Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

What is it?

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. Someone suffering from schizophrenia often seems like he has lost touch with reality

What Causes it?

Schizophrenia can be caused by a wide range of factors. Often times, schizophrenia runs in the family, so certain people are born with a tendency to develop schizophrenia. Schizophrenia may appear when the body undergoes hormonal changes (puberty) or after dealing with stressful situations

An imbalance of brain chemicals or neurotransmitters can also lead to the development of schizophrenia. Neurotransmitters allow nerve cells in the brain to send messages to each other, so if these chemicals are imbalanced, the brain can become overwhelmed by sensory information. This can lead to hallucinations and delusions.

Early Signs and Symptoms

Early signs of schizophrenia can include a constant feeling of being watched, strange body positioning, a change in a person’s hygiene or appearance, feeling indifferent to important situations, a change in personality, inability to sleep or concentrate.

Symptoms can develop very gradually over a long period of time, or they may appear abruptly. Symptoms are generally separated into two categories: positive and negative. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors and behaviors that are added to a person’s personality. Positive behaviors include: Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized behavior, disordered thinking and speech

Negative behaviors are disruptions to a person’s normal behavior. They are capabilities “lost” from a person’s personality. Examples include: social withdrawal, extreme apathy, lack of drive or initiative, and emotional flatness

How is it Treated?

There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there are medications that can suppress symptoms of schizophrenia and group counseling to help people suffering from schizophrenia integrate back into daily life.

Antipsychotic Medication – Can control the symptoms of schizophrenia and can help reduce chemical imbalances in the brain. There are two types of antipsychotic medication. There are typical psychotics (also known as conventional medications) that can help control the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. These drugs were first developed in the 1950s but have a lot of severe side effects.  Then there are atypical psychotics (also known as New Generation antipsychotics) that can treat both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Atypical psychotics first came into use in the 1990s and usually have fewer side effects than typical psychotics.