The Vicious Cycle Of Schizophrenia

Module 3 Essay Questions

1. In your own words, fully describe and discuss the vicious cycle of schizophrenia (6 pts.).

The vicious cycle of schizophrenia has a lot of parallels to normal people except for the actual biological diathesis and selective attention dysfunction. If a person is already pre disposed to the schizophrenia genes, then it can happen at any point in time, they could spiral down into a psychosis. The selective attention dysfunction is how the person cannot tune out, in a sense, surrounding things or apply different contexts to words that shouldn’t mean what they think. This is then escalated by having a difficult time reality testing and it is hard for people with schizophrenia to differentiate the difference between real and not real. There are various types of schizophrenia but one is especially associated with this dysfunction and that is hearing voices which are speculated to be their self-talking but they hear those as real voices and applies underlining meanings to them. The domino effect continues because the mind still recognizes the discomfort in the environment and the uneasiness so stress is then thrown into the mix. Stress then accelerates the selective attention dysfunction and the gears continue to go faster in the overall down fall of the functioning mind.

2. Define and describe the “positive” and “negative” symptoms of schizophrenia. Explain what is meant by these terms and how they relate to prognosis and treatment outcome (8 pts.).

The positive symptoms of schizophrenia are the visual effects of the disorder such as hallucinations or delusions and quite possibly both. Approximately 50-70 percent of all schizophrenic patients have either one or both of these symptoms. The positive symptom w...

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...ons that have been developed over the years to help curb the initial symptoms of the disease. Most of these medications work by preventing ACH breakdown, which is the neurotransmitter that everyone has that send signals to and from the brain. A cure has not been found for dementia, but the medications do help with daily functioning for the mean time. Because the onset of the disease can be an emotional and stressful situation, antidepressants and antipsychotics can be used to manage the emotional and cognitive symptoms of the disorder such as depression. By giving cognitive stimulation and developing tools to remember certain things, psychosocial approaches may help exercise the brain, if you will, and help combat the memory issues. Overall, there is no cure for dementia, but some of these methods have shown to be useful in extending a more positive, memorable life.