Symptoms of Schizophrenia

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Approximately 20% of North Americans will be affected by a mental illness during the course of their lifetime (Saha, Welham, Chant, & McGrath, 2008). Schizophrenia continues to develop new challenges today and continues to be a complex mental illness. It is a brain disorder that can happen to anyone occurring in any culture, affecting men and women equally and all areas of functioning, including thought, emotion, perception, and behavior.

Most commonly, schizophrenia strikes a person between his or her late teens and early 20s. Nonetheless, it can affect children as young as 12-years-old, or may lay dormant in a person until their late 20s (Saha, et al., 2008; Ueland & Rund, 2005). The cause of Schizophrenia is not fully known. However, it shows that Schizophrenia may be caused by the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Biological interpretations have dominated in previous studies. Nevertheless, neither the biological nor the environmental categories is determinant completely, and there is no guarantee that one will confirm if he will or will not develop Schizophrenia.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

The symptoms of schizophrenia range in severity and consistency. The most common symptom that people with schizophrenia experience is the inability to distinguish between real events from hallucinations and dreams. Some other usual signs and symptoms occur are anger, tendency to argue, intensity when interacting with others and violent behavior. They may appear very suddenly, or they may gradually come over an extended period (Saha, et al., 2008). Symptoms vary between individuals, and for periods of time a person with schizophrenia may experience no symptoms before experiencing a psychotic epis...

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... Resources, 70, 147—174.

Pilling S., Bebbington P., Kuipers E., Garety P., Geddes J.R., Martindale B., Orbach G., & Morgan C., (2002). Psychological treatments in schizophrenia, II: meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials of social skills training and cognitive remediation. Psychology Medicine, 32, 783—791

Roder V., Mueller D.R., Mueser K.T., & Brenner, H.D., (2006). Integrated psychological therapy (IPT) for schizophrenia: is it effective? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 32(1), S81—S93.

Saha S., Welham J., Chant D., & McGrath J., (2008). Modeling disease frequency measures in schizophrenia epidemiology. The Official Journal of the Schizophrenia International Research Society, 104(1), 246-254.

Ueland T, & Rund, B.R., (2005). Cognitive remediation for adolescents with early onset psychosis: a 1-year follow-up study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 111,193—201.

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