Early Adulthood Schizophrenia - Research Paper Example

? Early adulthood schizophrenia al Affiliation] It is a widely acclaimed and established scientific reality now that there certainly exists a relationship between heredity or genetics and mental disorders, among which schizophrenia has some serious hereditary consequences. Not only mental disorders like schizophrenia and depression but also personality disorders like bipolar and antisocial personality disorders have a great chance of passing on from generation to generation as much research is done as yet in order to explain these all such disorders in terms of genetics and heredity. Demanding a family history holds special importance for this reason when adopting a child because as schizophrenia has been reported by many credible researchers to be caused by heredity, adoption made without prying into the past history of that child can raise much concern both for the adopted child and the adopting family. It is identified by psychologists and psychiatrists that the peak period for onset of schizophrenia when schizophrenic symptoms like strange delusions, unreasonable hallucinations, disturbed speech and control, uncoordinated attention and movement, and gross paranoia typically start appearing is late adolescence or more commonly, early adulthood. This paper attempts to explore the wide subject of early adulthood schizophrenia with special reference to genetics and heredity in addition to discussing the way in which research unfolds transfer of schizophrenic germs through genes from parent to child. It is now impossible to overlook genetics as they essentially form important contributory factor of this complicated mental disease which is rare but still horrific with not a very good prognosis. Though the exact extent to which schizophrenia and heritability influence one another is not known yet, still scrutinizing this grave mental illness not in relation with heritability has become impossible now. Having a first-degree relative who has schizophrenia and is even formally diagnosed with it terrifically increases the risk of schizophrenia in apparently normal individuals related to that person (Picchioni & Murray, 2007). Genetics play a definite role in schizophrenia and the importance of this factor reaches up to the level of contribution made by environmental factors. According to a valid source, though schizophrenia affects only 1% population or even less than that, the risk of schizophrenia among first-degree biological relatives of a schizophrenic patient rises to about ten times higher than that observed in the normal population who do not happen to have a relative suffering from this disorder. “Given prevalence estimates, this translates into a 5 to 10 percent lifetime risk for first-degree relatives (including children and siblings) and suggests a substantial genetic component to schizophrenia” (Cannon et al., cited in surgeongeneral.gov, n.d.). This genetic transfer of schizophrenia raises serious concern for relative of schizophrenics because if the disorder does not get suppressed in time and it progresses into a full blown psychiatric disorder, then the chances of a normal life for the first-degree relatives are also put at stake. Research also shows that schizophrenia does not even spare twin children and if one twin develops signs and symptoms of schizophrenia in early adulthood, then the risk of this disease for the other twin also heightens. In majority of the cases, if one twin starts behaving in a manner which is identified with a schizophrenic individual according to medical science, the other twin also gets affected and influenced more often than not. The probability of schizophrenia affecting the first-degree relative is higher for identical twins than for non-identical twins. A number of genes in this regard responsible for passing on schizophrenia have been identified and discussed by genetic scientists and which have also helped much in terms of prevention and treatment. It is very important that the relation between schizophrenia and heredity is not ignored, rather preventive measures should be laid out after good analysis of genetic background of a patient. A person’s behavior and mental or physical performance is always a direct indicator of his/her family, relatives, and to some extent friends also. “Human and animal behavior is a direct result of events in the body. Hormones, heredity, brain chemicals, tumors, and diseases are some of the biological causes of behavior” (Ciccarelli & White, 2009, p.16). This means that a child born to an alcoholic father or mother will most likely have warped perception of substance abuse while in many cases, it is seen that children born to highly intellectual parents also tend to pursue high profile academic careers. Though such cannot be the case for every family, still many intellectuals such as Gourlay have claimed that heredity is as responsible for healthy state of mind as it is for abnormal states of mind as in schizophrenia. Studying schizophrenia in relation with heredity is very important because if scientific studies prove that majority of the intelligence which is about 80% is associated with heredity then that means that heredity could also be held responsible for abnormal states of mind. Gourlay establishes this undeniable relationship between heredity and intellectuality by saying in one piece of work that approximately “75% - 80% of IQ variances could be attributed to heredity differences and only 20-25% to environmental differences” (1979, p. 596). This means that genetic factors play much bigger and more important role in controlling the intellectuality of an individual than the environmental factors. If hereditability can be held responsible for an individual’s great mental or physical performance in any field of life, then it should logically still be held responsible if an individual starts behaving crazy and feeling paranoid all of a sudden. This argument brought forward by Gourlay is enough to make anyone silent who would deny the relation between schizophrenia and heredity. A child born to schizophrenic parent can most probably appear normal yet have a lower IQ compared to fellow human beings. By now, this much is clear from the above discussion that the tendency to develop schizophrenic symptoms may pass on from parents to children. If a parent is acutely schizophrenic to the point that there may appear to be no cure for him/her, then the child born to him/her can also develop basic schizophrenic symptoms such as delusions, paranoia, and impaired concentration earlier on in adulthood. Though that child may continue appearing to be perfectly normal, taking good grades, graduating at the top of the class, taking black belts in gymnastics etc., still he/she is always at great risk of developing this mental disorder no matter if he/she even gets to live with the schizophrenic parent/relative or not and speaking of which, adoption issues surface on the scene. It is a matter of great concern and sadness that adoption and social agencies in control of giving a child in someone else’s custody often fail to expose the real family history of that child to his/her become-to-be adoptive parents. This is a highly wrong practice because family history of the child should be clearly detailed to his/her adoptive parents as not having enough knowledge about the child’s past or real parents can raise serious concern for both the original family and the new member to be included in that family. It should be kept in mind while adopting children that knowing their family history is very important as certain mental and behavioral disorders, among which schizophrenia is especially harmful and capable of damaging one’s social relationships, can be caused by genetic inheritance. It is identified in research study by Kendler and Diehl (1993, p. 266) that different family studies have suggested mental disorders like schizophrenia to be transmitted from parent to child through genes. In fact, twin and adoption studies still continue to suggest that genetic factors make up for most familiar schizophrenic aggregation as schizophrenic symptoms tend to aggregate in families. Though parents adopting such children who actually happen to have been given birth by mentally disturbed parents might be seen claiming that their child really did not appear any different from other children around them at the time of adoption and even in later years he/she had continuously been taking good grades and performing good at other activities too, the truth is that there is a great chance that schizophrenic symptoms might show in peak phases like late adolescence or early adulthood. Instead of having to bear the bad consequences later on in life like seeing their children running around looking crazy with no apparent sense of right and wrong, adoption should always be made with great sensitivity and concern. Though studies suggest that schizophrenic symptoms might appear in patients in their late teens or early twenties, still they can make their appearance in any phase of life. Summing up, this much remains clear from the above discussion that no matter at what stage of life a person is diagnosed with schizophrenia, every effort should be made to assess that person with special reference to his/her genetic/family history. This is because without paying special attention to the family history and individual heritability, no effective precautionary measures can be taken. If this is known about a person that his/her parents or any relative happened to be schizophrenic, important precautionary measures can be taken very earlier on in life in accordance with the probability of schizophrenic symptoms. Family history in terms of mental illnesses should also be specially considered at the time of adopting a child. References: Ciccarelli, S.K., & White, J.N. (2009). Psychology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. Gourlay, N. (1979). Heredity Versus Environment: An Integrative Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86(3), 596-615. Kendler, K.S. & Diehl, S.R. (1993). The Genetics of Schizophrenia: A Current, Genetic-Epidemiologic Perspective. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 19(2), 261-85. Picchioni, M.M., & Murray, R.M. (2007). Schizophrenia. British Medical Journal, 335(7610), 91-95. Surgeongeneral.gov. (n.d.). Etiology of Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter4/sec4_1.html Read More