas that becomes a word salad.  Schizoids do not pay attention to how they project themselves thus they dress poorly. They do not have the motivation for themselves and have project poor judgment as well. Others may have problems with responsiveness and social cognition. In some bizarre conditions, the patient may manifest a catatonic position where he may assume a stiff or whatever posture for long hours.

Diagnostic Criterion

Most often diagnosing such illness is confirmed from the criteria of signs and symptoms presented. The physician has to conduct an interview to observe the ability of the patient in sustaining attention and concentration. If there are any irrelevant remarks and the person cannot maintain the constant effect, has delusions, hallucinations, or social and occupational dysfunctions that persist for more than six months, it would probably point to schizophrenia. In addition, the onset of dissociation and hysteria are more sudden and paroxysmal compared to other psychotic disorders with the same symptoms.

Possible Treatment

Treatment considerations may include neuroleptics such as phenothiazines, olanzapine, and xanthenes to relieve anxiety and its attendant reflections. In the study of Tollefson and others (1998), depressive signs and symptoms are responsive to pharmacotherapy treatment improving the control of mood disorders.  A combination of pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy which could be intensive, and other socio-therapies such as group therapy has also been proven to bring about improvement of social adaptation. For this reason, socializing experience with less anxiety relations is important for the patient to develop a more stable adaptive personality. However, it should be noted that success in adapting this treatment depends on the degree of therapeutic initiatives, efforts of the treatment team, and the patient’s adaptive method.