Schitzophrenia - A dangerous mind
...pical arguments and suspicions. These people always believe that someone out there is hunting them down out there to get them. The fourth type of schizophrenia is Undifferentiated type. This subtype of schizophrenia applies to patients who fail to meet the criteria for the other subtypes but clearly suffer from the mental disorder. The patients suffer from pronounced psychotic symptoms which may not fit in any other specific category or more than one. This disease/disorder is complicated by the fact that although a schizophrenic patient may have more than one symptom, he or she rarely has all of them. Schizophrenia can occur at any age, but it tends to first develop (or at least become evident) between adolescence and young adulthood. Schizophrenia that is recognized in children is likely to be severe. Although the risk of schizophrenia declines with age, there is a lesser peak incidence at around 45 years and another, mostly in women, in the mid-60’s. Although schizophrenia affects both genders, there are some differences. Men tend to develop schizophrenia between the ages of 15 to 24. Paranoid schizophrenia, in particular, may be more common in men, and symptoms tend to be more severe and happen more commonly. Women develop it slight at a later age between 25 and 34, and the symptoms tend to be less severe then in men. The disease also occurs twice as often in unmarried and divorced people as in married or widowed individuals. People with schizophrenia are eight times more likely to be in the lowest socioeconomic groups. Low income and poverty increase the risk for delayed diagnosis and treatment, and such delays could lead to more severe disease in patients with fewer resources. Poverty may also increase exposure to biologic factors (e.g. infections or toxins) or social stressors that could trigger the illness in susceptible people. In my own opinion I believe that some extremely hard college classes can also cause a minor schizophrenia due to the large amounts of stress. There is no clear answer on what causes schizophrenia, but a number of important factors are emerging which likely play a crucial role in this disorder's cause. There are four main causative believed factors that scientists are researching to this day: Some doctors and even people believe that schizophrenia can result from prenatal problems. They say that certain events during pregnancy may disrupt brain growth. When the fetus is deprived of oxygen at periods of time and/or there is a respiratory infection during the second trimester then there could be a strong association with schizophrenia. The strangest thing that I read about this disease is that if a woman is obese before pregnancy then this is a risk of schizophrenia in her child. Genetics (Heredity): Scientists recognize that the disorder tends to run in families and that a patient inherits a tendency to develop the disease. Schizophrenia may be triggered by environmental events, such as viral infections or highly stressful situations or a combination of both. Similar to other genetically related illnesses, schizophrenia appears when the body undergoes hormonal and physical changes, like those that occur during puberty in the teen and young adult years. Chemistry: Genetics help to determine how the brain uses certain chemicals. People with schizophrenia have a chemical imbalance which means they are either very sensitive to or produce too much of a brain chemical called dopamine. Dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter, allows nerve cells in the brain to send messages to each other. The imbalance of this chemical affects the way a person's brain reacts to stimuli--which explains why a person with schizophrenia may be overwhelmed by sensory information (loud music or bright lights) which other people can easily handle. This problem in processing different sounds, sights, smells and tastes can also lead to hallucinations or delusions. Schizophrenia also differs from the classic dementias in that there are no visible neuropath logical markers such as plaques, tangles, or Levy bodies. The gliosis that is a marker of neuronal death in neurodegenerative diseases is not present in schizophrenia. This suggests that the etiology and path physiology of schizophrenia must be related to maturational or developmental brain processes such as formation of neuritis, synaptogenesis, neuronal pruning, or apoptosis. This defines the period for the changes that result in schizophrenia as sometime between the beginning of neuron formation and migration and young adult life. Although this is a long period, it focuses our thinking about path physiology and etiology by suggesting the importance of examining the molecular processes that regulate and shape brain development and the external factors that may influence those processes. There are many types of treatments for schizophrenic patients. Some treatments involve therapy and some types are a certain type of drug. One type of treatment is called family psycho education. In this treatment the family crates a safe living environment for the patient. It brings them into their home and accommodates to their needs and gives them the opportunity to still tak...