Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Introduction Schizophrenia is the disorder of brain which produces effects on the normal brain functions. It also has several psychotic symptoms and it is also linked with the range of emotions and expressions.

Symptoms

The symptoms of the disorder are divided into several categories including positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. The positive symptoms are those behaviors and experiences that contribute to the normal function of the body. The positive symptoms include Hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations are the deformation of the senses of the person and a person starts to hear, see, taste or feel those things which are not present in the real world. Moreover, delusions are the artificial and permanent believes of a person. For instance, a person can also think that someone is controlling his thoughts. Other symptoms of the disorder can be disorganized speech, disorganized behavior. The negative symptoms are those which can take away the experience of the person from the world. These symptoms are difficult to examine because they can be due to the many factors like side effects of the factors and depression. There is a need of appropriate clinical judgment for the identification of these symptoms. The negative symptoms include reduced emotional expressions, decreased speech and a person is not capable to start and maintain the goal directed activities. The cognitive symptoms of the disease can be the disability in the executive function that can affect the focus and concentration, limited the response to the social cues, complexity in the organization of things and prioritizing them and disorganized thinking. All these symptoms should be continued for a period of six months and after that the affected patient can be diagnosed for schizophrenia (Poyurovsky et al. 2003).

Occurrence

According to the figures, schizophrenia occurs at the rate of one among the 100 people in all the populations of the world. The research has also indicated that incidence of the disease is increased in males and among the immigrants. The disease can occur at the age of 18 to 25 years and in the mid thirty years of age.

Causes

There is no single cause of the disease but there are many factors that can be contributed in the occurrence of the disease. The onset and the offset of the disease can be seen by stress vulnerability. There are various psychological, social and biological factors that are responsible for it. Several factors of genetics and brain are found to be producing the disease (Kirkbride & Scoriels, 2009).

Risk factors

Biological factors

The biological factors for the disease can be family or genetic history of the disease. The family history of the personality disorders and psychosis is connected with the increased risk of susceptibility to schizophrenia. The others factors can be the abnormality in the normal functioning of the brain. It is also suggested by the studies that the people who are suffering from schizophrenia have modification in the structure of the structure of the brain like small hippocampus and increased area of the ...