Schizophrenia

By: Aydan Leigh

For this paper I chose to research, and talk about schizophrenia. I chose to talk about
this topic because I think it is a widely misunderstood condition.
Schizophrenia is defined as a serious mental illness characterized by incoherent or
illogical thoughts, bizarre behavior and speech, and delusions or hallucinations. What does that
all mean? Schizophrenia can cause a person to hear or see things that other people cannot.
Someone with this disorder may think someone is reading their thoughts, or controlling their
brain by telling them to do things. This often leads the person to act out of the norm, scaring
the person with the disorder, as well as others around them. Sometimes people with
schizophrenia talk differently. They may not make sense as to what they are saying. Sometimes
they could sit for hours without even moving or speaking. A lot of times you cannot tell
someone has schizophrenia until they start speaking to you.
The causes of schizophrenia are believed to be genetic. Although schizophrenia only
affects 1% of the population, if you have a first degree relative such as a parent, brother, or
sister who has the disorder, you have a 10% chance of inheriting the disorder yourself. Another
cause of schizophrenia is believed to have something to do with the chemistry and structure of
the brain. Scientists believe that if there is a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters,
dopamine, and glutamate, it can lead to schizophrenia. Also, through an MRI, scientists can see
that the brain from a person with schizophrenia has less gray area. While studying the brain of
a dead schizophrenia patient, scientists found changes in brain cell characteristics that was
likely to occur before birth.
There are many signs and symptoms of a person with schizophrenia. Believe it or not,
schizophrenia has positive, and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are symptoms seen in a
patient that are not seen in a regular person. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia include,
hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, and movement disorder. Sometimes these
symptoms can be very weak and other times they can be very strong.
Hallucinations are things that a person can see, hear, or feel that no one else can see,
hear, or feel. Voices are the most common type of hallucinations. A person diagnosed with
schizophrenia tends to hear a voice telling them to do something or warning them of danger.
Delusions are something that is not a part of a persons culture, and something that
does not change. A person with schizophrenia will believe in this delusion even after they are
proven wrong or it is proven illogical. An example of this is that a person with schizophrenia
could believe their neighbor is controlling them with their magnetic mind powers. Delusions
can also tend to make a person with schizophrenia believe that they are someone they are not.

Thought disorder is an unusual or disorganized way of thinking. A person with this

disorder may tend to have problems putting their thoughts into logical format. They may try to
speak to someone but it comes out as a jumbled mess. Other times a person may be talking and
all of a sudden stop randomly and not remember what comes next. They often say that the
words were taken right out of their head. Another symptom of this disorder is when a person
makes up words that no one understands or that dont make sense.
Movement disorder is when a person makes movements that could be considered
agitated. In other words they repeat the same movement over and over again.
Some negative symptoms of schizophrenia include, the flat effect, lack of pleasure in
everyday life, speaking little even when forced to interact, and lack of ability to cooperate in
activities. The flat effect is when a persons face has no emotion and they often talk in a flat
monotonous voice.
There are many ways to treat patients with schizophrenia but the most common is
medical treatment. There are a few different types of medicines to treat certain symptoms of
schizophrenia. Chlorpromazine also known as thorazine, Haloperidol also known as Haldol,
perphenazine also known as etrafon and trilafon, and fluphenazine also known as prolixin.
These four medicines are the most common antipsychotics used in todays world.
Some interesting information about schizophrenia is that contrary to popular belief,
schizophrenia isnt actually a split personality or multiple personality disorder. The word
schizophrenia means split brain, but it refers to the disruption of the usual balance of
emotions and thinking. Schizophrenia is also a lifelong disorder. It doesnt go away after a while
even with treatment. In men, symptoms of schizophrenia usually occur in the early to mid-20s.
For women symptoms occur in the late 20s. Its highly unlikely for a child to be diagnosed with
schizophrenia and for those over the age of 45. Schizophrenia isnt just a devastating disorder
for the patient, it is very devastating for those around them. In 2002 the average cost for
schizophrenia disorder was $62.7 billion just in the US alone. Schizophrenia is one of the most
commonly diagnosed diseases. Compared to Alzheimers, it is 2x more popular. Compared to
multiple sclerosis it is 5x more popular. Compared to insulin-dependent diabetes, it is 6x more
popular. Finally, compared to muscular dystrophy, it is 60x more popular.
An example of schizophrenia would be Jim has consulted a doctor about hearing
voices and seeing things that his family cant see. His family finds Jim making up words at times
and sometimes throwing out sentences that dont make sense. According to Jims doctor, Jim is
suffering from hallucinations, and thought disorder. Jims doctor diagnoses him with
Schizophrenia.
From this paper I learned a lot that I didnt know about schizophrenia. I had a general
idea about it but I never got to go in depth about it. I learned that people with schizophrenia
dont just see things, they also have other symptoms. I think other people could look at this
paper and realize what people with schizophrenia actually deal with, and how hard their lives

could be because of schizophrenia. It also could show how people around patients with
schizophrenia are affected. In the future, I would love to sit down with an actually
schizophrenia patient and hear their life story. About how they found out they had it, their first
symptoms, their treatment, and how they live their life with the disorder.

Sources
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml
http://schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm#
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/basics/definition/con20021077