Schizophrenia

By Bhavini Pandey

Schizophrenia is among the more common mental disorders in the world, affecting up to 20 million people worldwide. It is defined as a mental illness characterized by disturbances in thought, perception, and behavior. Disturbances in thought are shown through delusions while disturbances in perception exhibit as hallucinations. Behavioral disturbances manifest in the forms of disorganized speech or catatonic behavior. A loss of emotional responsiveness, extreme apathy, and noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life are also characteristics of schizophrenia.

People with schizophrenia live in a world of distorted reality defined by hallucinations and delusions. Their distorted perceptions of reality cause them to see the world differently, and much more alarmingly, than others do. Victims also experience hallucinations, in which one perceives something that is not actually there. Finally, delusions are false, persistent personal beliefs that one refuses to let go of, despite seeing evidence that proves the beliefs are false. Due to these factors, schizophrenia greatly affects victims’ behavior. In essence, a person with schizophrenia will often behave very differently and oddly in comparison to others. People with schizophrenia are not as emotionally responsive as other people, so they do not express emotions in the same manner as unaffected people. In addition, their speech and thoughts will often be very disorganized and jumbled to the point where other people may find them incomprehensible and possibly a little frightening.

The exact cause of schizophrenia is still a little unclear even today. However, researchers have come to the conclusion that the primary risk factors include genetic and environmental factors, and life stressors can also play a large role in the onset of symptoms. To learn more about the causes of schizophrenia, scientists are applying many approaches ranging from the study of molecular genetics to the study of populations. Methods of imaging the brain’s structure and function hold the promise of new insights into the disorder.

A common symptom that people with schizophrenia often suffer through is hearing voices in their head that other people do not hear. Another symptom is believing that people can read their minds, control their thoughts, and want to harm them. This causes them to be frightened and remain withdrawn. A decrease in the ability to initiate plans, speak, and express emotion or find pleasure, as well as confused and disordered thinking and speech, trouble with logical thinking, and sometimes bizarre behavior or abnormal movements are also common.

With schizophrenia, and most other mental illnesses, diagnosis can be difficult. This is because the line between one mental illness and another is very thin, and many symptoms of one mental illness are also common in other mental illnesses. In addition, symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia can also be due to underlying medical conditions. Therefore, doctors gather a patient’s medical history, conduct a physical examination, and call for laboratory tests to rule out other possible causes of symptoms before concluding that a person has schizophrenia. In addition, since commonly abused drugs may cause symptoms associated with schizophrenia, physicians will take blood or urine samples from patients to check for the presence of these drugs.

Although there is no official cure, treatments exist which can help manage the symptoms and bring the disorder under control. Currently available treatments can help many people with schizophrenia lead highly productive and rewarding lives. It is important to note, though, that different treatments have different effects on different people, so this is not always a guarantee. Therapy also exists for people with schizophrenia which can help improve victims’ conditions. With budding research, scientists will hopefully be able to find more effective methods of symptom management that will have positive outcomes on the lives of schizophrenic patients.

Sources

Spearing, Melissa K. “Overview of Schizophrenia.” Schizophrenia.com, Paranoid Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia Cause, Schizophrenia Treatments, schizophrenia.com/family/sz.overview.htm.

Torres, Felix. “What Is Schizophrenia?” What Is Schizophrenia?, 2020,

www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia.