Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia: [|__http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001925/__]

complex mental disorder that makes it difficult to:
 * tell the difference between what is real and what is not
 * think clearly
 * have normal emotional responses
 * act “normally” during social situations

what causes it?
 * generally unknown
 * genes may contribute
 * not a mutation in mitosis or meiosis

who does it affect and when?
 * equally in the number of men and women it affects
 * typically beginning in teenage or young adult years (after age 5)
 * with women-they get it later in life and it is much more of a mild condition
 * childhood schizophrenia is hard to decipher because it could be autism or something else

symptoms?
 * early symptoms
 * irritable or tense feeling
 * trouble concentrating
 * trouble sleeping
 * as the disease progresses
 * bizarre behaviors
 * hallucinations
 * isolation
 * reduced emotion
 * problems paying attention
 * delusions
 * thoughts that “jump” between different topics

signs and testing
 * doctors will ask
 * how long have the symptoms lasted
 * how ability to function has changed
 * developmental background
 * genetic and family history
 * how well medicines have worked
 * substance abuse
 * medical conditions
 * Doctors will then proceed to do a brain scan (CT or MRI), or blood tests to help rule out the possibility of diagnosis of other diseases

treating this disease: mainly support groups and therapies
 * social skill therapy
 * job training classes
 * relationship-building classes

__Living With Schizophrenia__ There are a multitude of myths associated with Schizophrenia:
 * 1) Symptoms are consistent with all patients: There are various types of schizophrenia with unique symptoms
 * 2) People with schizophrenia are a danger to themselves and others: This is untrue, contends Dawn I. Gilligan, Ph.D professor and co-director of the Division of Schizophrenia and Related Disorders at the Department of Psychiatry, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Gilligan states “When their illness is treated with medication and psychosocial interventions, individuals with schizophrenia are no more violent than the general population” (1).
 * 3) Cognitive decadence is a symptom of schizophrenia. This may appear so, although it is regularly linked to declining motivation, or when the patient does not continue their medication. They also have “bad days”, which (under medication) occur far less frequently that good days.
 * 4) Schizophrenia is untreatable: “While schizophrenia is not curable, it is an eminently treatable and manageable chronic illness, just like diabetes or heart disease,” argues Irene S. Levine, Ph.D, psychologist and co-author of Schizophrenia for Dummies (1).
 * 5) Sufferers require hospitalization: Again, with controlled medication people with schizophrenia can live perfectly fine with the general public.
 * 6) The antipsychotic medications sufferers take make them dull, and nearly zombified mentally and motivationally. This is untrue, and it is also notable that serious side effects are immensely rare.





[|__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb8wQjwVu2g__] [|__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V87RLn7Kabo__]