Nearly 1 in 100 people will develop schizophrenia, joining the estimated 24 million across the world who will suffer one of humanity’s most dreaded disorders. It typically strikes as young people are maturing into adulthood, it knows no national boundaries, and its affects both male and females-though men tend to be struck earlier, more severely, and slightly more than women.
Children as young as 12 have developed symptoms of schizophrenia. The onset of the disorder typically occurs during the late teen and early adult years. Full-blown psychotic episodes (where patients lose touch with reality) may not occur until the patient is living on his or her own, apart from family and friends who have provided support in the past.
Schizophrenia means “split mind”-it refers not to a multiple-personality split but rather to a split from reality that shows itself in disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions.As such, it is the chief example of a psychosis, a psychotic disorder marked by irrationality and lost contact with reality.
Where the individual’s thoughts do not make sense logically and coherently. They suffer from delusions. Delusions are fragmented, bizarre, and distorted false beliefs. Those with paranoid tendencies are particularly prone to delusions of persecution. They jump from one idea to another-which may even occur in the same sentence, creating a sort of “word salad.”
Symptom 1:Disorginized thinking
Why does this happen? It results from a breakdown in selective attention. We have a remarkable capacity for selective attention-those with schizophrenia cannot do this. Thus, an irrelevant stimulus, or extraneous part of the preceding thought easily distracts them.
A person with schizophrenia may perceive things that are not there. Such hallucinations (sensory experiences without sensory stimulation) are usually auditory and often take the form of voices making insulting statements or giving orders. They have been compared to dreams breaking into waking consciousness. When the unreal seems real, the resulting perceptions are at best bizarre, at worst terrifying. Less commonly, people, feel, taste, or smell things that are not there.
Symptom 2:Disturbed Perceptions
When schizophrenia is a slow-developing process (called chronic or process) recovery is doubtful. Often exhibit the negative symptoms of withdrawal.When a previously well-adjusted person develops schizophrenia rapidly (called acute or reactive), in reaction to particular life stress, recovery is much more likely. They more often have the positive symptoms that are responsive to drug therapy.
Chronic Vs. Acute Schizophrenia
Researchers discovered one such key when they examined schizophrenia patients’ brains after death and found an excess of receptors for dopamine—a sixfold excess for the so -called D4 dopamine receptor. They now speculate that such a hyper-responsive dopamine system may intensify brain signals in schizophrenia, creating positive symptoms such as hallucinations and paranoia. As we might therefore expect, drugs that block dopamine receptors often lessen these symptoms; drugs that increase dopamine levels, such as amphetamines and cocaine, sometimes intensify them.
Brain Abnormality
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Nearly 1 in 100 people will develop schizophrenia, joining the estimated 24 million across the world who will suffer one of humanity’s most dreaded disorders. It typically strikes as young people are maturing into adulthood, it knows no national boundaries, and its affects both male and females-though men tend to be struck earlier, more severely, and slightly more than women.
Children as young as 12 have developed symptoms of schizophrenia. The onset of the disorder typically occurs during the late teen and early adult years. Full-blown psychotic episodes (where patients lose touch with reality) may not occur until the patient is living on his or her own, apart from family and friends who have provided support in the past.
Schizophrenia means “split mind”-it refers not to a multiple-personality split but rather to a split from reality that shows itself in disorganized thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions.As such, it is the chief example of a psychosis, a psychotic disorder marked by irrationality and lost contact with reality.
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