Mental_Illness

Mental Illness Throughout history many medical doctors have tried to understand and determine what truly causes a person to slip into depression, insanity or psychosis. Physicians have often blamed mental illness on a cosmic imbalance; the alignment of planets, mental deficiency and unfortunate life experiences. In recent years, mental illness research professionals have become increasingly aware of the importance of genetic factors for mental disorders (Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, 2011). It all began around the turn of the century when scientists started working on the "Human Genome Project. (Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, 2011). " The Human Genome Project mapped out the entire sequence of human DNA. They found that biological psychosis, which had emerged in the late 1980s, was associated with manic depression and other mental disorders(Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, 2011). Using this new perception of mental illness, researchers began discovering that life experience could almost definitely change a person's mind and personality by chemically coating the DNA that controls its function, but did not alter the genetic code (Higgins, 2011.) Due to this researchers questioned whether or not experience of trauma, drug abuse, or lack of affection somehow could have caused satellite molecules to latch onto a person's DNA (Higgins, 2011.) A new growing concern for diagnosing mental illness and genes related to psychiatric symptoms and disorders became more and more complicated to diagnosis. Scientist suggested that mental disorders almost always involve more than one gene, and that different genes on different chromosomes produced schizophrenia in different areas of the gens makeup (Higgins, 2011.) They suggested that a person's, personal family life, or even their culture could cause a event to trigger some sort of mental breakdown. Which often caused a person with some sort of mental illness to spiral in to something else. Like addiction to some sort of opiates or other type of drugs. Dual diagnosis was often common with people who suffered from mental illnesses. Scientist suggested that addiction to nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs where often found in people with a wide variety of mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, bipolar depression, mantic depressant , and borderline suicide along with other personality disorders. References Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders. (2011). Genetic factors and mental disorders . Retrieved from http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Genetic-factors-and-mental-disorders.html Higgins, E.S. (2011). The New Genetics of Mental Illness . EBSCO Host. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail'hid=23&sid=0a886f17-8e20-466a-b0e1-3e0c567fe3f1%40sessionmgr11&vid=3&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=32576073