Schizophrenia - Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - Research Paper Example

? Schizophrenia Introduction Human mind is perhaps one of the most complicated and critical things in this world. And the same epithets can be associated with the human brain. At one end, it is so strong that it has yield wonders to make human race the most intelligent and powerful in the world. However, at the other plane, certain small limitations can spoil the entire life, make an individual totally unfit for the social realm and confuse others with their abnormal or unconventional behaviors. When our mind can react in what way is the most unpredictable aspect of human body. Psychology and neurology for this reasons at most places depend on assumptions to detect and cure the actual problem of human mind. The uncountable dark abbeys of human brain weaving millions of colorful thought also at times develop a few of the darkest thoughts which consequences into the most horrifying and gruesome crimes across the world. Since the initiation of the civilization, to tame mankind into a systematic and disciplined lifestyle society has made certain conventions with which the world runs. Any behavior or emotion falling out of this set format of conventionalities are termed as abnormal or mentally disordered. This fact with the advancement of medical science has been diminished to a great extent. Yet, there are innumerable such abnormal idiosyncrasies which ultimately develop into mental disorders or mental illness with the passage of time. Schizophrenia is one of the most complex and growing mental criticalities in the present times. The disease is associated with very poor emotional responsiveness and complete breakdown of thought process. The major problem with this disease is that a person can get eclipsed with the mental disorder at any point of his or her life leading to a few of the most unexpected and troubled consequences. Researches contend that one of the major reasons behind the mental disease is use of drug, depression and social isolation. The environmental or the external factors in determining the cause of this disease is most potent. And in the world full of material pursuit, rambling competition and nuclear lifestyle the outbreak of mental disease like Schizophrenia is very acute and critical. Therefore, a thorough research for this disease can actually save the society and world from coming within its dark compass of this mental breakdown and blockade. Definition of Schizophrenia National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) gives the definition of Schizophrenia as a “chronic, severe and disabling brain order that has affected people throughout history” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Concise Mental Dictionary by Oxford University Press gives the definition of Schizophrenia as a mental disorder which is accompanied or characterized by a complete brakeage of thought process or a very poor emotional responsiveness (Schizophrenia" Concise Medical Dictionary, 2010) The illness takes the manifestation in the form of hallucinations that can be auditory or visionary, delusions that are paranoid and bizarre kind and deluded and a complete disorganization in the thought process or speech can be recognized which is mostly accompanied by a potent dysfunction in occupational or social sector. These symptoms in a patient initiate globally in the young adulthood. The time for the onset of this disease is typical and the global lifetime continuations of these symptoms are almost around 0.3 to 0.7% (Os & Kapur, 2009). Types of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is classified on the symptoms of a patient. And the symptoms might change in an individual patient throughout his or her life span. Therefore, a person may suffer from excess of one kind of Schizophrenia during his or her life time. Commonly, four types of Schizophrenia are recognized based on the varied types of symptoms they show. Paranoid Schizophrenia, Disorganized Schizophrenia, Catatonic Schizophrenia and Residual Schizophrenia are the four commonly recognized types of Schizophrenia based on the symptoms yielded by a patient. In Paranoid Schizophrenia, the patient feels suspicion at an extreme level. At the same time, the patient might feel persecuted; he/she might feel abstentious. At certain cases, the patient might also feel a blend of all these emotions and experience all of them (Mental Health America of Franklin County, 2007). In the Disorganized Schizophrenia, the patient shows incoherence in thought and speech. However, he or she might not feel any delusions (Mental Health America of Franklin County, 2007). In Catatonic Schizophrenia, a person generally gets withdrawn from the world. He or she remains silent most of the time and displays very negative frame of mind. At places, there are displays of certain very odd and unusual body positions (Mental Health America of Franklin County, 2007). Residual Schizophrenia is the last and the fourth type of the disease where the patient is out of delusions and hallucinations. He or she is not experiencing them but the patient gets completely withdrawn from life and finds no interest in it anymore (Mental Health America of Franklin County, 2007). Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia Generally, in late pubescent years or in early adulthood, an individual starts to show the symptoms of Schizophrenia. During its early stage, the development of the disease is slow and the progress is timid as well. The symptoms during this stage in an individual are more puzzling sort than anything serious. If the Schizophrenia is not treated properly since early age then the patient tends to show negative symptoms in the growing period (British Columbia Schizophrenia Society, 2009). NIMH classifies the symptoms related to Schizophrenia into three extensive heads as follows, Positive Symptoms, Cognitive Symptoms and Negative Symptoms (British Columbia Schizophrenia Society, 2009). Positive Symptoms These symptoms are noticed in unhealthy people those who are already affected with psychotic disorders. These symptoms are oscillating and are severe at times and again at places they are quite ignorable. These symptoms come and go in a patient’s behavior subjected to his or her treatment. The common signs of the positive symptom of schizophrenia are delusions, thought disorders, hallucinations and movement disorders (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Negative Symptoms Negative Symptoms of schizophrenia are very hard to locate. They are often misunderstood with the signs of depression. These symptoms generally disrupt the normal emotional or behavioral aspect of a patient in his daily course. The acute syndromes of Negative symptoms are: “Flat Affect” which means a person is hardly moving his face and whenever talking, he or she is delivering the speech in a very dull and monotonous way. The patients lack satisfaction or pleasure in their daily chores of activities. The patients lack the interest to start and continue any activities in a planned way. The patients generally withdraw themselves socially, they interact little and forcibly also do not alter their silence (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Cognitive Symptoms These symptoms like the negative symptoms are very tough to locate and they are generally overlapped with the symptoms of other diseases. They frequently surface out only when certain other detection tests are performed. The symptoms of the Cognitive symptoms are:- The patients lack to understand any information as well as take decision under it. This is termed as “poor executive functioning”. The patients fail to focus on a particular thing and they find trouble in concentrating. The patients suffer a major problem with their working memory. They fail to use the information immediately after gathering them (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Patients suffering from the negative symptoms of schizophrenia fail to conduct their everyday tasks alone. They are often seen disinterested in maintaining themselves and their personal hygiene daily which apparently might project them as a lazy and withdrawn person from life but the actual reason behind such behavior is schizophrenia. In cognitive symptoms, a patient finds it very difficult to lead a normal life and tough to earn his/her living. These kind of symptoms can cause a very grieve emotional distress as well (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009). Causes of Schizophrenia Human mind is a baffling thing and so is any disorder related with it. The exact cause of Schizophrenia is still confusing but most of the theories pertaining to it states that the disease evolves from a very complex interaction of the hereditary and external factors. Schizophrenia is definitely influenced by heredity. Individuals generally having Schizophrenia in their first degree relation are the victim of the disease with a 10 percent chance only. 60 percent of the families having Schizophrenia do not possess any other members affected by this disease. Therefore, heredity definitely influences Schizophrenia but do not determine it (Smith & Segal, 2012). The Twin and adoption studies formulate the theory that genes which are inherited make a person susceptible towards the disorder and the environmental or the external factors act on this susceptibility which agitates the disorder more. Growing stress during pregnancy or/and the same in the latter pregnancy period increase the chance of Schizophrenia by indulging the hormonal cortisol. Also exposure of the parents to myriad inflectional diseases, supply of less oxygen during the time of birth, exposure to viral infection during infant stage, social issues like early loss of parents or separation any kind of sexual or physical abuses in childhood increase the cause of Schizophrenia in a patient (Smith & Segal, 2012). Recent theories also throw light on an area that might seem very interesting and amazing but is very relevant to the context. Along with disorganized brain chemistry, improper structure of brain is also liable for the disorder. Person with inflated brain ventricles show the symptom of Schizophrenia as well (Smith & Segal, 2012). Treatment of Schizophrenia Treatment of Schizophrenia is executed at two levels. One way is medicinal and the other is psychological counseling. The basic treatment of Schizophrenia is antipsychotic medicines. This is often accompanied by support from psychological and social arena. Psychological treatment for Schizophrenia is broad and includes family therapy, community therapies which are assertive in nature, CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy. Along with this cognitive remediation, support with employment or skilful treatment is very helpful in treating the disorder. Hospitalization is required for extreme and severe cases (Medalia & Choi, 2009). Conclusion After a thorough research about one of the complex mental disorders in human beings, it seems that the problem of Schizophrenia and other mental disorders in mankind is growing fast and at a very alarming rate. The reason for this growing mental disorder is potent as well. Stressful life and rash lifestyle is responsible for this acute problem of growing Schizophrenia across the world. However, if the patient is detected with symptoms at an early age then remedy for the disorder becomes quite convenient. Also making the patients outcast socially is not a proper solution to the problem. Love and compassion can help the victims to come out from the darkness of their life to light with the proper support of their families, friends and society. References British Columbia Schizophrenia Society. (2009). Schizophrenia in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.bcss.org/wp-content/uploads/schizophrenia-report_final_english2.pdf Mental Health America of Franklin County. (2007). Schizophrenia fact sheet. Retrieved from https://www.mhafc.org/pdf/Schizophrenia2.pdf Medalia, A., & Choi, J. (2009). Cognitive remediation in Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://www.brown.uk.com/schizophrenia/medalia.pdf National Institute of Mental Health. (2009). What is schizophrenia? Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia.shtml National Institute of Mental Health. (2009). What are the symptoms of schizophrenia? Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/what-are-the-symptoms-of-schizophrenia.shtml Os, J. V., & Kapur, S. (2009). Schizophrenia. Lancet 374, pp. 635-645. Schizophrenia" Concise Medical Dictionary. (2010). Oxford Reference Online. Maastricht University Library. Oxford University Press. Smith, M., & Segal, J. (2012). Understanding schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/schizophrenia_symptom.htm Read More