Even in this days general knowledge about mental illness is very little, and because of these people with schizophrenia suffer greatly. They are very marginalized and not understood. On top of the fact that they have to deal with an incurable, chronic brain disease they must also put up with the ignorance and discrimination from the rest of the normal people. People with mental problems have to be real fighters because after learning to deal with all the problems they also must learn to deal with possible difficulties from friends, finding a suitable job and a place to live. Because of the way they are locked at and treated mental patients feel left apart from society, different and disrespected.
Many of us fear that mentally ill persons are violent, fact witch is very untrue. They are in fact quite the opposite: passive towards people next to them, fearful of others and even anxious. All these facts about the violence possibilities of mental patients are in fact based on old myths that showed them as violent and aggressive. Studies done show that again it is the other way around regarding the violent behavior of mental illness patients, the tendency being for them to be victims of violence and not otherwise. As in normal people the only danger presented by mentally ill patients towards other s is when drugs or alcohol are involved or when the patient has stopped medicating.
As in the case of violence, schizophrenia patients are not necessarily more predisposed to criminal action. But exceptions do exist when the illness aggravates and the untreated person has a slightly more agressive behavior. Hospitalization may some times be necessary in order to adequately treat the patient. Much attention should be given to these two measures that must be taken because sometimes the patient ends up in jail instead of correctly being taken to a mental institution where they can be treated accordingly with the disease they suffer from.
As said earlier people still make grave judgement errors regarding the problem: why is that person different. People go so far as to credit wild spirits for the fact that one person suffers from a mental disorder. Bad blood and lack of moral integrity are some other believes to cause these problems in people.
These days with the help of modern technology and better understanding from doctors things are beginning to change. Better understanding of the brain has lead to many breakthroughs and thus better opinions about mentally ill patients. The old believes as to why people suffer from those illnesses are also beginning to fade away.
For more resources about paranoid schizophrenia or even about types of schizophrenia please follow this link http://www.schizophrenia-info-center.com/
Commonly known as insanity or madness, schizophrenia is a chronic psychotic disorder with onset typically occurring in adolescence or young adulthood. Schizophrenia results in fluctuating, gradually deteriorating, or relatively stable disturbances in thinking, behavior, and perception. Severity can range from mild and subtle with very good adaptation to everyday life, to severely disabling requiring constant supervision in a restricted environment. . Schizophrenia is a brain disease that interferes with normal brain functioning. It causes affected people to exhibit odd and often highly irrational or disorganized behavior. Because the brain is the organ in the body where thinking, feeling and understanding of the world takes place (where consciousness exists), a brain disease like schizophrenia alters thinking, feeling, understanding and consciousness itself in affected persons, changing their lives for the worse.
Causes of Schizophrenia
Experts now agree that schizophrenia develops as a result of interplay between biological predisposition (for example, inheriting certain genes) and the kind of environment a person is exposed to. These lines of research are converging: brain development disruption is now known to be the result of genetic predisposition and environmental stressors early in development (during pregnancy or early childhood), leading to subtle alterations in the brain that make a person susceptible to developing schizophrenia.
It’s not known what causes schizophrenia. However, researchers believe that an interaction of genetics and environment may cause schizophrenia. Problems with certain naturally occurring brain chemicals, including the neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate, also may contribute to schizophrenia.
Symtoms Of Schizophrenia
Bizarre or inappropriate behaviour Preoccupation with spiritual matters Incoherent illogical speech
Distorted Perceptions of Reality
People with schizophrenia may have perceptions of reality that are strikingly different from the reality seen and shared by others around them. Living in a world distorted by hallucinations and delusions, individuals with schizophrenia may feel frightened, anxious, and confused.
Cognitive symptoms (or cognitive deficits) are problems with attention, certain types of memory, and the executive functions that allow us to plan and organize. Cognitive deficits can also be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder but are the most disabling in terms of leading a normal life.
Over time, it becomes difficult to function in daily life. You may not be able to go to work or school. You may have troubled relationships, partly because of difficulty reading social cues or others’ emotions. You may lose interest in activities you once enjoyed.
Diagnosing Schizophrenia
Using mental state features alone (such as third person auditory hallucinations) is not a reliable way to diagnose schizophrenia. After all, psychotic features such as hallucinations and delusions can occur in affective disorders, dementia and acute organic psychoses. It is therefore important to look at the form of the illness as well as the content.
Treatment of Schizophrenia
Patients with schizophrenia often do not respond to treatment or only partially improve and remain functionally impaired. While medication has been found to be effective for the treatment of “positive” symptoms of the disease, treatment of the “negative symptoms” of depression (including lack of energy, motivation, and emotional range) has historically not been very successful. In nearly 25 percent of those patients, the condition is so refractory to neuroleptic pharmacotherapy that they require custodial care.
First, ensure that your loved one is taking prescribed medications. One of the most common reasons that people with schizophrenia relapse into a new episode is that they quit taking medication. Family members might see much improvement and mistakenly assume medications may no longer be needed. That is a disastrous assumption. A later psychotic outbreak will likely happen
The large majority of people with schizophrenia show substantial improvement when treated with antipsychotic drugs. Some patients, however, are not helped very much by the medications and a few do not seem to need them.
Therapy of Schizophrenia
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been shown to be good for a person with schizophrenia. Psychodynamic therapy is quite controversial. The actual therapy does not seem to work so well. When a person suffers from schizophrenia, it is helpful for the whole family to get support. This usually reduces stress and worry, and helps people cope.
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime ? more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year. Although schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency, the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties, than in women, who are generally affected in the twenties to early thirties. People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful and withdrawn. Their speech and behavior can be so disorganized that they may be incomprehensible or frightening to others. Available treatments can relieve many symptoms, but most people with schizophrenia continue to suffer some symptomsthroughout their lives; it has been estimated that no more than one in five individuals recovers completely.
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Schizophrenia may have a variety of symptoms. Usually the illness develops slowly over months or years. Like other chronic illnesses, schizophrenia cycles between periods of fewer symptoms and periods of more symptoms.
At first, you may feel tense, or have trouble sleeping or concentrating. You can become isolated and withdrawn, and have trouble making or keeping friends.
As the illness continues, psychotic symptoms develop:
Appearance or mood that shows no emotion (flat affect)
Bizarre movements that show less of a reaction to the environment (catatonic behavior)
False beliefs or thoughts that are not based in reality (delusions)
Hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there (hallucinations)
Problems with thinking often occur:
Problems paying attention
Thoughts “jump” between unrelated topics (disordered thinking)
Symptoms can be different depending on the type of schizophrenia:
Paranoid types often feel anxious, are more often angry or argumentative, and falsely believe that others are trying to harm them or their loved ones.
Disorganized types have problems thinking and expressing their ideas clearly, often exhibit childlike behavior, and frequently show little emotion.
Catatonic types may be in a constant state of unrest, or they may not move or be underactive. Their muscles and posture may be rigid. They may grimace or have other odd facial expressions, and they may be less responsive to others.
Undifferentiated types may have symptoms of more than one other type of schizophrenia.
Residual types experience some symptoms, but not as many as those who are in a full-blown episode of schizophrenia.
People with any type of schizophrenia may have difficulty keeping friends and working. They may also have problems with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts or behaviors.
A psychiatrist should perform an evaluation to make the diagnosis. The diagnosis is made based on a thorough interview of the person and family members.
No medical tests for schizophrenia exist. The following factors may suggest a schizophrenia diagnosis, but do not confirm it:
Course of illness and how long symptoms have lasted
Changes from level of function before illness
Developmental background
Genetic and family history
Response to medication
CT scans of the head and other imaging techniques may find some changes that occur withschizophrenia and may rule out other disorders
Because the causes of schizophrenia are still unknown, treatments focus on eliminating the symptoms of the disease. The overall treatment goal for schizophrenia is to minimize symptoms so that people with the disorder can live as functional, independent, and productive lives as possible. There is no cure for schizophrenia, but consistent ongoing compliance with a multifaceted treatment program can often effectively control symptoms and prevent relapses of acute episodes of symptoms. To be most effective, treatment may need to be life-long.
Here are some types of therapy that may help you.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps you change the way you think about things. It can help you understand why it’s important to prevent a relapse and take steps to do so. CBT may help reduce delusions and hallucinations.
Counseling helps you improve your relationships, deal with your symptoms, and meet your goals. It often focuses on the problems and plans of everyday life.
Individual psychotherapy: This involves regular sessions between just the patient and a therapist focused on past or current problems, thoughts, feelings, or relationships. Thus, via contact with a trained professional, people with schizophrenia become able to understand more about the illness, to learn about themselves and to better handle the problems of their daily lives. They become better able to differentiate between what is real and, by contrast, what is not and can acquire beneficial problem-solving skills.
Rehabilitation: Rehabilitation may include job and vocational counseling, problem solving, social skills training, and education in money management. Thus, patients learn skills required for successful reintegration into their community following discharge from the hospital.
Family education: Research has consistently shown that people with schizophrenia who have involved families fare better than those who battle the condition alone. Insofar as possible, all family members should be involved in the care of your loved one.
Self-help groups: Outside support for family members of those with schizophrenia is necessary and desirable. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is an in-depth resource. This outreach organization offers information on all treatments for schizophrenia including home care. Community care and outreach programs are very helpful in avoiding relapse, non-compliance, legal problems, and repeat hospitalizations.
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Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease that has been recognized throughout recorded story. The 1st signs of schizophrenia typically emerge in the teenaged years or early 20s. It’s a form of psychosis, which is an impairment of thinking in which the interpretation of fact is abnormal. It’s rare in kids and is hard to recognize in its early phases. The condition schizophrenia literally means split mind; however, a lot of people still trust wrongly that the condition causes a multiple personality (which is a rare problem involving dissociation). The cause of schizophrenia is still unclear. People with schizophrenia may hear voices others do not hear or they may trust that others are reading their minds, controlling their ideas, or plotting to harm them.
Schizophrenia can be caused by schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, drug abuse and other elements. It’s not caused by childhood experiences, poor parenting or lack of willpower, nor is the symptoms identical for each person. The behavior of kids with schizophrenia may change slowly extra time. It affects approximately one percent of the world’s population, making it the more common psychosis. Schizophrenia and other mental health disorders have clean strict criteria for diagnosis. Time of onset also as length and features of symptoms are all factors. Available treatments can relieve a lot of the disorder’s symptoms, but most people who have schizophrenia must cope with some residual symptoms as long-life as they live.
Causes of Schizophrenia
The common causes and risk factors of Schizophrenia include the following:
The exact causes of schizophrenia are not known.
Genetic factors.
Chemical or subtle structural abnormalities in the brain.
Biological and environmental factors.
A Family story of Schizophrenia.
Psychological and social factors.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Some sign and symptoms related Schizophrenia are as follows:
Loss of appetite.
The sense of being controlled by external forces.
Delusions.
Incoherence (not understandable)
Regressive behavior.
Diminishment of the self.
Inability to take care of personal needs.
Violence.
Argumentativeness.
Lack of pleasure in everyday life.
Treatment of Schizophrenia
Here is list of the processes for treating Schizophrenia:
People who experience acute symptoms of schizophrenia may require intensive treatment including hospitalization.
Antipsychotic or neuroleptic medicines (such as clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone and aripiprazole) work by changing the balances of chemicals in the brain and are used to control the symptoms of the illness.
Supportive and problem focused forms of psychotherapy may be helpful for several individuals.
If people with schizophrenia become depressed, it may be necessity to add an antidepressant to their drug regimen.
Individual therapy: Cognitive therapy involves a therapist helping you learn ways of coping with stressful ideas and positions to reduce your risk of a relapse.
There are many kinds of schizophrenia that are defined by the predominant symptoms, but the only practical distinction that almost doctors now makes in between the paranoid and additional types. The primary symptom of a person with paranoid schizophrenia is constant suspicion and resentment, accompanied by fear that people are hostile or even plotting to destroy him or her.
What are The Risks?
Most youth and middle aged patients in mental hospitals are there because they are schizophrenic. Almost 1 person in a thousand has been treated for the disorder. Men and women are equally capable. Paranoid schizophrenia is general in early adulthood (late twenty through thirty).
The abnormal status of mind chemistry that underlies schizophrenia could be inherited, but if it runs in your family, you will not necessarily have schizophrenic attacks. You might, however, have either a schizoid personality (a tendency towards extreme shyness and back down) or a paranoid personality (a tendency towards over on sensitivity and distrustfulness).
What should be done?
If you suspect that somebody in your family is schizophrenic, try to get them to show a doctor. It might not be easy. People who are converting mentally ill frequently reject to admit it. Even those who realize that something is wrong have a fear of being put away. But medical care is essential. Don’t leave a person who looks extremely disturbed lonely.
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately one percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime – more than two million Americans suffer from the illness in any given year. Although schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency, the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties; women are generally affected in the twenties to early thirties. People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful and withdrawn. Their speech and behaviour can be disorganised and strange to the extent that they may be incomprehensible or frightening to others.
How is Schizophrenia Diagnosed? There is currently no physical or lab test that can conclusively diagnose schizophrenia – a psychiatrist usually makes the diagnosis based on clinical symptoms. Physical testing can rule out many other conditions (seizure disorders, metabolic disorders, thyroid dysfunction, brain tumour, the effects of street drug use, and so on) that sometimes have similar symptoms.
What causes Schizophrenia? Although the exact cause of schizophrenia remains unknown, experts agree that schizophrenia develops as a result of interplay between biological predisposition (for example, inheriting certain genes) and environmental factors. These lines of research are beginning to converge: brain development disruption is likely the result of genetic and/or environmental stressors early in development (during pregnancy or early childhood), leading to subtle alterations in the brain. Environmental factors later in development can either damage the brain further and further increase the risk of schizophrenia, or lessen the expression of genetic or neurodevelopment defects, thus decreasing the risk of schizophrenia.
Treatment for schizophrenia The American Psychiatric Association publication ‘Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia’ states: “Antipsychotic medications are indicated for nearly all acute psychotic episodes in patients with schizophrenia.”
There is also a significant overlap in terms of the medications for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (Manic Depression). There are two main classifications of medications (from a layman’s perspective); the traditional antipsychotic medications (Haldol, etc.), and the newer, ‘atypical’ antipsychotic medications that have come out in the past decade (Clozapine, Geodon, Seroquel, Risperdal, Zyprexa, Abilify, etc.). It is recommended that sufferers or their carers speak to online support groups to get in touch with others, and to hear about their personal successes and problems with the different medications. It is also a good idea to read as much as possible regarding the medications available, and talk with a psychiatrist, to identify the medications that may be appropriate. It should be kept in mind that whilst both the older and newer medications can greatly help a person with schizophrenia, they all have significant side effects that vary according to the individual. No medication available, unfortunately, constitutes an actual cure for schizophrenia.
A natural treatment for schizophrenia? While the conclusions drawn range from the positive to the negative, research does suggest that people with schizophrenia may benefit by a reduction in symptoms when they take fish oil capsules that are high in the EPA (a type of Omega-3 fatty acid) form of oil. It is important to be careful about the type of fish oil you are using, as not all fish oils are effective. Researchers at the University of Sheffield tell us: “What people really need to be looking at is the amount of EPA in the fish oil they are buying. Our data from previous studies suggests that DHA is of little use in the treatment of schizophrenia, but EPA is the substance that yields the best results. Dosage wise it is suggested that about 2,000 mg/day to 4,000 mg/day (2 to 4 grams/day) should help.”
A research review article from 2005 in the journal Drugs states: “The evidence to date supports the adjunctive use [i.e. in addition to antipsychotic medications] of omega-3 fatty acids in the management of treatment unresponsive depression and schizophrenia. As these conditions are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease and diabetes mellitus, omega-3 fatty acids should also benefit the physical state of these patients.” (Drugs, 2005; 65(8):1051-9).
Fish fats, and the oils extracted from them, contain two biologically-active omega 3 fatty acids, DHA, EPA. There are good theoretical reasons why both might be important in the brain. However, with regard to schizophrenia, evidence is accumulating that it is the EPA which is really helpful, whereas DHA may not be beneficial in this context.
The strongest evidence comes from a study at Sheffield University by Dr Malcolm Peet and his colleagues. They did a study in patients with chronic, partially treatment-resistant schizophrenia. These patients continued on their existing medications. They were then randomised on a double-blind basis to receive either a placebo, or high EPA fish oil from sardines or anchovies, or high DHA fish oil from tuna. In other words, all the treatments were coded so that neither the patients nor the doctors knew which patient was receiving which treatment until the trial had been completed and the code broken. When the code was broken, the results were very clear. The placebo patients, as is usual in such experiments, showed a small improvement. The DHA patients also showed a small improvement, but in fact a lesser one than was evident in the placebo group, raising the possibility that DHA may not be helpful. In contrast, the patients on EPA showed a significant improvement which was comparable to that seen with the newer antipsychotic drugs, yet without the side effects.
Other studies have also shown that the same EPA rich oil as was used in the Sheffield study is very helpful in improving symptoms even in those who have a shorter history of schizophrenia. It therefore seems that the best fish oils to use are those which are high in EPA.
These findings have been fully embraced by the Schizophrenia Association of Great Britain, which recommends EPA fish oil along with other nutritional supplements on a daily basis to help treat this condition.
Conclusion The current evidence points towards this natural essential fatty acid being beneficial for schizophrenia especially when run alongside current antipsychotic medication.
Any good doctor or nutritionist will tell you that the best way to get any nutrient is to eat a very balanced diet. In the case of Omega 3 oil this would be in the form of fish. Sadly due to the pollution levels found in our oceans today eating large portions of fish every day is not advisable.
Therefore anyone with schizophrenia who wants to supplement their diet with omega 3 oil must purchase fish oil capsules that are high in EPA. Make sure at point of purchase that the capsules are free of toxins and contaminates and that they also have a high EPA to DHA ratio, as these types of capsules were found to be more effective by some leading doctors in the UK.
Commonly known as insanity or madness, schizophrenia is a chronic psychotic disorder with onset typically occurring in adolescence or young adulthood. Schizophrenia results in fluctuating, gradually deteriorating, or relatively stable disturbances in thinking, behavior, and perception. Severity can range from mild and subtle with very good adaptation to everyday life, to severely disabling requiring constant supervision in a restricted environment. . Schizophrenia is a brain disease that interferes with normal brain functioning. It causes affected people to exhibit odd and often highly irrational or disorganized behavior. Because the brain is the organ in the body where thinking, feeling and understanding of the world takes place (where consciousness exists), a brain disease like schizophrenia alters thinking, feeling, understanding and consciousness itself in affected persons, changing their lives for the worse.
Causes of Schizophrenia
Experts now agree that schizophrenia develops as a result of interplay between biological predisposition (for example, inheriting certain genes) and the kind of environment a person is exposed to. These lines of research are converging: brain development disruption is now known to be the result of genetic predisposition and environmental stressors early in development (during pregnancy or early childhood), leading to subtle alterations in the brain that make a person susceptible to developing schizophrenia.
It’s not known what causes schizophrenia. However, researchers believe that an interaction of genetics and environment may cause schizophrenia. Problems with certain naturally occurring brain chemicals, including the neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate, also may contribute to schizophrenia.
Symtoms Of Schizophrenia
Bizarre or inappropriate behaviour Preoccupation with spiritual matters Incoherent illogical speech
Distorted Perceptions of Reality
People with schizophrenia may have perceptions of reality that are strikingly different from the reality seen and shared by others around them. Living in a world distorted by hallucinations and delusions, individuals with schizophrenia may feel frightened, anxious, and confused.
Cognitive symptoms (or cognitive deficits) are problems with attention, certain types of memory, and the executive functions that allow us to plan and organize. Cognitive deficits can also be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder but are the most disabling in terms of leading a normal life.
Over time, it becomes difficult to function in daily life. You may not be able to go to work or school. You may have troubled relationships, partly because of difficulty reading social cues or others’ emotions. You may lose interest in activities you once enjoyed.
Diagnosing Schizophrenia
Using mental state features alone (such as third person auditory hallucinations) is not a reliable way to diagnose schizophrenia. After all, psychotic features such as hallucinations and delusions can occur in affective disorders, dementia and acute organic psychoses. It is therefore important to look at the form of the illness as well as the content.
Treatment of Schizophrenia
Patients with schizophrenia often do not respond to treatment or only partially improve and remain functionally impaired. While medication has been found to be effective for the treatment of “positive” symptoms of the disease, treatment of the “negative symptoms” of depression (including lack of energy, motivation, and emotional range) has historically not been very successful. In nearly 25 percent of those patients, the condition is so refractory to neuroleptic pharmacotherapy that they require custodial care.
First, ensure that your loved one is taking prescribed medications. One of the most common reasons that people with schizophrenia relapse into a new episode is that they quit taking medication. Family members might see much improvement and mistakenly assume medications may no longer be needed. That is a disastrous assumption. A later psychotic outbreak will likely happen
The large majority of people with schizophrenia show substantial improvement when treated with antipsychotic drugs. Some patients, however, are not helped very much by the medications and a few do not seem to need them.
Therapy of Schizophrenia
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been shown to be good for a person with schizophrenia. Psychodynamic therapy is quite controversial. The actual therapy does not seem to work so well. When a person suffers from schizophrenia, it is helpful for the whole family to get support. This usually reduces stress and worry, and helps people cope.