Schizophrenia Research Paper

I chose to write my research paper over Schizophrenia. It is a psychological disorder that I have always found fascinating. It is a serious disorder that consumes a person's life and is nearly impossible to control. In this paper, I will talk about the definition of Schizophrenia, the diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia in children, suicide, sexually related characteristics of the disease, sleep disorders caused by the disease, differences in the disease on different ethnicities, and insensitivity to pain.

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that affects one out of 100 people and presents with both positive and negative symptoms. Misconceptions of people with schizophrenia may include a belief that they are violent however they are more likely to be the victims of violence as of result of their abnormal behaviors. Positive symptoms may include the presence of symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and abnormal behavior whereas negative symptoms indicate a lack of a particular behavior. A positive symptom of schizophrenia may include hallucinations which are typically auditory hallucinations although may also be visual hallucinations in which clients experience some event despite a lack of stimuli. A negative symptom

Schizophrenia is a severe, disabling and chronic disorder that affects people. Schizophrenia is diagnosed as a psychotic disorder. This is because a person suffering from schizophrenia cannot tell their own thoughts, perceptions, ideas, and imaginations from the reality. There is continuing debate and research as to whether schizophrenia is one condition or a combination of more than one syndrome that have related features. People suffering from schizophrenia may seem perfectly fine until the time they talk actually talk about they are thinking. People with schizophrenia rely on others for help since they cannot care for themselves of hold a job. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there is treatment that relieves some of the symptoms. People having the disorder will cope with the symptoms all their lives. There have been cases of people suffering from schizophrenia leading meaningful and rewarding lives. There are five types of schizophrenia namely paranoid, disorganized, residual, undifferentiated, and catatonic schizophrenia. This paper will discuss paranoid schizophrenia.

A patient that shows sign such as regression, inappropriate affect, and other behaviors that are childish or bizarre most likely has disorganized schizophrenia. But this is not the only type of schizophrenia, there are others such as: Paranoid schizophrenia, disorganized schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia, and lastly residual schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects an estimated 3.2 million people in America alone (Nemade). Often, people have scattered reactions when they hear the word “schizophrenia.” Some may associate this word with uncontrollable actions that could potentially cause harm to those around them. People may think of serial killers, rapists, or any form of negative archetype seen in the the media. According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), schizophrenia is characterized by a patient experiencing delusions, hallucinations, and/or disorganized speech for more than a month. Delusions include, but are not limited to, the belief one is going to be harassed or harmed, environmental cues are directed at oneself,

Throughout the years people with schizophrenia has dealt with different type of treatments, exorcism, insulin shock, electroconvulsive therapy, lobotomy, and fever therapy.

In order for schizophrenia to be diagnosed, the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual requires two symptoms to be present for a substantial amount of time during a 30 day period. It also requires major areas of functioning to decrease, with continuous signs for at least six months (Fentress, Moller 1). Three different types of symptoms characterize schizophrenia: positive, negative, and cognitive (Richards 1). Positive symptoms refer to an exaggeration of brain function. This can be characterized by unusual thoughts, hallucinations, and delusions. Hallucinations are things a person sees, hears, smells or feels that no other person can. Hearing “voices” is the most common

Individuals with schizophrenia suffer from numerous symptoms. Some symptoms include perceptual and behavioral abnormalities; for example, peculiar movements, postures, and habits (Walker and Tessner 2008). Sensory experiences, known as hallucinations, occur in the absence of any sensory stimulus and are one of the most common symptoms of the disorder (Walker and Tessner 2008). An individual may suffer from touch, smell, taste, vision, and most commonly, auditory hallucinations such as hearing voices. Delusions are another symptom, which are false beliefs held by an individual. Examples of delusions that

People who have this disorder can multiple symptoms leading to the diagnosis. Some symptoms are known as “psychotic symptoms” which includes a break with reality, hallucinations, delusions, or evidence of thought disorder. These symptoms are referred to as positive symptoms because they are so readily available. Negative symptoms, which are less readily observed, include withdrawal from society, the inability to show emotion or to feel pleasure or pain, total apathy, and lack of facial expression (Piotrowski, 2015). People schizophrenia also have senses that typically become enhanced or weakened. It can also be hard to concentrate or difficult to focus on things because their selection and filtering process may become impaired. One of the “psychotic symptom” of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is universally considered to function on a neurological level, with various studies claiming that several different types of neurotransmitters are thought to contribute to the manifestation of schizophrenia in the brain (Carlton, 1984). These findings have encouraged the development of various hypotheses for the cause of schizophrenia, one of these includes the dopamine theory (Carlton, 1984). The theory originated out of research on the dopamine-blocking actions of initial antipsychotic drugs (Moncrieff, 2009). Pharmacological studies researching the use of drugs to treat schizophrenia found that, drugs which decrease dopaminergic activity in the brain such as, Clozapine and Haloperidol, are considered to be antipsychotics, whilst

There are three ways that symptoms of schizophrenia are categorized by; positive, negative, and cognitive. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not generally seen in healthy people. These symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders (NIMH). Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to to normal emotions and behaviors. These symptoms include “flat affect” (reduced expression of emotions via facial expression or voice tone), lack of pleasure in everyday life, lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities, and reduced speaking. Cognitive symptoms consist of loss of the capacity for very basic human functioning. Symptoms include inability to focus attention, impaired “working memory”, and lack of fundamental individual initiative to do anything (Psychology Today). “It (schizophrenia) has definitely made everything a lot more stressful. It makes it a lot harder for me to be devoted and have the motivation to do basically anything” (Dickey, Madeline).

Schizophrenia affects around 45% of all psychiatric patients around the world. The symptoms which are used to describe schizophrenia are often misdiagnosed as major depression, or bipolar disorder; although schizophrenia involves both depression and bipolar disorders, it is classified as cognitive dysfunction which affects both the host psychologically, and neurologically. Indications of this disorder include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, emotional flattening, paranoia, strange

Depending on what type of schizophrenia a person has can determine the symptoms that they have. “The symptoms can be put into three categories which are positive symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms” (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011). Schizophrenia can have positive symptoms which consist of hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders that can be seen in healthy individuals. Negative symptoms are constant disruption of normal behavior along with emotions. Then, the cognitive symptoms which are difficult to recognize and a majority of the time tests has to be run to determine what symptoms or what type of schizophrenia that individual has.

There are numerous mental disorders that may affect any person at a given time. These mental illnesses can affect both the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of people, and even other animals. When the patient’s mental, physical, and emotional state becomes altered, there could be many detrimental effects experienced. Through the treatment of medication and/or therapy, these people can learn to live with and manage their mental disorders, which could lead to a more productive and happier lifestyle. More opportunities for the patient’s success in life will arise from receiving proper treatment and care. It is highly imperative that the patient receives a diagnosis and treatment. Even with receiving care, the patient may still face social

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia is when the individual is lacking certain characteristics, such as normal thoughts, emotions or behaviors. People with schizophrenia can often have poor speech, or alogia, when the individual will restrict how much they speak, what they speak about, and/or have long pauses when responding or answering questions. Another type of negative symptom would include, the blunted and flat affect. This is when the person will show less emotion than what is normal, such as speaking in a monotone voice, avoiding eye contact, or having an expressionless face. Third would be loss of volition, or the loss of motivation due to feeling drained of energy and interest of normal goals. In addition, the individual is also unable