Schizophrenia

Overview

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe brain disorder that is disabling in nature, and affects all the five senses. Only one percent of Americans are suffering from schizophrenia. People with this disorder may hear voices or they may have paranoid or delusional thoughts, such as believing that their minds are being read or their thoughts controlled. Experiences like these are terrifying and can cause feelings of withdrawal, fearfulness or agitation on an extreme level. People who are suffering from schizophrenia may not make sense when they talk, may sit for hours without talking or moving or they may seem completely fine until they talk about what they are thinking.

Types

The differences between the various types of schizophrenia mainly relate to the symptoms because two different schizophrenia sufferers can have completely different sets of symptoms depending on environmental factors, how long they have been dealing with the symptoms and other contributing factors. The symptoms associated with schizophrenia fall into three different broad categories.

Symptoms

There are three primary sets of symptoms associated with schizophrenia:

• Positive Symptoms - Positive symptoms involve unusual perceptions or thoughts like delusions, thought disorders, mirages and movement disorders.

• Negative Symptoms - Negative symptoms represent a loss or a decrease in the ability to speak, express emotion, initiate plans or find pleasure in everyday life.

• Cognitive Symptoms - Cognitive symptoms, or cognitive deficits, on the other hand are issues relating to attention, memory and executive functions allowing us to organize and plan. These are much harder symptoms to recognize and can often be mistaken for depression or laziness. They can also be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder, but can be some of the most disabling.

Causes/Risk Factors

Like many other similar illnesses, it is believed that schizophrenia is the result of a combination of genetic and environmental factors. All of the tools in modern science today are being used in order to search for the true cause of schizophrenia, but the true cause is as yet unknown. Schizophrenia has been known to run in families, but this is not the only cause for the disorder.

Tests/Diagnosis

Schizophrenia is diagnosed based on the symptom profiles. They are based on the self-report of the sufferer and abnormalities noted by the family members. Diagnosing schizophrenia is not easy and takes time because you need to work with a physician or counselor to work through the symptoms and potential causes. If schizophrenia runs in your family, then the likelihood that you have the disorder when exhibiting similar situations is clearly much higher than if schizophrenia does not run in your family.

Treatment

The current treatments focus on eliminating the symptoms of the disease rather than preventing the disorder or eliminating the disorder completely because the causes are not largely known. In other words, eliminating the symptoms of the disorder is the primary concern for treating schizophrenia rather than treating the underlying disorder. Some potential treatments for the symptoms include antipsychotic medications, psychosocial treatments, cognitive behavioral therapy, self help groups and family counseling. Typically a combination between behavioral therapy, counseling and medication is ideal for treating all of the symptoms associated with schizophrenia.