Look down, and tell me what you see. There is no surprise now, what you see is titular redundancy. Should I repeat labels? I took a break from writing so nothing new for two weeks, but here. Enjoy.
How Does Schizophrenia Affect the Mind and the Body?
i.e. the effect of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a medical condition common in the United States, with over 200,000 reported cases from one census (gstatic) to 3.5 million in the US (about 1.1% according to National Institute of Mental Health) and 24 million globally (World Health Organization). 7 or 8 people in every thousand will have schizophrenia (“Schizophrenia” 2), and though less common than the other mental disorders, is more serious.
Most people believe that schizophrenia is involving split personality, but in reality, the majority of afflicted people don't pose a danger to anyone; and neither is schizophrenia caused by childhood experiences or lack of willpower. Schizophrenia isn't just a single disorder, but a condition encompassing a wide range of disabilities. It can hinder cognitive, emotional and behavioral development. The symptoms are rarely the same, but normally, delusions, hallucinations and “food salad” or disorganized speech show a case of schizophrenia.
Some more symptoms include the constant feeling of being watched, a strange method of body positioning, peculiar ways of talking and writing, irrational responses, or extreme obsession with religion or the occult.
Despite all these known symptoms, the true cause of schizophrenia is still unknown. Theories include abnormalities, heredity, infections or immune disorders.
In regard to abnormalities, people with schizophrenia have an imbalance of the brain chemicals dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin (Mental Health America). Those chemicals are neurotransmitters, responsible in the transmission of messages between brain cells. The imbalance affects the reaction to stimuli. This imbalance explains the reasons a schizophrenic is overwhelmed by sensory information (loud music or bright lights).
According to Cleveland Clinic Med Ed, neural transmission has long been an object of investigation in schizophrenia. In the search for a pharmacological control drug, the first agents to be recognized were those with dopamine blocking properties. Several systems have been implicated with the cause, but the main focus is on dopamine and those brain features high in its content. For this, five dopamine receptor subtypes have been defined: D1 through D5. The blockade of receptor D2 has been shown to have the greatest effect to increasing the efficacy.
Studies of family trees have shown that schizophrenia tends to be passed down in families, and the person with the genes has a chance of schizophrenia when hormonal changes i.e. puberty occurs, or after highly stressful situations. In regards to genetic linking, Menu Matthews states that accumulating evidence shows that “genetic and neurodevelopmental factors” are associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia. Studies have shown that up to 50% of identical twins share a diagnosis of schizophrenia compared with around 12% of nonidentical twins sharing a diagnosis. Studies also show that approximately 10% of a patient's first-degree relatives are also schizophrenic, and there is a 50% chance that a child of two schizophrenic parents will be diagnosed.
Schizophrenia may be triggered by environmental events. It has been shown that babies whose mothers are infected by the flu while in pregnancy have a higher chance of developing schizophrenia later on. Anyone hospitalized for severe infections are at a higher risk.
There a few different methods to diagnosing schizophrenia: you can have a physical exam, tests and screenings, psychiatric evaluation, and diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia.
Physical exams can be used to rule out other possible issues and check possible issues that could be causing symptoms of schizophrenia.
Tests and screenings can include tests that rule out similar symptoms for other conditions, along with screening for alcohol and drugs. Doctors can request imaging studies such as MRIs or a CT scan.
Psychiatric evaluation would occur when a doctor or mental health professional checks mental status. It is done by observing behavior and checking for signs of hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, delusions, and substance use.
Doctors and mental professionals may also use criteria in ‘Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders’ issued by the American Psychiatric Association to evaluate for a disease. One entire section of this work details on schizophrenia and other collective mental disorders. Interestingly, it is rare that any person will be diagnosed with schizophrenia after the age of 45. The typical onset age is the mid-20s for men and late 20s for women, with a prodromal phase that can be for months or years before the first psychotic episode.
This disease has many effects. Each person has a unique symptom sequence, and they vary from person to person in magnitude as well. Symptoms follow a type of moon cycle: they wax and wane and are marked by recurring acute psychotic episodes.
The symptoms together, or rather the disease collection itself, causes a lack in awareness, meaning most affected won't send for help. This is due to them not knowing that what happens to them is from a mental disease. In this case, family members must send for medical assistance.
Possible symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, negative symptoms, and as mentioned before, premonitions or obsessions with the occult.
Delusions are false and unfounded beliefs about the real world. These include irrational beliefs that you are being harmed, comments being directed towards you, having an exceptional ability, or having premonitions of a major catastrophe about to happen. This is something that happens to most afflicted people.
Hallucinations are generally seeing or hearing non existent things, but for those with schizophrenia, they “have the full force and impact of a normal experience” (Mayo Clinic).
Thus, as compared to a normal non schizophrenic, people with schizophrenia will have larger effects from the same cause.
Schizophrenics can also have disorganized speech, leading to the inference of disorganized thought. Communication can be impaired, and answers may be complete or even unrelated to the question asked. Disorganized behavior may also occur, including abnormal motor behavior, from “childlike stillness to unpredictable agitation” (Mayo Clinic).
All symptoms are classified as either positive or negative, with positive being those that don’t normally occur in healthy people, and negative symptoms refers to lack of ability or function to do so. As described by the NIMH, “Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors”. Examples of positive symptoms include hallucinations or delusions, and negative symptoms include reduced dopamine signals or reduced speaking. Another classification of symptoms is cognitive. This is defined as those directly affecting the brain. These include poor functioning and trouble focusing or paying attention (“Schizophrenia” NIMH).
The real question for this topic is how the disease affects the brain. In a study spanning fifteen years, Nancy Andreasen analysed data of periodical brain scans from 200 subjects with schizophrenia. This was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
The study itself is considered the largest longitudinal brain-scan data set ever compiled, and has led to surprising results. The scans showed that people at their first episode had less brain tissue than healthy individuals. They show that people with schizophrenia are affected by something else inside the body before outward symptoms show. Andreasen states that “many studies, [mine] included, show that people with schizophrenia have significantly smaller cranium sizes.”
Cranial development is important early on, and people with schizophrenia may be affected with issues due to pregnancy complications or exposure to viruses.
“We used to have hundreds of thousands of people chronically hospitalized. Now, most are living in the community, and this is thanks to the medications we have. But antipsychotic treatment has a negative impact on the brain, so … we must get the word out that they should be used with great care, because even though they have fewer side effects than some of the other medications we use, they are certainly not trouble free and can have lifelong consequences for the health and happiness of the people and families we serve,” Andreasen notes.
She goes on further to say, “This was a very upsetting finding. We spent a couple of years analyzing the data… hoping we had made a mistake. But… it was a solid finding that wasn’t going to go away, so we decided to go ahead and publish it. The impact is painful because psychiatrists, patients, and family members don’t know how to interpret this finding. 'Should we stop using antipsychotic medication? Should we be using less?'”
Sources
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