Causes and Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders - Research Paper Example

? Section/# Autism Spectrum: An Analysis into Cause and Treatment As with many forms of medical understanding and biological research that have taken place over the past several years, further understandings of mental illness, its causes, treatments, and risk factors that increase the overall chance of mental illness have become far better understood within the recent past. Whereas it was previously believed that Milton illness was somehow a strictly genetic predisposition and prior to those superstitious understandings of mental illness pervaded the societal understanding, current research indicates that several unique factors have an impact upon the overall likelihood that individual experience mental illness at some point within their life. As might be expected, depending on the type and severity of the mental illness in question, treatments are equally nuanced and far ranging; necessitating the practitioner to be fully aware of the individual’s condition and many externalities that might result from treatment. As a function of understanding, at least at a survey level, this particular issue, the following analysis will engage the reader with a broad overview of the way in which mental illness is currently understood, diagnose, and treated. Naturally, a full depth and understanding cannot be conveyed in the space of a brief research analysis; however, it is the hope of this author that such an overview can help define the ways in which an understanding of mental illness and the treatment thereof has fundamentally shifted over the past several decades. Firstly, medical science has been able to definitively understand that genetics, or heredity, plays a key role in determining the susceptibility and likelihood that an individual have of experiencing mental illness at some point within their lives. Genetic factors do not only have to do with a certain predisposition based upon the existence of a given gene. Rather, a predisposition to abnormally high levels of specific brain chemicals, or conversely abnormally low levels as might be the case with regards certain types of oppression, can equally be referenced with regards to the way in which such factors are transmitted from parent to child and from one generation to the next (Kobau & Zach, 2013). Ultimately, if certain chemicals are out of balance within the brain and/or are unable to communicate with one another and neurotransmitters that they are responsible for binding to in an effective manner, the likelihood that an individual will suffer from mental illness and some point in their life is drastically increased. Yet, understanding mental illness as something that is strictly genetic and determined from heredity is an oversight. This is due to the fact that medical research has also indicated that infection can also be a prime contributor to the existence of mental illness. Evidence of this can of course be found with regards to the way in which an individual who suffers from an intensive case of strep could be at an increased risk of developing any of a number of obsessive-compulsive disorders. By much the same token, spinal meningitis has been linked to increased likelihood of developing schizophrenia during early youth (Cummings et al., 2013). By much the same token, injury itself has been definitively linked to mental illness. For instance, an individual need not look deep into the distant past in order to realize that there has been a definitive linkage between constant and pervasive brain injury/concussion and the overall incidence of depression within individual players within the NFL. This level of depression, in and of itself, has been tentatively linked to increased risk of suicide among the same population. In a similar way, prenatal damage has also long been understood as a mechanism through which mental illness can develop and take hold. Although prenatal damage is almost always concentric around the loss of oxygen within the birth canal during the process of delivery, prenatal damage can also refer to any disruption of nutrients or trauma that could take place while the embryo continues to develop within the womb. Although the dangers of substance abuse have long been known, recent scholarship has pointed to the fact that particular types of substance abuse can be linked to anxiety, depression, and paranoia, and increased risk of suicide. Naturally, many of the “hard drugs” dramatically increase the risk factors of developing mental illness for the user; however, softer drugs, up to and including alcohol, have also been proven to have a direct impact on increasing the overall possibility that an individual will experience mental illness as long as they continue to abuse such a substance (Forbes et al., 2013). Not surprisingly, further linkages with regards to poor nutrition, exposure to toxins, and environmental degradation have also been referenced to cause definitive harm and increase the risk of mental illness within an individual. Evidence of this can of course be seen with regards the way in which individuals that are living within a specific polluted region experienced drastically higher levels of mental illness as compared to their counterparts that live in a relatively healthier zone. Yet, beyond the physical factors that is thus far been engaged, it must also be understood that psychological factors contribute a great deal to the prevalence and existence of mental illness within society. For instance, severe psychological trauma, up to and including abuse of a sexual or physical nature, neglect, a sudden or traumatic early loss, and a number of other factors have conclusively been linked to mental illness and the means through which it is exhibited within the population. As might be expected, the differential in the causes of mental illness is extremely important. This differential is of such importance due to the fact that the underlying cause and manifestation of symptoms ultimately help professionals to determine which course of treatment is the most suitable for the individual case in question (Bewley & Morgan, 2011). By researching and understanding the unique dynamics and relative causal factors that might have contributed to an individual case of mental illness, medical professionals are able to hone in on the correct approach and determine which course of patient integration/treatment might be the most suitable. However, as has been previously denoted, a “one size fits all” approach has been something that has not existed since the earliest levels of psychological and medical intervention with mental illness. Due to the fact that doctors and other healthcare professionals did not previously fully understand the nuanced realities of mental illness within the past, treatments were almost uniform or nonexistent. However, due to the increases in technology and the ways in which psychiatry and medical biology have come to a level of coalescence, the treatments that current exist for mental illness are dynamic and aimed at specific symptoms. Firstly, for those more severe levels of mental illness, pharmacological intervention is one of the only means through which an medical professional can seek to integrate a change in the life of the patient. Naturally, pharmacological intervention in and of itself is also nuanced (De Lorenzo, 2013). As such, pharmacological intervention can involve everything from a powerful drug cocktail that is meant at masking the symptoms of the particular mental illness or a specific and targeted drug that is utilized as a means of reducing or increasing the level and extent to which a chemical binds or does not bind within key receptors of the brain (Saxton, 2013). Alternative treatments for mental illness involve a litany of different types of therapies. These therapies can include, but are not limited to, extreme therapies such as electroshock, all the way down to more miles therapies such as sessions with a counselor and a discussion of the symptoms and causation that the individual suffers from. In effect, even though there is a litany of different approaches towards dealing with mental illness, therapeutic approaches to impacting upon its severity are almost entirely constrained to these two main approaches. From the information that is thus far been engaged, the reader can understand the fact that mental illness is not uniform concept or affliction that individuals must treat within a given rubric. Moreover, the litany of different determinants, different maturity levels, different biological, environmental, and life factors that contributes to it, as well as the litany of different treatments for mental illness help to denote the fact that this particular affliction cannot be understood in simple or broadly understood terminology. Whereas it is true that no treatment yet has been definitively linked to "curing" an individual from mental illness, it is not unlikely that the next several decades will present breakthroughs and pharmacological research and counseling understanding that can redefine the way in which current treatment takes place. Far from a fanciful interpretation of what the future holds, this pronouncement of faith is based upon the fact that a great level of progress in understanding has already been exhibited; therefore denoting the fact that future progress and evolution within the medical sphere will continue to exhibit this dynamic within the future. Lastly, it should be appreciated that although mental illness has come to be more well understood within the medical realm, it continues to be misrepresented throughout society; thereby creating a situation in which many individuals do not come forward for treatment or diagnosis due to the stigma that is necessarily represents. References Bewley, M., & Morgan, R. (2011). A National Survey of Mental Health Services available to offenders with mental illness: Who is doing what?. Law & Human Behavior (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.), 35(5), 351-363. doi:10.1007/s10979-010-9242-4 Cummings, J. R., Lucas, S. M., & Druss, B. G. (2013). Addressing public stigma and disparities among persons with mental illness: The role of federal policy. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(5), 781-785. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301224 De Lorenzo, M. (2013). Employee mental illness: Managing the hidden epidemic. Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal,25(4), 219-238. doi:10.1007/s10672-013-9226-x Forbes, H. J., Boyd, C. S., Jones, N., Greenberg, N., Jones, E., Wessely, S., & ... Fear, N. T. (2013). Attitudes to mental illness in the U.K. Military: A comparison with the general population. Military Medicine, 178(9), 957-965. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-12-00436 Kobau, R., & Zack, M. M. (2013). Attitudes toward mental illness in adults by mental illness-related factors and chronic disease status: 2007 and 2009 behavioral risk factor surveillance system. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(11), 2078-2089. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301321 Saxton, L. (2013). Managing long term mental health conditions in primary care. Practice Nurse, 43(9), 15-19. Read More