Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mysterious Illness that blurs the line between real and unreal experiences in patients that have the disorder. Generally people with schizophrenia have a harder time thinking clearly and logically they usually do not to act appropriately in everyday social situations like interacting with other people in public. Schizophrenia as a condition has a wide range of symptoms, these symptoms begin to become apparent slowly over months or ever years. Symptoms in schizophrenic patients also seem to cycle between times of more symptoms and less symptoms. Early symptoms of schizophrenia include: feeling tense, having trouble sleeping and concentrating, becoming isolated and withdrawn and having trouble making and keeping friends/ relationships with others. As the illness continues to progress, psychotic symptoms begin to show physically. A patient will show a mood that displays no emotion and make strange, unexplained movements. There will also be beliefs or thoughts that are not based on reality. Patients start to hear, see and feel things that are not there, sensing things that are not there is generally the first thing someone thinks of when they hear that someone is schizophrenic. Problems with thinking include trouble paying attention and thoughts “jumping” between random unrelated topics (disordered thinking). Because of the wide range of symptoms and the complexity of the illness schizophrenia is very hard to diagnose. There are three main types of schizophrenia paranoid, disorganized and catatonic schizophrenics. Paranoid schizophrenics tend to have very bad anxiety problems stopping them from doing anything that could put them in any type of danger like leaving their house. Even in a completely controlled, safe environment paranoid schizophrenics usually think that someone or something is out to get them. There also tends to be huge anger and argumentative problems. Whereas disorganized schizophrenics have trouble thinking and expressing their thoughts clearly. Generally little emotion is shown but when there is they portray childlike behaviour, rarely grasping any social skills what so ever. Catatonics seem to be in a constant state of unrest and look uncomfortable. Usually there is little movement throughout the body and a rigid muscle tensing is held. Catatonic schizophrenics also usually have odd facial expressions and grimaces. They are non-responsive to others and seem to dislike human contacts. There are also undifferentiated schizophrenics, showing symptoms from more than one category and residual schizophrenics who show some of the symptoms of schizophrenia but wouldn’t have a full blown case of the illness. To diagnose either is a person has schizophrenia or determine which type of schizophrenia one might have a psychiatrist should perform a series of evaluations and tests. The diagnosis is based on a thorough interview of the person who may have schizophrenia and their family members. There is no medical test to confirm the diagnosis so it is very hard to decide. Some of the factors that are tested though are: how long the symptoms/ illness has lasted in the patient, change of function before to after the illness was suspected, developmental background, genetics and family history with schizophrenia and other related disorders such as multiple personality disorder and response to antipsychotic medications. Because of schizophrenias complexity a mental illness even experts today are not sure on what causes it. Genetics does appear to play a role; people who have schizophrenia in their family are more likely to have the mental illness or get it. A person can also be born with schizophrenia that does not have a history of it in their family. Schizophrenia can also be triggered by certain situations in a person’s life; some people acquire it after a horrible accident such as a husband or wife dying. This could be because when a person experiences something horrible like that chemicals in the brain can be thrown off and stay that way. Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the human population worldwide and occurs equally between men and women, though men seem to have harsher symptoms and the illness shows earlier in life whereas in women it is the opposite in the majority of cases. Because of this men tend to take up more than half of the patients in services. Schizophrenia usually becomes prevalent in young adulthood but there are cases where the disorder begins later (over age forty five) sometimes confused with Alzheimer’s. There is also childhood onset schizophrenia though it is very rare. Childhood onset schizophrenia usually begins around age five and in most cases is after normal development. This Childhood type is hard to diagnose against other illnesses like autism. Treatment for schizophrenics usually varies from patient to patient but there are a few specifics that are practised on most schizophrenics. During a schizophrenic episode the patient may need to be hospitalized for the safety of their selves and others around them and to receive the basic needs to survive, as many schizophrenics are left out on the streets because they can’t find jobs or places to stay. Usually the main treatment for schizophrenics is an antipsychotic medication. Antipsychotic medication changes the balance of chemicals in the brain and can help control the symptoms of the illness by changing the chemical balance back to (or close to) what you would find in a mentally healthy brain. These medications are extremely helpful to the patient and can even let them lead a completely normal life in mild cases but the medication does have side effects. Common side effects consist of sleepiness or dizziness, weight gain and increased chance in getting diabetes and having high cholesterol. Less common side effects include things like restlessness or “jitters”, problems controlling body movements, muscle contractions or spasms and tremor. These are serious side effects but they should not stop a schizophrenic patient from taking the medication. The gain is much greater than the loss in most cases. Taking antipsychotics for long periods of time could cause long term risks as well one of the most common long term risks of taking antipsychotic medications is a movement disorder called tardive dysinesia. Symptoms of this disorder include uncontrolled movements especially around the mouth and trouble moving when trying to move a specific way.