SchizophreniaEssay Preview: SchizophreniaReport this essaySchizophrenia-A Dysfunction of the Brain: Why They Can’t Help Their BehaviorSchizophrenia is a serious and chronic mental illness that affects one person in a hundred at some point in their life. It can start at any age but most commonly begins in the late teens or early twenties for men and mid twenties to mid thirties for women. Women and men are diagnosed with this illness equally throughout the world. A person with schizophrenia does not have a split personality as many people believe. Schizophrenia is one of the psychotic disorders with symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and distorted thoughts that indicate the person has lost touch with reality. The symptoms of schizophrenia vary from person to person and are generally divided into positive symptoms, which are abnormal experiences, and negative symptoms that are more an absence of normal behavior. It is typically the positive symptoms that cause the most problems with the individual. These are also the symptoms that cause other individuals to consider those with schizophrenia as bizarre, mad or crazy. Evidence indicates strongly that schizophrenia is a severe disturbance in the brains functioning. Its believed to be caused by many factors; these include changes in the chemistry of the brain, structural changes of the brain, and genetic factors.
The Concept of the DiagnosisPsychiatric illnesses are diagnosed by meeting criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fourth Revision, (DSM IV —TR). The diagnosis of schizophrenia- paranoid type according to the DSM IV —TR is having preoccupation with one or more delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations. For this subtype; disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, or flat or inappropriate affect are prominent symptoms. The criterion for the main category of schizophrenia includes having two or more of the following symptoms in a one-month period: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms. These symptoms must cause a disruption in major areas of the individual’s life, such as social and work life. Duration of the symptoms must be at least six months. There must have also been and exclusion of schizoaffective and mood disorder. Medication or substance use cannot be the cause of the occurring symptoms. Diagnosis is excluded if there is a relationship to a pervasive developmental disorder a profound disruption in cognition and emotion; disturbing thought, perception, affect, and sense of identity.
What are the symptoms that schizophrenics have? There is no single symptom for a diagnosis; rather, a pattern of signs and symptoms, combining with impaired occupational or social functioning. Symptoms are separated into the two main groups the positive and negative. Diagnosis requires at least one-month duration of two or more positive symptoms, unless hallucinations or delusions are especially bizarre, in which case one of the symptoms is enough to meet the diagnosis. Positive symptoms are ones that appear to suggest an excess or distortion of normal functions. Symptoms that appear to be an indication of a diminished or loss of normal functions are said to be negative.
Positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations and grossly disorganized thinking, speech and behavior. A delusion is a persistent false belief despite strong opposing evidence. Delusions can be of a paranoid or persecutory nature, they can be grandiose and may occur out of the blue, and are often quickly recognized by others to be abnormal beliefs. A hallucination refers to the experience of hearing, seeing, smelling, or feeling in the absence of an actual stimulus. Hearing voices when there is no one there is the most frequent hallucination in schizophrenia. The voices are so real that they are convinced that it is coming from a real person. In schizophrenia the voices typically talk about, as well as to, the person. Other positive symptoms include experiences of the persons thoughts being read by others or others put thoughts into the person’s mind.
Negative symptoms often persist when people with schizophrenia are having periods of minimal positive symptoms. Negative symptoms are difficult to assess because they are not as grossly abnormal as positives ones and may be caused by other factors; such as medication. However the newer drugs use to treat schizophrenia show more encouraging outcomes. The negative symptoms tend to develop slower. They include feeling of emotional numbness, difficulty in interaction with others, lack of motivation, social withdrawal, lack of general care or personal hygiene, and a altered sleep pattern.
Cognitive symptoms are attention problems, aspects of memory, and the information processing – decision-making functions that allow us to plan and organize. Cognitive deficits, which tend to be stable over time, may precipitate psychotic and negative symptoms that adversely affect a patients ability to cope. Cognitive deficits can also be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder but are the most hindering in terms of leading a normal life. The affective and cognitive problems associated with schizophrenia may be important factors in long-term outcome.
Tests/Treatments/Therapies/MedicationsThe primary goal of medical intervention is to reduce what are called the positive symptoms of schizophrenia: hearing voices, the thought disorder and other problems in thinking, changes in mood. Antipsychotic or neuroleptic medications are primarily utilized for their efficacy in decreasing the positive symptoms (textbook). Counseling, psychotherapy and psychosocial rehabilitation can help with more of what we call negative symptoms. It is crucial to understand the different roles that each medical intervention is playing. Individuals should be educated to know that the medications, therapies and treatments are not able to cure schizophrenia but are used to manage the symptoms.
Medication is so much about treating the positive symptoms, that people often lose motivation, the ability to relate socially, and the capacity to organize themselves as they used to do before they see the affects of the therapies and other treatments. Antipsychotics help relieve the positive symptoms of schizophrenia by helping to correct an imbalance in the chemicals that enable brain cells to communicate with each other. The new drugs also have different side effects. Clozapine (Clozaril) was the first atypical antipsychotic in the United States. Although clozapine seems to be a very effective medication, particularly for people who have not responded well to other drugs, it requires blood monitoring every
Risks
These drugs were created by the U.S. Government for a specific group of patients, but have been discontinued for other reasons. It should be recognized, on an individual basis, that these drugs may have very serious adverse effects and do not fit the group needs. If you or someone you have treated with psychiatric medications is exposed to these drugs in an active mental health treatment facility, there might be adverse reactions, and if you see any, you should seek medical attention.
Although many people, including doctors and others working in mental health areas, make different assessments on these drugs, there may be a clear difference. To protect the safety of the individual, the FDA has increased the number of drugs provided for a specific group of patients. There have been some adverse reactions in other groups that have not been treated, but there have been few deaths, if any, from these drugs in the U.S. over the past 5 years.
Risk Reports
There is a variety of risk reports in drug use that can be obtained from the FDA. These reports are confidential at the time of diagnosis and have been classified by number of reports, which are often confidential. They can be very difficult to come by because they are often unclassified and incomplete, and the reports often reflect unknown information. Because they are highly confidential, they may not complete as readily as the drugs that actually are prescribed, but they might be used if approved. The FDA does not respond to medical records, clinical record reports or other nonpublic information as part of their ongoing review of drug use in patients with schizophrenia until they have received FDA approval for a new medicine.
Most drug use is not reported. It is possible that there is a misclassification or misclassification that is causing a patient to use the wrong drug without first knowing that the drug was prescribed. If a patient has a significant disorder that needs a new drug, treatment can occur, but for the most part, they are underprescribing the old drug. In addition, the patient has limited available resources or that the patient can afford an alternative medicine.
The FDA does not have complete information about the number of drugs the drugs are prescribed for, or the number of patients enrolled in a study study. A new drug is rarely approved if it has shown that it is safe enough to use. This is because the drug itself has not been approved for every patient it has been prescribed for. A person may need to have a physical examination after a drug overdose of a drug on a scheduled outpatient visit and for several days afterward to look for any possible side effects. This is not always possible, however, and this is a concern for clinicians and patients. It is also possible that there has not been a clear indication of any adverse effects due to a recent drug injection.
The FDA does not recommend