Schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia

• By Sheryl Acuna, Neil de Guzman, Joyce Hu, Andy
  Kim, Austin Harcarik

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Causes of Schizophrenia

• Genes and environment
• a. According to experts, schizophrenia is caused
  by many factors.
• b. Schizophrenia runs in families.
• c. Illness is present in one percent of the
  general population. People who have first and
  second-degree relatives with schizophrenia are
  more likely to develop the disorder then the
  general population.
• d. Scientists suppose that numerous genes are
  related to a greater risk of schizophrenia. No
  gene, however, causes the disease by itself.
• e. Contemporary studies propose that
  schizophrenia may occur in part when a certain
  gene that is important to producing significant
  brain chemicals malfunctions.
• f. Interactions between genes and the
  environment are essential for schizophrenia to
  develop.
• g. Environmental factors that can be involved
  include exposure to viruses or malnutrition
  before birth, problems before birth, and other
  unknown psychosocial factors.

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Causes of Schizophrenia (continued)

• B. Different brain chemistry and structure
• a. An imbalance in the chemical reactions of the
  brain involving the neurotransmitters dopamine
  and glutamate, and potentially others, plays a
  role in schizophrenia.
• b. The appearance of the brain for those who
  have schizophrenia differ from those without the
  disorder. For example, people with schizophrenia
  have larger ventricles.

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This is a comparison of an MRI scan of 28-year
old male identical twins. The image on the left
is the twin without schizophrenia, and the image
on the right is the twin with schizophrenia. As
you can see, the twin with schizophrenia has
enlarged brain ventricles. Identical twin studies
on schizophrenia have made it apparent that there
are a lot more factors than genetics that are
involved.
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Paranoid Schizophrenia

• Symptoms
•     
• Auditory hallucinations (Visual hallucinations
  are rare)
• Delusions (Example Having belief that someone is
  plotting to kill them)
•   Anxiety
•   Anger 
•   Detachement 
•   Aggression and violence Quarrels
• Condescension.
• Suicidal thoughts and behavior 

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Causes

• Genetics 
• Viral infection - if the fetus is exposed to a
  viral infection
• Fetal malnutrition - if the fetus suffers from
  malnutrition during the mother's pregnancy
• Stress during early life - experts say that
  severe stress early on in life may be a
  contributory factor towards the development of
  schizophrenia.
• Childhood abuse or trauma
•  Parental age when baby is born - older parents
  have a higher risk of having children who
  subsequently develop schizophrenia, compared to
  younger parents.
• Drugs
•  Experts think that an imbalance of dopamine,
  serotonin, or other neurotransmitters. They also
  believe that this imbalance is most probably
  caused by your genes making you susceptible to
  the illness.

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Treatment

• Drugs (Medication- antipsychotic drugs,
  antidepressant, an anti-anxiety drug, or a
  mood-stabilizing medication)
• Psychotherapy
• Hospitalization
• Electroconvulsive Therapy
• Vocational Skills Training

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Disorganized Schizophrenia

• An extreme expression of the disorganization
  syndrome that is a part of the three-factor model
  of schizophrenia
• Characterized by prominent disorganized behavior
  and speech, as well as inappropriate emotion

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Symptoms

• Unlike most types of schizophrenia, delusions and
  hallucinations are not the most prominent feature
  in disorganized schizophrenia, but they can still
  be present
• Inappropriate show of emotion (laughing in a
  situation not intended to be comical), or a
  complete lack of emotion
• Speech/behavioral dysfunction

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Presentation

• Disorganized speech
• Slipping from one topic to the next, even in
  midsentence
• Irrelevant responses to questions
• Gibberish words
• Stopping in the middle of sentences
• Caused by abnormal/illogical thought processes

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Presentation

• Disorganized Behavior
• inability to initiate a goal-oriented task
• in severe cases, inability to perform basic
  tasks like fixing a meal or showering
• may dress bizarrely, such as wearing layers of
  clothes on a hot day
• may neglect personal hygiene and have a strange
  appearance

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Residual Schizophrenia

• experiences delusions, hearing voices, and/or
  showing some signs of disorganized speech, but
  the intensity has decreased significantly. The
  symptoms are no longer as severe as they were
  when he or she was acutely ill, but indicators of
  the disorder are still shown
• may have strange beliefs
• if hallucinations or delusions occur, he or she
  does not have strong emotions associated with it
• the rarest among the five different types of
  schizophrenia

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Residual Schizophrenia (continued)

• diagnosed when a person had a period of at least
  1 month but not more than six months during which
  the intensity and frequency of florid symptoms
  such as delusions and hallucinations have been
  minimal or reduced significantly
• diagnosed when a person shows prominent "negative
  symptoms" such as underactivity and poor eye
  contact and voice modulation
• absence of dementia or other organic brain
  disease or disorder that explains the negative
  impairments
• positive symptoms include talking in made-up
  language and disorganized thoughts and behaviors
• negative symptoms include lack of interest in
  daily life and withdrawing from others

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Undifferentiated Schizophrenia

• When a person has symptoms of schizophrenia that
  are not adequately formed or distinct enough to
  allow classification of the illness into one of
  the other subtypes, that person is diagnosed with
  the undifferentiated subtype.
• The symptoms of a person can change at individual
  points in time, leading to uncertainty as to the
  correct subtype classification.
• Because undifferentiated schizophrenia relies on
  forming the slowly progressive development of the
  characteristic negative symptoms of
  schizophrenia, it is a difficult diagnosis to
  make with any certainty.
• The symptoms for undifferentiated schizophrenia
  meet Criterion A, but they do not meet for the
  Paranoid, Disorganized, or Catatonic Type.

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Fin