Schizophrenia
...nfantile or odd behavior characterize disorganized schizophrenia (Columbia Encyclopedia). Catatonic schizophrenia resembles suspended animation—a loss of voluntary motion. The patient’s limbs may hold any position in which they are placed. Also, they may stand or sit endlessly in what is called a catatonic “stupor”—a marked decrease in reactivity to the environment. At times, it is difficult to move a catatonic person, but at others, he or she may “flail around for no apparent reason.” However, the catatonic condition is far less common today, due in part to the use of newer, more advanced medications (Smith 24). Paranoid-type schizophrenia is slightly different from the disorganized and catatonic varieties because a paranoid individual does not show many of the “typical” features of schizophrenia. For example, someone suffering from paranoid-type schizophrenia is not incoherent, does not, in general, behave inappropriately, or exhibit catatonic or grossly disorganized behavior. While he or she still hallucinates, the paranoid person’s delusions are based on a single idea or theme. Unlike the disorganized behavior of other people suffering from schizophrenia, paranoid people have a “highly organized imaginary world in which they live.” They are frequently “anxious and frightened that someone is ‘out to get them.’ They often build fantastic and complex fantasy schemes about imaginary enemies.” (Smith 26) Physicians do not know the cause of schizophrenia. Genetic factors may be partly responsible for some cases. Abnormal brain chemistry also plays a role. Certain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, which allow nerve cells to communicate with each other, have been found to be at abnormal levels in some people with schizophrenia. (Torrey 176) “Biochemical research suggests that high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine…may be at the root of schizophrenia.” (Butcher 57) Factors that may cause a person to be vulnerable to schizophrenia aren’t’ known. However, they may include genetic predisposition; problems that occurred before, during, or directly after birth; or a viral infection of the brain. “Many researchers maintain that a combination of influences, including… [a] viral illness or malnutrition in the patient’s mother during pregnancy, may lead to schizophrenia.” (Columbia Encyclopedia) It is also possible that “environmental stresses, such as stressful life events or substance abuse problems, trigger the onset and recurrence of schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals.” (Berkow et. al. 436) Typically, schizophrenia begins with an acute episode during adolescence lasting for a few weeks, which is often misdiagnosed. After about six months to a year, a second, more severe episode will occur, lasting for about the same length of time as the first. “It is the third episode that is usually seen as the first frankly definable episode of psychosis. This occurs within a year or tow of the initial episode and results in major disruptions in the patient’s life.” (Mendel 802) The rest of the patient’s life with schizophrenia is marked by the display of frank psychotic symptoms, called exacerbations, and remissions, in which the person suffering from schizophrenia is free of psychotic conditions. The number of exacerbation periods a victim endures varies greatly: The number of exacerbations the patient experiences each year seems to be age-related rather than related to the treatment received or to the environment. Between the ages of twenty and thirty, the patient will experience an average of six exacerbations per year. Between the ages of thirty and forty, the patient will experience two exacerbations per year, and between forty and fifty, an average of one exacerbation per year. Usually, after fifty, the illness becomes quiescent in terms of exacerbations. (Mendel 802) Men tend to develop schizophrenia earlier and more severely than women (Torrey 176). Schizophrenic symptoms typically emerge in the teens or twenties for men. In women, the onset is usually in the twenties or early thirties (Mayo Clinic Health Information). Currently, there are no definitive tests to diagnose schizophrenia. Usually, a psychiatrist will diagnose the illness by comprehensively assessing a person’s symptoms and history. To determine a diagnosis of schizophrenia, “symptoms must persist for at least six months and be associated with significant deterioration of work, school, or social functioning. Family, friends, and teachers are often helpful in establishing when psychotic behavior first began. Usually, laboratory tests are perform to “rule out substance abuse or an underlying medical, neurological, or endocrine disorder that can have features of psychosis.” Disorders that may have symptoms that parallel those of schizophrenia include Huntington’s disease, temporal lobe epilepsy, liver disease, brain tumors, autoimmune diseases, and adverse reactions to medication (Berkow et. al. 437). There are many disorders that resemble schizophrenia. For example, schizophreniform disorders are similar to schizophrenia, but symptoms must have been present form less than six months. Some people experience brief psychotic disorders, in which psychotic symptoms last between one day and one month. A schizoaffective disorder is characterized by “the presence of mood symptoms, such as depression or mania, along with more typical symptoms of schizophrenia.” A personality disorder that may share symptoms of schizophrenia, but in which the symptoms are not generally so severe as to meet the criteria for psychosis, is called schizotypal personality disorder (Berkow et. al. 436). During the last fifty years, scientists have created drugs that hinder the action of dopamine on certain nerve cells. These drugs usually relieve symptoms enough so, if the patient is hospitalized, he or she can leave the institution (Torrey 176). The drugs, called antipsychotics, improved greatly during the 1990s. Some of the new antipsychotics used to treat schizophrenia are Clozaril, Risperdal, Zyprexa, and Seroquel. These drugs have improved in that they manage symptoms more efficiently, with a lesser number of side effects (Mayo Clinic Health Information). Although drugs are the mainstay of treatment, many of those suffering from schizophrenia also benefit from non-drug therapies, such as individual therapy, family therapy, and rehabilitation. A therapist may help the patient find ways of dealing with stress an...