Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Casey Spencer
Psychology 101
Dr. Carol Servies
Ivy Tech Community College Lafayette/Crawfordsville
March 4, 2009
Schizophrenia
Psychosis: Schizophrenia. What does this mean? Schizophrenia is an incapacitating mental condition that has many symptoms and no cure. Most people associate schizophrenia with “split personalities” but that is not true of the disease. Actual symptoms include but are not limited to hallucinations, delusions, being unable to make decisions, shifting thoughts rapidly, forgetting or losing things, losing interest in personal hygiene, moodiness, impaired cognitive abilities, lack of energy and motivation just to name a few. According to Wade and Tavris (2008 pg. 628), schizophrenia is defined as a psychotic disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized and incoherent speech, inappropriate behavior, and cognitive impairments. There are many aspects of schizophrenia as one would expect. In this paper we will be looking into types of hallucinations and delusions, public views on schizophrenia, the burden on families, and victims living and dealing with the cancer-like disease. Scientists today have many theories on the origins of schizophrenia. Some of these include genetic predispositions, brain abnormalities, neurotransmitter abnormalities, prenatal and birth complications, and adolescence abnormalities of brain development. Schizophrenia is the deep space nine of psychotic mental disorders. Not so much that it is unchartered territory but the disorder remains largely a mystery (Nevid, Rathus, and Greene, 2008, p. 397). Many researchers believe now that schizophrenia is caused by genetic problems that produce subtle abnormalities in the brain and that genes interact with certain stressors in the environment during prenatal development, birth, or adolescence (Wade and Tavris, 2008, p. 630). Wade and Tavris (2008) likened the origins of schizophrenia to a
Casey Spencer
Psychology 101
Dr. Carol Servies
Ivy Tech Community College Lafayette/Crawfordsville
March 4, 2009
Schizophrenia
Psychosis: Schizophrenia. What does this mean? Schizophrenia is an incapacitating mental condition that has many symptoms and no cure. Most people associate schizophrenia with “split personalities” but that is not true of the disease. Actual symptoms include but are not limited to hallucinations, delusions, being unable to make decisions, shifting thoughts rapidly, forgetting or losing things, losing interest in personal hygiene, moodiness, impaired cognitive abilities, lack of energy and motivation just to name a few. According to Wade and Tavris (2008 pg. 628), schizophrenia is defined as a psychotic disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized and incoherent speech, inappropriate behavior, and cognitive impairments. There are many aspects of schizophrenia as one would expect. In this paper we will be looking into types of hallucinations and delusions, public views on schizophrenia, the burden on families, and victims living and dealing with the cancer-like disease. Scientists today have many theories on the origins of schizophrenia. Some of these include genetic predispositions, brain abnormalities, neurotransmitter abnormalities, prenatal and birth complications, and adolescence abnormalities of brain development. Schizophrenia is the deep space nine of psychotic mental disorders. Not so much that it is unchartered territory but the disorder remains largely a mystery (Nevid, Rathus, and Greene, 2008, p. 397). Many researchers believe now that schizophrenia is caused by genetic problems that produce subtle abnormalities in the brain and that genes interact with certain stressors in the environment during prenatal development, birth, or adolescence (Wade and Tavris, 2008, p. 630). Wade and Tavris (2008) likened the origins of schizophrenia to a
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