The Causes Of Schizophrenia

The DSM-V classifies schizophrenia as a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior, and other symptoms that cause social or occupational dysfunction. For a diagnosis to be made, symptoms must have been present for six months and include at least one month of active symptoms. Schizophrenia is a disorder that can be found in nearly every culture. With a wide range of cultural subgroups and a multiplicity of individual cultural variations, perceptions and attitudes toward schizophrenia are extremely diverse. The beliefs about the causation of schizophrenia can influence the attitudes patients adopt about their illness and toward seeking help. For example, the cultural background of an individual

In India, like in many countries, family members generally do not institutionalize other family members in need of significant medical care. They take on the demanding responsibility of caring for their mentally ill relatives. In some cases due to very little knowledge about schizophrenia, misconceptions about the causes of schizophrenia as well as stereotypes about the disease have emerged in the Indian culture. “[Certain] Indian families have been typically described as often believing in causes like supernatural forces and therefore seek help from magico-religious healers” (Srinivasan and Thara, 2001). However, in other cases, “much of the information on relatives’ belief about the cause of schizophrenia has come from developed countries, where the families are most likely better exposed to information about the disease than families in developing [regions] with low literacy” (Srinivasan and Thara, 2001). Two subsequent studies show forth the truth of these general

They were asked to name triggers they believed were involved in the development of the disorder. Twelve percent of the participants believed that the cause stemmed from supernatural forces and the rest specified other factors such as heredity, brain dysfunction, psychosocial stressors (stress in family), personality defect in adjustment and fate or God’s will. This study shows how attitudes and perceptions toward schizophrenia within a cultural subgroup can change from the normative beliefs of a culture. In more recent years, researchers evaluated the personal beliefs of seventy-three patients with schizophrenia in southern India between the ages of 20 to 60 by using a self-rated questionnaire. “A seventeen item Hindi questionnaire was designed specifically to study individual's beliefs in various types of magico-religious beliefs, the role of magico-religious beliefs in causation of mental illness/behavioral abnormalities and the role of treatment based on such beliefs” (Kate, Grover, Kulhara, & Nehra, 2012). Researchers found that despite increased urban population and Westernization of India over the years, two thirds of the patients still attributed their symptoms to metaphysical (karma, celestial beings) and supernatural forces but conversely forty percent talked of autonomy and participation in treatment decisions as opposed to relying solely on ancient