Schizophrenia Symptom, Treatment and cause

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Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness in which there is a disintegration of the process of thinking, of contact with reality, and of emotional responsiveness. It consists of auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, and disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. Schizophrenics are the people suffering from Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is often associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and has an underlying genetic cause.

Schizophrenia is the most common of the major mental disorder, whose clinically symptology, etiology, and prognosis is fraught and confused. It is characterized by withdrawal into a private world by belief and percepts, which are not shared by others. This disorder affects 1 % of the population and has been considered as everything from a single disease to a way of life. Its prognosis has been described as hopeless and as better than that of most neuroses.

There are at least six problems that persist while evaluating of any hypothesis about schizophrenia:

1. It may not be a single entity, but rather a number of different conditions.
2. It is characterized by variability. In whatever is studied, the pluses and minuses may cancel each other out, leaving average characteristic of schizophrenics as a group, but to individuals.
3. There may be significant differences between acute and chronic forms of the disorder.
4. It is uncertain whether the signs and symptoms used for diagnosis and classification are indicative of etiology or are secondary to other process.
5. It is uncertain whether the disorder is - an end state, the process of reaching that end state or both.

Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

THE DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDER of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM, 1968) defines schizophrenia as a severe emotional disorder of psychotic depth, characteristically marked by a retreat from reality, delusion, hallucination, emotional disharmony and regressive behavior.

The world health organization has made a major effort to standardize the diagnosis of schizophrenia. The core symptoms of schizophrenia as revealed by these studies are:

• Auditory hallucination (74%)
• Flatness of affect (66%)
• Voice speaking to the patient (65%)
• Thought alienation (62%)
• Thought spoken aloud (50%)
• Delusions of control (48%)

Schizophrenia does not imply a Split Mind and it is not the same as dissociative identity disorder a condition with which it is often confused in public perception.

Some facts about Schizophrenia

1. Schizophrenia is diagnosed in people aged 17-35 years.
2. The illness appears earlier in men than in women
3. Many of the affected people are disabled.
4. Schizophrenics may not be able to hold down jobs or even perform tasks as simple as conversations.
5. Many are homeless.
6. Some Schizophrenics recover enough to live a life free from assistance.
7. People with schizophrenia may not make sense when they talk.
8. Sometimes people with schizophrenia seem perfectly fine until they talk.
9. People with schizophrenia are not usually violent

Statistics around Schizophrenics

Schizophrenia affects about 24 million people wordwide. Schizophrenia is a treatable disorder, but like cancer, its treatment is more effective if started in initial stages. More than 50% of persons with schizophrenia are not receiving appropriate care. 90% of people with untreated schizophrenia are in developing countries. Care of persons with schizophrenia can be provided at community level, with active family and community involvement.

The problem is fairly universal in all cultures and countries, across ethnic groups. Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain and, unfortunately, we don’t understand what’s wrong with the brain as such. 30% of the patients recover fully after a single episode. 20-30% are profoundly disabled and don’t get better. A small percentage are hospitalized for life.

Types of Schizophrenia

The DSM-IV-TR contains five sub-classifications of schizophrenia

• Paranoid type
• Disorganized type
• Catatonic type
• Undifferentiated type
• Residual type

Diagnosing people with schizophrenia

No laboratory test can diagnose this disorder. However, individuals with Schizophrenia often have a number of neurological abnormalities which makes it easy to determine. They have number of cognitive deficits on psychological testing, for example, poor attention, poor memory, difficulty in changing response set, impairment in sensory gating, etc.

Treatment procedure for treating Schizophrenias

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a procedure in which electric currents are passed through the brain, deliberately triggering a brief seizure. Electroconvulsive therapy seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can immediately reverse symptoms of certain mental illnesses. In the emergency room, a mental health professional will assess the patient and determine whether a voluntary or involuntary admission is needed. For a person to be admitted involuntarily, the law states that the professional must witness psychotic behavior and hear the person voice delusional thoughts.

Sub Types - Behavior patterns of Schizophrenia:

It is usually divided into a number of sub-types depending upon predominant secondary signs in addition to that necessary diagnosis of the disorder. Because patients tend to have their differentiating features, these sub-types are probably best seen as behavior patterns.

1. Catatonic Schizophrenia
2. Hebephrenic Schizophrenia
3. Paranoid Schizophrenia

Disorganized schizophrenia, John Nash Schizophrenia, Etiology of schizophrenia, Paranoia

Cure of Schizophrenia

1. Group and Occupational Psychotherapies - These methods have succeeded in bringing relief to many patients suffering from the disease.
2. Re-learning: It has always proved valuable for the schizophrenic patients.
3. Electric Shock therapy- In recent times this method has been employed to cure patients of their schizophrenic tendencies, but yet there is no saying what permanent affect it can achieve.
4. Medicine: The cure of this disease also involves use of insulin injection and metharanol.

Fundamentally what is essential for curing the schizophrenic is that basic adjustment between individual and the environment should be achieved, and for this different method can be employed, the choice being suggested by the circumstances itself.

Facts and Tips about Schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia is a psychological problem or brain dysfunction.
• Schizophrenia include some symptoms like nightmare, fantasy, obsess, confusion while speaking with others.
• Genetic and psychological problems are the ordinary causes of schizophrenia.
• Anti-psychotic medicines, cognitive therapies and talk therapies are the beneficial ways to cure your disease.
• Consume Vitamin C rich food and low carbohydrates.
• Family members should get knowledge about schizophrenia to reduce the effects of symptoms.
• Experiences, performances of patient are the two points on which diagnosis is depended.

Hi: I speak my thoughts aloud...it's embarrassing and scary.
But I don't have the other symptoms of schizophrenia...
I've experienced trauma from conception to late adulthood...had four pregnancies within a five year period and don't drink or take drugs...nor have I ever done so.
Is there any other disorder that could result in someone speaking aloud or is it only a symptom of schizophrenia...thanks... (katherine grant)