Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder, resulting in the patient hearing voices and noise inside his or her mind. Historically, this disorder has been a serious barrier to proper functioning in society. In the past many people were simply locked up in mental institutions because they were a danger to themselves and others. In some cases that is still necessary, but medications and treatments have come a long way. They allow some people with schizophrenia to live relatively normal lives. There are disagreements regarding what, specifically, causes the disease to manifest, although its onset is generally in young adulthood and it tends to run in families. That suggests a genetic component. Treatment generally involves medication, and there is no cure or prevention methods for schizophrenia. Both cultural and biblical issues play into a person's understanding of the disorder and the treatment he or she will receive. Future research must focus on ways in which the disease can be better diagnosed and treated, along with how the disease actually manifests and what causes it to appear.
Schizophrenia
Introduction
Schizophrenia is characterized by inappropriate emotional responses and a breakdown in proper thinking. Many people with the disorder hear voices and suffer from delusions (Aziz, Bellack, & Rosenfarb, 2006). They are often paranoid, and lack both motivation and emotion (Pijnenborg, et al., 2013; Ungvari, Caroff, & Gerevich, 2010). Additionally, they have very disordered thinking to the point they cannot function properly in both social and work relationships (Baier, 2010). The DSM is used to diagnose the disorder, as it must meet specific criteria. The criteria are based on self-reported issues by the patient and experiences of behavior that is not normal, followed by a clinical assessment (Aziz, Bellack, & Rosenfarb, 2006). There is no official, objective test, and the symptoms must be at a certain level of severity before a diagnosis is made (Ungvari, Caroff, & Gerevich, 2010).
Historical
Psychiatrist Kurt Schneider listed what he called first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia in the early 20th century (Aziz, Bellack, & Rosenfarb, 2006). These symptoms were used to distinguish schizophrenia from other mental health issues, but there were many reports of the disorder and the symptoms surrounding it before Schneider's time. There were few formal diagnoses, but writings detailing symptoms and the difficulties they presented were very common. The earliest cases seen in medical literature date back to 1797 and 1809, where it was considered to be more of a dementia that was caused by the ending of puberty (Hor & Taylor, 2010; Masterpasqua, 2009). There was a belief that the entire body was affected by the disorder, and that there was a cascade that came together all at once in a person's life to cause the disorder to manifest at that time (Baier, 2010).
Throughout the years, the diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia have been a point of contention. Many believe that Schneider's first-rank symptoms are too specific to be appropriate, and that there are better ways to determine whether a person has schizophrenia (Gorczynski & Faulkner, 2010; Hor & Taylor, 2010). Today, operational criteria are used instead, but it was not until the 1970s that these were agreed upon (Masterpasqua, 2009). Part of the difficulty stemmed from the idea that there were many more cases of the disorder diagnosed in the U.S. than were being diagnosed in Europe, which led people to believe that the U.S. had more mental health problems. Upon examination, it was determined that the real cause of the issue was not mental health problems but differences in diagnostic criteria (Pijnenborg, et al., 2013; Stafford, et al., 2013). When those were adjusted to be more similar in nature, the number of cases also balanced out to be more similar between countries (Pijnenborg, et al., 2013). Many people think of Schizophrenia as "split personality," but the two issues are distinct from one another are separate when it comes to a diagnosis (Aziz, Bellack, & Rosenfarb, 2006).
Cause of the Illness
It is currently believed that there are both environmental and genetic factors that cause schizophrenia to manifest in a person. Genetics can be quite serious when it comes to who will develop the disorder. People who have two parents with schizophrenia have a nearly 50% chance of developing it themselves (Pijnenborg, et al., 2013; Stafford, et al., 2013). Those with only one schizophrenic parent have a 13% chance, and people with a first-degree relative with the disorder see chances of nearly 7% (Stafford, et al., 2013). For those with more distant relatives who have schizophrenia the risk is much lower, but still notable. There are many possible candidates discussed when attempting to...
Likewise, managers and supervisors in vocational situations vary in their ability to handle relationships with subordinates appropriately. Furthermore, any significant change in, and (especially) reversal of the power differential may present more challenges, particularly in conjunction with any concurrent issues such as a prior history of abuse of power earlier in the relationship, such as before the change or reversal (Wallace, 2005). Family Stress Theory Even under the best of circumstances,
Causes of Crime Natural Causes of Crime The factors and precursors that are associated in whole or in part with the causes of crime are prolific and many. Many of those causes fall under one of three major categories, those being biological, sociological and psychological. Indeed, many crimes are caused in whole or in part by inherent biological attributes, external factors or a combination thereof. Crimes can be committed of a person
More importantly, however, contemporary realists differ from Nightingale in four main areas, those of theistic assumption, methods of research, determinism, and naturalism. While contemporary realists certainly agree with Nightingale's position that simply realizing fact is not enough, and that actions based on findings is important (Porter, 2001), Nightingale inserted a certain assumption of God into her realistic viewpoints that modern realism avoids. Whereas Nightingale supported the concept that man's actions
Cannabis in the UK: De-Penalisation, Decriminalisation, or Legalisation? In October of 2015, the Parliament of the United Kingdom was forced to debate whether the current prohibition on cannabis should end in some way. "Forced" is the correct word here, because Parliament seems otherwise unwilling to address the issue, but in this case it was obliged by its own policy, whereby any petition signed by at least one hundred thousand people must
sex vs. gender and nature vs. nature on a multi-disciplinary approach. We base our discussion on a variety of papers which we present as annotated bibliography. The papers are then used in the development of rest of the paper. We present our paper on the following views: religion, culture, norms, society etc. One of the major issues that has attracted a lot of debate in this century in the field
94). The modern legal definition of disease provides a useful starting point for an examination of the concept of disease and how it is regarded by various disciplines. According to Black's Law Dictionary (1990), disease is a "deviation from the healthy or normal condition of any of the functions or tissues of the body. An alternation in the state of the body or some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now