[pic] Schizophrenia, severe mental disorder characterised by a profound disruption of cognition and emotion, which affects a person’s language, thought, perception, affect and even sense of self. In most countries across the world, the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with schizophrenia is 1 per cent. There is a distinction between acute and chronic onset schizophrenia. In chronic onset, there is often an insidious change in an apparently normal young person who gradually loses drive and motivation and starts to drift away from friends. After months or even years of this deterioration, more obvious signs of disturbance such as delusional ideas or hallucinations, appear.
The DSM says that characteristics of schizophrenia must be present in a person for 6 months for a diagnosis of schizophrenia but the ICD states the most important symptoms be present for only one month. Characteristics include positive symptoms which are an excess of functioning such as persistent delusions. Negative symptoms are those which take away from functioning such as a lack of emotional response. the benefits of using a classification system are that people can seek suitable medication and treatment once they have been
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.
Adoption studies go one step further in narrowing down a strong correlational link by ruling out the effect of environment on development of schizophrenia to illustrate the genetic link more clearly. They do this by comparing adopted children to their biological parents to determine links with schizophrenia. Kendler found that first degree relatives of individuals with schizophrenia are 18 times more at risk of developing the condition as the general population. Illustrating the genetic predisposition within families who share genes, strongly supporting the genetic explanation as there is such a high concordance rate. However this study can be criticised because of its retrospective analysis after the disorder had developed, thus it may be more conclusive if a prospective study was conducted to show the ‘before and after’ effects within families.
EPDS scores for mothers and fathers correlated to a significant degree. Paternal depression correlated closely with higher total problem scores on the Rutter preschool scales. Emotional, conduct, and hyperactivity scores exhibited this association but prosocial behavior scores did not. Significant associations remained after adjusting for social class, degree of education, and maternal depression. Controlling for paternal depression at 21 months postnatally, postnatal paternal depression correlated with later conduct problems and also with hyperactivity.
“It occurs in 10 percent of people who have a first-degree relative with the disorder, such as a parent, brother, or sister. People who have second-degree relatives (aunts, uncles, grandparents, or cousins) with the disease also develop schizophrenia more often than the general population” (Schizophrenia, 2009). There isn’t just one gene that is associated with schizophrenia, but scientists believe there are several genes that are linked to the disorder. “Other recent studies suggest that schizophrenia may result in part when a certain gene that is key to making important brain chemicals malfunctions. This problem may affect the part of the brain involved in developing higher functioning skills” (Schizophrenia, 2009).
The risk of inheriting schizophrenia ranges from about 10% for those who have one first-degree family member (mother, father, sister, brother) with the disease to about 40%-65% if the disease affects both parents and an identical twin. However,
26 Brown J, Cohen P, Johnson JG, et al. Childhood abuse and neglect: specificity of effects on adolescent and young adult depression and suicidality. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999; 38(12): 1490-6. 27 Krug EG, Kresnow M, Peddicord JP, et al. Suicide after natural disasters.
Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases and Drugs Leta McDaniel Axia College February 23, 2012 Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases and Drugs Schizophrenia: There are several different types of Schizophrenia, the subtypes are Paranoid, Catatonic, disorganized, undifferentiated and residual. The kinds of symptoms that are utilized to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia are different between affected people. The diagnosis may change from one year to the next for the same person as the disease progresses. Different subtypes of schizophrenia are defined according to the most significant characteristics present in each person at different times. The result is that one person may be diagnosed with
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.