Schizophrenia, Research Paper Example

Overview

Nearly one percent of the world’s population has been suffering from the most severe disorder, Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a deadly chronic mental disorder which causes stimulus experience in victims. Most of the times, Schizophrenia victims will find it very difficult to carry out the routine activities and thus undergo severe anxiety and agitation. Depends of an individual’s mental and physical abilities, the symptoms of Schizophrenia vary from one individual to another individual; symptoms may also vary over a period of time among afflicted individuals. NIMH (2009) has categorized symptoms of Schizophrenia into three types. They are:

1. Cognitive: Individuals who are suffering from cognitive Schizophrenia suffer from symptoms such as problems with memory and attention. It also affects an individual’s ability to facilitate planning and organizing of routine events.
2. Positive: Positive Schizophrenia would not be seen in healthy people. The symptoms include thought disorders, movement disorders and hallucinations.
3. Negative: Negative Schizophrenia affects primarily on emotions and behaviors of an individual. Symptoms include inability to plan daily events, flat effect and developing hatred feeling on daily life.

Auditory Verbal Hallucination is considered as one of the most deadly manifestations of severe disorder, Schizophrenia. Auditory Verbal Hallucination is a kind of symptom, where patients hear external voices that never exist in routine life or nature. The study conducted by Bentaleb et al. (2003), revealed an instance of Auditory Verbal Hallucination case. By relying on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), doctors examined a lady patient, who is suffering from Auditory Verbal Hallucination. Symptoms of the patient are such that she hears a continuous external speech, though there is nobody near by her. Bentaleb et al. (2003) explained in this way: The patient’s brain activity was measured, while listening to the external speech, in the temporal and inferior frontal regions. It was pretty clear that Auditory Verbal Hallucinations were associated with increased metabolic activity in the right middle temporal gyrus and the left primary auditory cortex. As reported in Neuro-psychiatry Review, it is very difficult to find the symptoms of negative schizophrenia when it is compared to obvious symptoms that manifest in regular schizophrenia patients.

Demographic Evidence

Various research studies have conducted researches on possibility of getting schizophrenia and reasons behind increased risk of schizophrenia. According to the NIMH (2009), people who have two copies of val coding of COMT will have highest probability of getting schizophrenia. Another research study conducted by Begany in 2005 revealed that a translocation of the GCP II gene that codes for the enzyme that degrades the NMDA receptor agonist D-serine indicates increased risk of the disease. Perhaps, these two studies are handpicked from many of the research studies that have explored on schizophrenia disease and its symptoms (Begany, 2005).

Another recent report by Asher (2011) reported that people who are suffering from schizophrenia disorder will have high probability of having multiple copies of gene on chromosome 7 than healthy people; it is estimated that the probability is 14 times more likely to have multiple copies. Another recent report published by Surgeon General in 2009 reported that brain development might also be affected by diversity of the mutations that are related to schizophrenia disorder.

Environmental factors also may also increase the risk of schizophrenia disorder. The Surgeon General’s schizophrenia report (2009) reported that parental stressors are considered as the prime reason behind people get afflicted to schizophrenia when they reach adult age. Though it looks a bit confusing, the statistical reports of Surgeon General Schizophrenia provide anecdotal evidence about how an unfavorable or unsatisfactory environment may affect the neurological system of a human being. Most of the statistical reports say that children born to women during the 1944 were more likely to get schizophrenia. There are numerous of statistical reports that emphasize on how environmental or external factors develop schizophrenia. Children those born to women, who know the news of her husband’s death during pregnancy, are more likely to get schizophrenia than children those born to women, who know the same tragic news after pregnancy.

Treatment Regimes

In fact, there are no genuine medications available for schizophrenia in the market. Doctors try to create a favorable environment to make patients comfortable with the help of patient’s friends, parents and relatives while providing available medications that reduce the anxiety and agitation in the patient. Of course, there are several treatment regimes available to treat schizophrenia disorder and some of them have been successful in curing this deadly disorder.

Numerous of anti-psychotic drugs have been developed by various researches to cure schizophrenia but most of them were not successful. Some of the drugs include Olanzapine and Aripiprazole. These two dugs are considered as commonly prescribed medications in early 2000s. Though, these drugs have no side effects, the residual effects are too many. Huge weight gain and diabetes onset are known to be a couple of side-effects of these drugs. According to Surgeon General (2009), right or favorable environment works better than medications while treating schizophrenia. All a patient needs to do is reducing the anxiety and agitation and it is possible only when a positive environmental rehabilitation center is available.

Conclusion

Though schizophrenia is, now, one of the deadly disorders, which don’t have genuine medications, it is expected that the genuine medications that cure schizophrenia would be available in future. By looking at the spectrum of symptoms and other genetic factors that contribute to the disease, one can say that the outcome will be incremental.

As schizophrenia disease militates against the treatment, the victims of the disease may not plan their routine activities and organize daily events perfectly; patients who have been suffering from severe schizophrenia may not be able to plan things at all. In these kinds of situations, normal medications will not help patients; patients need a great support from family, friends and loved ones. In most of the cases, the symptoms of schizophrenia will tore down the family relationships. If medications, family, friends and doctors work together to take care of the patient, it is possible to cure schizophrenia disorder in short period of time.

References

Asher, J (2011), People with schizophrenia more likely to have multiple copies of a gene on chromosome 7, Medical News Today: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217530.php

Begany, T. (2005), Emerging schizophrenia treatments aim to enhance NMDA receptor function, Neuropsychiatry review, 5(6)

Bentaleb, L. A. et al. (2003), Cerebral activity associated with auditory verbal hallucinations: a functional magnetic resonance imaging case study, Brief report, Review of psychiatry and neuroscience, 27(2), pp. 100 et seq. U.S., NIH/NIMH (2010), Schizophrenia, NIH Publication 09-3517: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/complete-index.shtml

U.S., Office of the Surgeon General (1999), Etiology of Schizophrenia, Mental Health: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter4/sec4_1.html