I need to know what Schizophrenia is. And the cause of the disorder, and the treatment of the disorder. Can you guys please help me out! :] thankks
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. The person finds it difficult to tell the difference between real and imagined experiences, to think logically, to express feelings, or to behave appropriately.
People with schizophrenia may hear internal voices not heard by others or may see things that are not really there. These experiences can seem threatening and can make them fearful and withdrawn. They also may have trouble organizing their thoughts and expressing themselves. Their speech and behavior can be so disorganized that they may seem frightening to others.
Schizophrenia is one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses. Contrary to popular belief, it does not involve a "Jekyll-and-Hyde" type of split personality. Instead, it means that all the attributes that go into the makeup of the human personality - logical thinking, feelings and expression, perception, and relating to others - become separated from one another.
Nice To Know:
Schizophrenia literally means "a split mind," and this may be where the misconception of split personality took root. Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, first used the term in 1911 to describe patients whose thought processes seemed disconnected.
Schizophrenia affects about one percent of the world's population and is found all over the world, in all ethnic and social groups.
People with schizophrenia often have difficulty functioning in society, at work, and in school. The illness can be taxing on both the individuals who are affected and on their families.
But the symptoms of schizophrenia vary widely from one person to another. In some people, the dissociated feelings caused by the illness are a constant part of life. In others, the symptoms will come and go.
People with schizophrenia do not always act abnormally. They may appear perfectly responsible and in control, even when experiencing hallucinations or delusions.
Schizophrenia cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be reduced significantly with treatment.
The vast majority of people with schizophrenia are living either full and productive lives or relatively independent lives.
Facts About Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia affects an estimated one percent of the world's population.
Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 15 and 35.
Schizophrenia affects males and females equally, although symptoms often appear earlier in males.
In the U.S., about 2.5 million people have this illness.
About 80 percent of people with schizophrenia can live either full, productive lives or relatively independent lives with treatment.
The other 20 percent of sufferers will require long-term, structured care.
People with schizophrenia have a higher rate of suicide than the general population. Approximately 10 percent of people with schizophrenia (especially younger adult males) commit suicide.
Schizophrenia accounts for about 40 percent of all long-term hospitalization.
Schizophrenia can run in families. The risk for inheriting schizophrenia is 10 percent in those who have an immediate family member with the illness, and 40 percent if the illness affect both parents or an identical twin.
Heredity does not explain all cases, however. About 60 percent of people with schizophrenia have no close relatives with the illness.
Early treatment of schizophrenia and newer treatment options may control the illness in up to 85 percent of individuals.
Schizophrenia is basically when people begin to hallucinate. It's usually characterized by seeing things that aren't really there, but some people also hear things or even feel things that aren't really there either (Example, some people imagine a stranger dressed in black grabbing their arm - and it actually FEELS like someone is grabbing their arm)
As for treatment...there are some pills/medication that you can take but I don't know specific names. There are many, though, some of them don't help or they have sideaffects Mental Health: Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a serious brain disorder that distorts the way a person thinks, acts, expresses emotions, perceives reality and relates to others. People with schizophrenia -- the most chronic and disabling of the major mental illnesses -- often have problems functioning in society, at work and at school, and in relationships. Schizophrenia can leave its sufferer frightened and withdrawn. It is a life-long disease that cannot be cured, but usually can be controlled with proper treatment.
Contrary to popular belief, schizophrenia is not a split personality. Schizophrenia is a psychosis, a type of mental illness in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. At times, people with psychotic disorders lose touch with reality. The world may seem like a jumble of confusing thoughts, images and sounds. The behavior of people with schizophrenia may be very strange and even shocking. A sudden change in personality and behavior, which occurs when people lose touch with reality, is called a psychotic episode.
Schizophrenia varies in severity from person to person. Some people have only one psychotic episode while others have many episodes during a lifetime but lead relatively normal lives between episodes. Schizophrenia symptoms seem to worsen and improve in cycles known as relapses and remissions.
Schizophrenia is a term given to a complex group of mental disorders. However, different types of schizophrenia may have some of the same symptoms. There are several subtypes of schizophrenia based on symptoms
Because the causes of schizophrenia are still unknown, current treatments focus on eliminating the symptoms of the disease.
Antipsychotic medications
Antipsychotic medications have been available since the mid-1950s. They effectively alleviate the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. While these drugs have greatly improved the lives of many patients, they do not cure schizophrenia.
Everyone responds differently to antipsychotic medication. Sometimes several different drugs must be tried before the right one is found. People with schizophrenia should work in partnership with their doctors to find the medications that control their symptoms best with the fewest side effects.
The older antipsychotic medications include chlorpromazine (Thorazine庐), haloperidol (Haldol庐), perphenazine (Etrafon庐, Trilafon庐), and fluphenzine (Prolixin庐). The older medications can cause extrapyramidal side effects, such as rigidity, persistent muscle spasms, tremors, and restlessness.
In the 1990s, new drugs, called atypical antipsychotics, were developed that rarely produced these side effects. The first of these new drugs was clozapine (Clozaril庐). It treats psychotic symptoms effectively even in people who do not respond to other medications, but it can produce a serious problem called agranulocytosis, a loss of the white blood cells that fight infection. Therefore, patients who take clozapine must have their white blood cell counts monitored every week or two. The inconvenience and cost of both the blood tests and the medication itself has made treatment with clozapine difficult for many people, but it is the drug of choice for those whose symptoms do not respond to the other antipsychotic medications, old or new.
Some of the drugs that were developed after clozapine was introduced鈥攕uch as risperidone (Risperdal庐), olanzapine (Zyprexa庐), quietiapine (Seroquel庐), sertindole (Serdolect庐), and ziprasidone (Geodon庐)鈥攁re effective and rarely produce extrapyramidal symptoms and do not cause agranulocytosis; but they can cause weight gain and metabolic changes associated with an increased risk of diabetes and high cholesterol.
People respond individually to antipsychotic medications, although agitation and hallucinations usually improve within days and delusions usually improve within a few weeks. Many people see substantial improvement in both types of symptoms by the sixth week of treatment. No one can tell beforehand exactly how a medication will affect a particular individual, and sometimes several medications must be tried before the right one is found.
When people first start to take atypical antipsychotics, they may become drowsy; experience dizziness when they change positions; have blurred vision; or develop a rapid heartbeat, menstrual problems, a sensitivity to the sun, or skin rashes. Many of these symptoms will go away after the first days of treatment, but people who are taking atypical antipsychotics should not drive until they adjust to their new medication.
If people with schizophrenia become depressed, it may be necessary to add an antidepressant to their drug regimen.
short question but need a long and wide explanations.
shortly, it derives from a neurosis and then reveal in two kinds of the schizophrenia: paranoia type and hebrephrenia type.
treatment begin by dismantling what makes him/her in neurotic condition. http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/g...
I highly recommend the movie A Beautiful Mind. It's a true story of a college professor that has schizophrenia. REALLY good movie. It is the mind fighting the mind. It is treatable.
It is caused by a variety of things, abuse, ridicule, pain, being presented with catch 22 situations, extreme stress, being pinned down under enemy fire for hours, etc. |
