SCHIZOPHRENIA

Schizophrenia

[Name of the Institute]

Schizophrenia

Introduction

Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness, and one of a larger class of psychotic disorders defined by the presence of delusions (false beliefs), and hallucinations (sensory perceptions without external sensory input). Schizophrenia may also be characterized by disorganized speech and behavior and negative symptoms such as social, cognitive, and emotional withdrawal (Weinberger, 2011). Sensationalized accounts of dangerous, violent, and criminal behavior committed by schizophrenic persons have proliferated through the popular media; and the assumption of schizophrenia-associated crime and violence has contributed to public fear, stigma, social rejection, and even the denial of services and programmatic funding to schizophrenic individuals. In reality, most schizophrenic persons are not criminal or violent (Beck, 2011). Given this common misperception, a review of the empirical schizophrenia crime/violence literature along with proposed explanations for the relationship based in psychological, neurobiological, and social theory appears timely.

Areas of the brain affected

Schizophrenia is a disease that impacts heavily on the quality of life of individuals with the disease, causing great economic loss and family. In the United States, it is the leading cause of psychiatric disability. This condition affects the patient's overall performance in a progressive manner, leaving very little chance of recovering the previous level of functioning. It has existed for millions of years, but until the nineteenth century get considered a possession by evil spirits (Tsuang, 2011). The main brain areas involved in the patho-physiology of schizophrenia are the frontal lobes, limbic structures like the amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampal turn, and basal ganglia, particularly the striatum (consisting of the caudate nucleus and putamen) and the nucleus accumbens. Other affected areas are the thalamus and brain stem.

The nucleus accumbens receive projections from the frontal and temporal lobe exitatorias afferents and inhibitory fibers mesolimbic circuit. In normal cortical afferents trigger a portion of the nucleus accumbens, while others are dormant cells inhibited keeping unwanted mental processes (Williamson, 2006). In schizophrenia increases the dopaminergic tone in the nucleus accumbens and striatum, triggering a permanent inhibition of cortico-striatal circuit-thalamo-cortical, which maintains the hypoactive prefrontal lobe, causing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Moreover, cells in the nucleus accumbens which were to be inhibited remain active, producing positive symptoms.

Causal factors

As an explanatory model, for the etiology of schizophrenic psychoses currently expecting a multifactorial model that can trigger the genetic-biological, and psychosocial causes in the interplay of schizophrenia. Just as in the vulnerability-stress model gets presented, which is not exceeding a defined amount of stress is the factor that the psychosis in a defenceless people can break out. As a disorder, of the central regulation of information processing gets considered. The twin studies of schizophrenia have a genetic component, through the eugenic perspective was overestimated embossed researchers (Durand, 2009). The closer relationship with schizophrenia, the more it is also a distinct disease. With a schizophrenic ill parent, it is five to ten percent in affected siblings from eight to ten percent in monozygotic twins 45% and about 21% in dizygotic twins. If schizophrenia is a purely genetic induced illness, should they in ...