Schizophrenia Be Screened For Schizophrenia Essay

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Should everyone with a family history of schizophrenia be screened for the gene that causes it? Schizophrenia is the most persistent and disabling of the major mental illnesses. It usually attacks people between the ages of 16 and 30, as they are beginning to realize their potential. It affects approximately one in 100 people worldwide, (one per cent of the population), affecting men and women almost equally. While it is treatable in many cases, there is as yet no cure for schizophrenia (World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders, 1997-09). Symptoms for schizophrenia include disordered thinking, delusions, and hallucinations. Since there is no known cure schizophrenia, people should not be screened for schizophrenia due to the fact that it…show more content…
The risk is highest for an identical twin of a person with schizophrenia. He or she has a 40 to 65 percent chance of developing the disorder (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, 2009). It’s been proven that schizophrenia does run in families. However, the fact that there are multiple causes for schizophrenia including outside factors such as environmental causes proves the point further that no test screening is ever completely and entirely accurate. For example, just because a person gets the screening, and it comes back negative, doesn’t mean they may not develop schizophrenia later on in life. There may not be any sign of the genes that cause schizophrenia, but that doesn’t mean that environmental factors won’t play a part later on in life. As DHHS stated, it’s not very likely that those with first or second-degree family members who have schizophrenia will also generate it, the only time it’s actually likely is within identical twins. A screening test is nothing more than a saliva sample sent into a lab, and it is incredibly costly. The reason for this is that
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