Brenda Diaz
Regents Research Paper-Schizophrenia
Mr.Rader
March 21,2014
Schizophrenia. Most people know what this is. But what most people don't know is that it is a serious mental illness that each person has a risk of developing in their life. It is quite common with mental patients. Half the people in mental hospitals are schizophrenic. This mental illness can cause many challenges in anyone's day to day life. Many people don't understand what it means to have a mental illness. They don't understand the struggle mental patients have to suffer with. There are many things that people with schizophrenia go through.
In order to understand what schizophrenia is you first have to know where it originates. Kraepelin, Emil (1856–1926) was a German psychiatrist who believed in the physical basis of mental disorders and expressed the necessity of a scientific and objective approach to understanding mental functioning. Krapelin was the first person to classify schizophrenia as a severe mental illness but when he first classified it he named the disease dementia praecox. Kraepelin believed that these were distinct diseases with separate causes, courses, and outcomes. He died in Munich on Oct. 7, 1926. The name dementia praecox was kept until Eugen Bleuler. Changed the name to schizophrenia. Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist, who is mostly known for his extensive study of schizophrenia. He was born in Zürich on April 30, 1857, and received his medical degree from the University of Zürich. Bleuler came to believe that "dementia praecox," which was regarded as a single disease, was, in fact, a group of psychiatric reactions. He came up with the term "schizophrenia" as the new name for these reactions. This name came to be from the Gr...
... middle of paper ...
...n neglect basic personal hygiene. This may make them seem lazy or unwilling to help themselves. But that is not the case, it is in realty symptoms of schizophrenia. Cognitive symptoms are subtle. Cognitive symptoms often make it hard to lead a normal life and earn a living. They can cause great emotional distress.
Schizophrenia does not only affect the person with the disorder but it also affects the people around them. Mental illnesses patients have many disadvantages and challenges that they have to go through. There is many symptoms that come with it. There are also many beliefs on how it comes to be in people. But the thing that matters the most is finding a cure or better medication to help people with schizophrenia or any other mental illness. Can knowing all this information really help with finding a cure or do scientist have to go into something deeper.
According to the DSM-IV, schizophrenia is classified under the section of “Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders”. Schizophrenia is one of the most serious major chronic brain disorders in the field of mental health; it is a neurological disorder that affects the cognitive functions of the human brain. People living with this incapacitating illness can experience multiple symptoms that will cause extreme strain in their own and their families and friends life. The individual can lose reality, unable to work, have delusions and hallucinations, may have disorganized speech and thought processes, will withdraw from people and activities, they may become suspicious and paranoid, may behave inappropriately in every day social situations. They may neglect personal hygiene and dress improperly, use excessive make-up; every day life is becoming chaotic for everyone involved.
Every year one hundred thousand young Americans are diagnosed with the disease schizophrenia (Carman Research). Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that is associated with unnatural behavior or thinking . The disease usually affects people during the late adolescence stage or early adulthood, typically during this time they develop the symptoms linked to the disease.
Schizophrenia has multiple symptoms; according to the World of Health Organization, these symptoms include “delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavior [as well as depressive behavior].” Monomania
There is still no unanimously accepted definition of schizophrenia, and appreciable differences exist between the narrowest and widest definition (Tsuang 13). It is a disease that includes a disturbance in cognition that renders the individual "out of touch with reality". Emotions are distorted in schizophrenia and they are typified by being socially withdrawn (Lahey 555).
Schizophrenia can affect one's everyday life by the way they take care of themselves and relying on others more frequently. People with schizophrenia may find it difficult to keep an everyday job. It is easy for them to become distracted as they are dealing with the voice in their head that is accompanied by schizophrenia. The individual may also become paranoid and proceed to believe that they are being followed or spied on by something or someone. They will also spend a long time worrying about what others are thinking or doing to them. Another serious symptom of schizophrenia is the lack of interest and pleasure the person shows in everyday life. They may find it difficult to complete a certain task or follow through with plans or activities.
In conclusion, schizophrenia is a disease that is not well under stood. As more is learned about the disease and how it affects the brain of those who suffer from it better treatments will be discovered. Even with the best treatment, support from family and friends are crucial in maintaining normality to the life of those with schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a group of psychotic disorders with major impairments in thought, emotion, and behavior; there is a constant prevalence rate of one percent with the occurrence being slightly higher in men. Though different psychologists have various theories on whether the disorder is linked to genetics or social economic status, schizophrenia in all
Schizophrenia is considered a disease of the brain, a physical disorder that, thanks to modern technology, is able to be visualized. Schizophrenia, along with other diseases of the brain, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and multiple sclerosis, are all brain diseases which alter both functionality and structure of the brain. Schizophrenia has been called a cruel disease, one that impairs life greatly in a degenerative fashion, altering emotions and various abilities greatly. This unfortunate disease is quite common, effecting about one to two percent of the World's population. About two to four percent of the population suffer from less severe yet still debilitating and disturbing schizophrenic-like symptoms. An estimated sixty five billion a dollars per year is spent on this disorder in the United States.(2) It is estimated that over two million Americans suffer from schizophrenia in their lifetime..
As an overview, schizophrenia is a disease to the brain. It is one of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses known to man. It has been misunderstood for a long time. It has a biological basis, so it is like other diseases. It is a very common disease; one percent to one and a half percent of the U.S. has been diagnosed within some point in their life. There is no cure for this disease, although there is treatable medicine. Schizophrenia is not a multiple personality disorder. People who take medicine for it are able to lead normal fulfilling lives.
There are several people every year that are diagnosed with a mental disorder. In the world’s entire population, more than one percent of people have been diagnosed with schizophrenia (Brain and Behavior Research Foundation). When thinking of the billions of people in the world, it might not seem like that many people but once the number of those diagnosed is calculated it seems much larger. Currently there are more than seventy million people in the world that have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, only diagnosed. There are probably several more people who have this disorder and have not been diagnosed or are unable to obtain the resources to be diagnosed.
WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA? The modern definition of schizophrenia describes it as a long-lasting psychotic disorder (involving a severe break with reality), in which there is an inability to distinguish what is real from fantasy as well as disturbances in thinking, emotions, behavior, and perception (Cicarelli, p. 557). SYMPTOMS Schizophrenia includes several symptoms.
...ients that suffer severe symptoms. The most common treatment is a combination of medicine and therapy. Where the patient engages in individual psychotherapy with a therapist, rehabilitation, family education, or self help groups. These therapies usually help people cope with schizophrenia and its effects. At this time there is no cure for schizophrenia, there are very effective treatments and medications. Research is being conducted to help scientists understand the disorder better and is being used to try to treat schizophrenia permanently. The only way this is possible is with the use of new treatments, such as new experimental drugs and electrotherapy. No treatments today are preventative nor do they permanently “cure” schizophrenia, but we can look to the bright future for the development of a new treatment option that could potentially fully cure schizophrenia.
There are a number of ways that schizophrenia can develop through a person. There can be even more factors that contribute to the development of the disorder. Scientists are still observing and researching anything they could possibly find out, whether that is gene related or environment related. It is still a disorder that confuses everyone in our society today.
First formally discovered in 1887 by Dr. Kraepelin, the illness has been around for many years and deserves to be recognized by one and taken seriously (The Internet Mental Health Initiative). One can easily go their entire life without knowing the effects of schizophrenia, which is why it is important to be educated on this topic. Schizophrenia is unlike many other illnesses and is known as a real disease. The longer one stays in the dark about not understanding the basics of schizophrenia and the longer one does not have an open mind to it, the longer our community will not be unified and supportive of one
This psychotic disorder primarily affects a human’s brain. A person living with this mental illness experiences several symptoms as well as signs. Therefore an individual relies on a relative or someone he/she is comfortable with in order to watch him/her. People who are suffering from Schizophrenia are usually referred to as Schizophrenics. Many individuals have a difficult time accepting that either he or she has been diagnosed with Schizophrenia. This mental disorder mainly affects a human’s state of mind as well as his/her personality. Schizophrenia affects both men and woman of all ages and race. But young men in their early teens are more affected with this psychotic illness than young women. An individual’s brain functions differently than a normal human’s mind.