Schizophrenia



Schizophrenia

Introduction

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder that affects the lives of about two percent of people in the world. Individuals between the age of 25 and 35 are mostly affected by the disorder. Several reasons are attributed to this illness, though the specific answer to the question is still under debate. Scientists have said it to be a mixture of factors which includes early brain damage, genetic make-up, and pre-natal viruses, which leads to neurotransmitter effects to the brain. Hallucinations, disordered thinking, delusions, and unusual speech or behavior are some of the symptoms of the disorder. There is no accurate treatment for the illness, although several treatments have been proposed. Five percent of the proposed curing treatments have been successful so far. The highly preferred and effective treatment is the administration of antipsychotic medicines.

Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) are the tools utilized for measuring the intensity of correlation. The different areas of affected brains were observed and evaluated against the normal brains, indicating various structural differences. The most common result was the enlargement of the lateral ventricles, which are the liquid filled packets surrounding the brain.

Discussion

According to the DSM IV TR criteria, schizophrenia lasts for at least six months with two or more of the following active-phase symptoms for at least one month: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms. Disorganized speech leads to lose associations in verbal communication while disorganized behavior is not goal directed. Delusions and hallucinations are positive symptoms, or symptoms which regular individuals do not exhibit. Negative symptoms are those which show loss of function and ability such as flattened affect. When diagnosing a patient with schizophrenia, schizoaffective or mood disorder can be ruled out if major depressive, manic or mixed episodes are absent and the duration ...