| Quratulain |
| Estella |
| Agnes |
| Raquel |
Quratulain Khawaja Researching
schizophrenia is very important because it is a disease that affects
approximately 1 percent of the population. The cause isn’t clear but we do know
that schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. In fact,
more than two million Americans suffer from this illness each year. Schizophrenia affects men and women with
equal frequency but it often appears earlier in men. Schizophrenia is not curable but it is
treatable with medications that can help to reduce the symptoms of this
disease. Every illness has its own causes,
but the main cause of schizophrenia is essentially unknown. Scientists do not yet understand all the
factors that cause this disease. Some
factors that are known to cause this illness are changes in chemistry of the
brain, changes in structure of the brain and genetic factors. It has been known that schizophrenia runs in
families. People who have a close
relative with schizophrenia are more likely to develop this disorder than
people who don’t have relatives with this illness. According to the website Psychology
Information Online, when a monozygotic (identical) twin has schizophrenia
the other twin is at a higher risk, they have more than a 50% chance of
developing this illness. Scientists are
studying genetic factors in schizophrenia to understand it better. The studies show that multiple genes are
involved in creating a predisposition to develop this disorder. There are some biochemical factors that play
an important role in causing schizophrenia.
People who have schizophrenia appear to have an imbalance with
neurochemicals; due to this they are not producing enough brain chemicals
called a neurotransmitter. The neurotransmitter
helps in regulating functions in the brain and body. A person with the illness schizophrenia has
an overabundance of chemicals in his/her brain called dopamine. The dopamine causes problems in the brain and
later this becomes the disease schizophrenia.
Dopamine is produced due to the lack of protein in the brain. The function of protein is to filter out the
sensory information to the brain and if the protein is not being filtered
enough it causes brain to have schizophrenic symptoms. The
symptoms of schizophrenia are very diverse, according to the chapter “Mental and
Emotional Disorders: Schizophrenia” in the book Interdisciplinary English; the
schizophrenic suffers from disorders of thought, such as incoherence, illogical
thinking, delusions (false beliefs) and hallucinations (perceptions of
imaginary events and objects). Delusions are false personal beliefs that are
not subject to any reason. For example if a person is suffering from paranoid
schizophrenia, which is characterized by delusion of having a higher social
importance, This individual may not trust anyone and may be anxious or angry
with others. The schizophrenic may
become violent due to a belief that his/her life is being threatened. A schizophrenic who is suffering from hallucinations
may hear, see, touch, and smell what others do not. They often hear voices that a normal person
doesn’t hear. According to the website Psychology
Information Online states “People with schizophrenia often suffer
terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or
believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their
thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful and
withdrawn. Their speech and behavior can be so disorganized that they may be
incomprehensible or frightening to others”.
As a result of this, a schizophrenic person may become dangerous. A person with schizophrenia might not know
how he/she is harming others. Therefore, Schizophrenia is very troubling to the
person who has it. The
most effective way of treating schizophrenia is medication. Antipsychotic medications have been available
since the mid 1950’s. These medications
reduce the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and usually patient’s function
more appropriately after using them.
These drugs also help to keep control on the release of the
neurotransmitter, dopamine. It is very
important for a patient to consult a doctor before using these drugs. They
should be familiar with side effects and other causes that can occur from using
these drugs. In 1990 a number of new antipsychotic drugs was introduced,
Clozaril is one of them. This has shown
the most effective drug but this can cause side effects, in particular a
condition called agranulocytosis (loss of white blood cells). There are several other drugs that are
currently under development.
Antipsychotic drugs are very helpful in treating symptoms of
schizophrenia such as delusion and hallucinations, however they might not be
helpful for people who suffer from schizophrenia, reduced motivation and
emotional expressiveness. Schizophrenia
is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease, which makes a person lose
touch with reality. It affects the way
people speak, think, behave and react to certain things. Anyone who has a
family member or close relative suffering from this disorder should be familiar
with the symptoms of this disorder and help yourself or others before it gets
worse. The antipschotic drugs can help
the patient to get better. Hopefully in
the future, scientists will find something to cure this mental and emotional
disorder.
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ESL 91
Spring, 2004
Essay Topic:
Describe the mental disorder schizophrenia. Discuss the causes, symptoms, and treatment
of schizophrenia. Be sure to talk about
the biological bases of the disorder.
Estella Asmal
ESL 91
Spring, 2004
Essay Topic: Describe the mental disorder schizophrenia. Discuss the causes, symptoms, and treatment of schizophrenia. Be sure to talk about the biological bases of the disorder.
Schizophrenia is a very serious mental disease. Approximately one percent of the population develops schizophrenia in their lifetime. Schizophrenia has many different symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disordered thinking, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Doctors don’t really know what causes schizophrenia and they don’t have many treatments for people with this disease.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder. People with this disease have weird and scary symptoms such as hallucinations; hearing voices inside their head and delusions; thinking that other people could read their minds, controlling their thoughts or harm them. These symptoms as if the brain were playing tricks on them. It’s hard for them to figure out if something is real or not. Their ways of thinking and beliefs are very disorganize. It means that they have problems getting their thoughts together and expressing them. It is really hard for schizophrenics to focus on what other people are saying. According to the text on www.zyprexa.com people that have schizophrenia have suicidal thoughts “wishing for death, thinking of ways of killing themselves, and not wanting to live anymore are clearly symptoms of depression, and require immediate attention from their doctors”.
According to the text “Mental and Emotional Disorders,” “a schizophrenic brain is noticeably different than that of the non-schizophrenic brain”. There appears to be a depressed activity and structural anomalies in the brains of schizophrenics. By PET scans doctors are able to see how many parts of the brain work. PET scans are a very special type of X-ray that uses colors to show the activity in the brain.
Doctors and scientists don’t really know what causes schizophrenia, For now they just say that people that have relatives with schizophrenia are more likely to develop the illness. But they still doing research with modern biomedical to search for genes, critical moments in the brain development, and other things that may lead to the illness. According to the text on www.zyprexa.com “research is focused on several factors believed to contribute to its development. These factors include genetics, chemical imbalance, and complications during pregnancy and birth.” In identical twins, if one has schizophrenia; there is a greater chance that the other twin will develop the illness. For example twins that aren’t identical don’t have as big a risk of getting the disease as the ones that are.
There is not yet a treatment that completely cures people with schizophrenia. A person with schizophrenia takes antipsychotic medications that reduces the symptoms of the disease and allows the patient to function more effectively and appropriately. So far antipsychotic drugs are the best treatment that they have now. Another way that schizophrenic people could be treated is by maintaining peace and calm at home, try to reduce stress, keeping everyday routines simple, and allowing the person time alone each day. Since people with schizophrenia have a very low self-esteem and are very fragile, encouragement is very important to them.
Schizophrenia is a serious disease; People that have it have to be very careful and be treated with kindness as you can see their symptoms are very dangerous. That’s why they have to be treated delicately. Hopefully one day they’ll have a cure for schizophrenic people.
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Agnes Adenihun
ESL 91
Spring, 2004
Essay Topic: Describe the mental disorder schizophrenia. Discuss the causes, symptoms, and treatment of schizophrenia. Be sure to talk about the biological bases of the disorder.
Schizophrenia is one of the common major problems we have in our community today. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling disease that affects the brain. According to the web site www.schizophrenia.com, about twenty-five percent of people in our society suffer from this disease. Schizophrenia is psychotic disorders that affect about two millions of Americans every year. Schizophrenia is fundamentally a physical disease that affects a brain chemical called dopamine. The cause of schizophrenia has not yet been precisely determined, but researches are still trying to found the cause of this disorder.
Schizophrenia is one of the major diseases that people are trying to find the cause. According to the research from the wed “www schizophrenia.com” schizophrenia affects more than two million people in our community. Schizophrenia is an abnormal condition of the mind that affects human beings by drastically changing their mode of thinking, feeling, and dealing with the world. Schizophrenia is a disease that affects the brain and could cause brain problems for people who suffer from the disorder. It affects both young and old individuals. It also affects both men and women with equal frequency. This disorder often appears earlier in men and usually appears in the last teens or early twenties in women.
Schizophrenia have affects approximately about one percents of the population. People with schizophrenia may behave very differently at various times. According the book “Mental and Emotional Disorder schizophrenia” any body could suffer from schizophrenia. It could be genetic in the family. For example, if a child’s parent has schizophrenia the child has about ten percent greater chance of getting the diseases. Schizophrenia is genetic. For example, monozygotic twins are identical twins that are developed from the same ovum. They also have the same sex and they have the same arrangement of genes and chromosomes. In a monozygotic twin, if one of the twins has schizophrenia, the other has about 40-50th percent greater chance of getting the diseases too.
People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others. They may experience many symptoms such as disturbance, withdrawal, difficulties managing affect, behavioral change, hallucination, illusions, sensory perception, and delusion. Some of them may show symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychosomatic problems. The first signs of schizophrenia may include being confused, shocked, or experiencing changes in behavior. The least frequent symptom includes social isolation, withdrawal, unusual speech, thinking, or behavior changes.
There are two types of symptoms one is the positive and the other is the negative. The positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, muscular rigidity and bizarre behaviors added to normal behaviors. Most people who do suffer from schizophrenia never experience anything like this. The negative are loss, or decrease of normal functions. As a result of these symptoms any one who suffers from schizophrenia may often withdraw from society and every-day life.
According to the web at www.hubin.org there are five different types of schizophrenia. They are paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, residual, and undifferentiated. The paranoid have to do with their affective and cognitive functioning. Anyone with paranoid may often have high elaborate delusions of persecution or personal grandeur. Disorganized may have disorganized speech. The catatonic type patients may have extremes of behavior including catatonia. The undifferentiated type patients may fail to meet the criteria for the other subtypes.
Schizophrenia may be treated with medication and therapy. There are different types of medication for this disorder. We have the antipsychotic medication which as being around since the mid of 1950s. This medication helps reduce the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and it also allowed the patients to function more effectively. Antipsychotic drugs are the best treatment that is available now. Antipsychotic drugs are often very effective in treating certain symptoms of schizophrenia paranoid. The drugs may not be helpful with other symptoms, such as reduced motivation and emotional expressiveness. The other drugs that are used to treat schizophrenia are clozaril, compazine, etrafon, and moban.
There are so many therapies for schizophrenia such as reality, gestalt, person-centered, transactional analysis, and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis Therapy is one of the treatments used for people with schizophrenia to relieve their mental and emotional distress. It is also known as the talking cure because its simple technique involves on action by either the patient of the therapist. It is also a method of self-investigation and a general study of human behavior.
Schizophrenia is one of the major disorders in our community today. The causes have not yet been found, but there is still so much research going on now to find the major cause of this disorder.
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Raquel Crespo
Schizophrenia is a severe mental and emotional disorder which often appears in both men and women. Approximately 1% of the population develops schizophrenia during their life time. It has been known that no more than one in five individuals recovers completely.
Symptoms of schizophrenia consist of delusions, paranoia and hallucinations Delusions may be conceived as thoughts or beliefs that are not real. Paranoia is when a person feels that people are following them and wants to harm them for no apparent reason. There are two types of hallucinations : audio hallucinations and visual hallucinations, An audio hallucination is when the person hears voices calling them or commanding the person to do bad things. A visual hallucination is when people see things that others can't. Schizophrenic people become extremely agitated and stressed. Another symptom of this disorder is that they have great difficulty engaging in social activities with others.
What causes schizophrenia? It's has been found that schizophrenia runs in the family. People who have a close relative with schizophrenia are more likely to develop the disorder than are people who have no relative with the illness. For example in identical twins, if one has schizophrenia there is a greater chance that the other twin will develop the illness.
According to the text "Mental and Emotional Disorders," "The biochemistry of the schizophrenic brain is noticeably different than the non-schizophrenic brain." People with schizophrenia appear to have depressed activity and abnormality in the brain. A schizophrenic brain doesn't appear to produce appropriate levels of certain brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters. It appears physically different than the non-schizophrenic brain. With PET scans which are a special type of x-ray that uses color to show the level of activity in many different parts of the brain, doctors are able to see the way the brain works in different parts.
Antipsychotic medications are the drugs that are effective in treating these symptoms today. The people that have hallucinations and Even though there is no cure for this disease at the present time, we must continue using the available resources. Hopefully researchers will be able to find a cure for schizophrenia in the future, so these people can have the opportunity to enjoy life at its fullest.
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ESL 91
Spring, 2004
Essay Topic: Describe the mental disorder schizophrenia.
Discuss the causes, symptoms, and treatment of schizophrenia. Be sure to talk
about the biological bases of the disorder.