Today I am going to talk to you about Schizophrenia and a closer look into my experiences of being diagnosed with it. When a doctor describes schizophrenia as a psychotic disorder, it means that, in their view, the patient can’t tell their own intense thoughts, ideas, perceptions and imaginings from reality. There are different types of schizophrenia. The most common one is paranoid schizophrenia which if generally a manifestation on multiple symptoms. Different patients will have different symptoms which will indicate what type of schizophrenia they have.
Schizophrenia cannot be diagnosed if an existing mood disorder or developmental disorder has been diagnosed, or if there are organic origins. Diagnosis is complicated by having to rule these things out. However, some individuals do not fit within the categories created. Schizophrenia has a strong co-morbidity with mood disorders that it is considered a fundamental characteristic. Buckley et al (2009) identified the following co-morbidities with schizophrenia and suggested that they might represent sub types of schizophrenia: panic disorder 15%, post traumatic stress 29%,
Gregory (2010) describes Schizophrenia as the perfect example of a severe mental illness. The world is an incomprehensible jumble for Schizophrenics and the line between delusion and reality is blurred, if not obliterated. The American Psychiatric Association (2013) categorises Schizophrenia as a psychotic disorder, with abnormalities in one or more of 5 domains. These are delusions, hallucinations, disorganised thinking and speech, and grossly disorganised or abnormal motor behaviour such as catatonia. If these delusions and beliefs are not understandable to cultural peers and not related to ordinary life experiences, they are deemed to be bizarre (The American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Schizophrenia is defined as a psychotic disorder in which people are disturbed by their own thoughts. Whether it be voices or illusions people that suffer from this illness tend to distort reality. Schizophrenia is usually diagnosed between the ages of 16-30, though it is still being researched today, we are not certain how schizophrenia is developed. Some scientists believe that schizophrenia is caused by a gene malfunction; other scientists say it is caused by family genetics. There are three main symptoms of schizophrenia, delusions, hallucinations, and thought disorder.
The ICD also lists two types of schizophrenia that are not present in the DSM resulting in inconsistency of diagnosis depending on what classification system is used thus causing a lack in reliability. The criteria for schizophrenia has changed considerably and it is believed to be a broad term because at least two different conditions exist (Crow). It has many different categories and symptoms & the broadness of the criteria makes if difficult to diagnose the disorder. As the definition of schizophrenia is always changing, it is unreliable as it lacks consistency thus invalidating the classification of the illness. This effects treatments, diagnosis and aetiology.
Schizophrenia & Other Psychotic Disorders: Schizophrenia, Delusional Disorder, brief Psychosis, Schizo-affective Disorder & Shared Psychotic Disorder. SchizophreniaSchizophrenia is a psychotic illness which can affect people in variety of ways, there is no evidence as yet why one develops the illness. Studies suggest there can be a combination of factors which can trigger the illness. It is agreed by health professionals that schizophrenia is most likely caused by a combination of factors, which can include the following: Dopamine is one of the chemicals that carry messages between brain cells and if there is too much Dopamine it can be a factor of one developing the illness. Genetic can play a big part in someone developing the illness as they are more vulnerable to the illness.
The question explored throughout the five sources is if in fact shamans are affected by a psychopathic disorder, most commonly schizophrenia and the arguments backing the opposing opinion are convincing for both positions on the matter. It is important for me to note that my personal opinion is not expressed throughout the paper, for it is an investigation of scholarly research that exists on the subject. Shamanism
There are many issues when it comes to the classification and diagnosis of schizophrenia, one of them being the reliability of the major classification systems, the DSM and ICD. Early versions of the DSM were deemed unreliable, even now when the newer versions are now said to have increased reliability there is little evidence to prove that the DSM is used with high reliability by mental health clinicians. This unreliable source of diagnosis may cause some patients to be misdiagnosed and due to this misdiagnosis many terrible situations may occur, they will be mistreated and therefore will be given drugs and exercises which are completely irrelevant to what they need to do, this could cause great harm to both their physical and mental well being, the misdiagnosis can also affect how they are in real life for example they will be labelled schizophrenic and therefore will struggle with everything in life, such as getting a job or even being themselves for they believe what they have been told to be true. There is also an issue with the treatment of schizophrenia due to the significant difficulty in predicting the outcome or the response, because every case of schizophrenia is different in their own way then there is no telling what the same treatment will do to one patient in comparison with another this uncertainty clearly points out a huge point at which the diagnosis of schizophrenia is just too vague, there are many sub types and for this how can all of them be put under the same title for the same treatment... Schizophrenia is a term which is somewhat thrown around, especially by the media, misleading the general population into thinking it is a mental disorder which you should be scared of due to the delusions and hallucinations which we have been told occur all the time, this in fact is not completely true as there are many subtypes of schizophrenia, some
Schizophrenia is a disorder of the thought process where patients lose a normal sense of reality. They also have difficulty with basic cognitive functions such as thinking clearly and have disorganized thoughts, expressing feelings, and using appropriate behaviors. This disorder is characterized by the presence of strong delusions, which are irreversible false beliefs that patient’s entertain, even when their beliefs are disproved by presenting strong evidence. Another very characteristic symptom seen among these patients is the presence of hallucinations, both auditory and sensory, but predominantly auditory, which reflects an impaired perception of reality. There are several variants and subtypes of schizophrenia based on the patient demographics, severity and duration of symptoms and response to
Critical Analysis of the History and Treatment of Schizophrenia in Modern Psychology In the field of modern psychology and in American society at large schizophrenia remains a largely misunderstood mental illness since its first mention in the DSM-I under the classification of “schizophrenic reactions” (Tartakovsky, 2010). Schizophrenia, as with many mental disorders and illnesses, remains somewhat of a taboo subject in today’s culture. For that reason, it is vitally important to understand the diagnosis, along with its history, prevalence, causes, treatment and impact. Today, the DSM-V has six main criteria for diagnosis including characteristic according to Tandon et al. (2013).