In an article by Douglas Steinberg, titled "Can a Side of the Brain Determine Sick or Sane?", the old, but never researched idea that different sides of the brain can trigger different emotions is explored. Several years ago, a scientist named Alvaro Pascual-Leone asked subjects with medication-resistant depression to wear goggles which restricted either the left or right eye. His idea was that if depression were linked to one side of the brain, electrical signals sent from only one eye could help cure the perpetual sadness.
Pascual-Leone's idea actually wasn't his. In discussions with Fredric Schiffer, Schiffer had suggested that ordinary, taped-up goggles actually elicited mood changes in many depressed patients. Pascual-Leone had been skeptical, but when moments after putting on the goggles, some patients had "rather striking and well defined emotional responses," he was convinced. 20 patients felts 42% better when they wore Left Hemisphere activating goggles, and 15 felt 11% better with Right Hemisphere activating goggles. Pascual-Leone should have then tested to see how the people reacted to the goggles which stimulated the other hemisphere, but he didn't.
The theory behind this research is that because the axons of many retinal neurons cross the midline of the brain, the left brain receives a jolt when the right eye is stimulated, and vice versa. The Right Hemisphere is commonly associated with schizophrenia, and the Left Hemisphere with chronic depression. However, this data may be specific to the individual. So, scientists hypothesized, if electrical signals were focused on one side of the brain, the characteristics associated with the other side would be cured. However, Flor-Henry, an important scientist, makes it clear that, "A disturbance cannot be just in one hemisphere. The fundamental cause might originate in one hemisphere.".
Many scientists have tried to find the best way to cure depression and schizophrenia with this theory.
Not all schizophrenics suffer the same illness. ... To one degree or another, schizophrenics are often flat in mood. ... Sometimes schizophrenics believe that they can control the minds of others. ... Antipsychotics are not equally effective against all schizophrenic symptoms. ... Group therapy can also help the recovering schizophrenic. ...
It refers to the characteristic schizophrenic behavior of withdrawing from reality and thinking in illogical, confused patterns. ... Schizophrenics often suffer disturbances in mood and behavior. ... The most important use of ECT is to treat hospitalized patients who remain severely depressed and suicidal in spite of drug treatment and psychotherapy. ECT frequently restores these depressed patients to a normal mental state. ... Schizophrenic disorders generally begin in the late teenage years or early adulthood and tend to occur in withdrawn, seclusive individuals. ...
In the United States alone there are a minimum of two million schizophrenics" (Walsh 52). ... Delusions of being controlled are often common among schizophrenics. ... Thoughts of persecution are also familiar to a schizophrenic. An example of this would be the schizophrenic thinking that "the FBI is after them" (Walsh 45). ... Electroconvulsive is for patients who become severely withdrawn or depressed. ...
They later reexamined 15 of the depressed patients to see if their responses had changed after successful medical treatment (Apria). ... Pause and team discovered that the depressed patients were less responsive to the smells and visual stimuli than the healthy subjects. ... Schizophrenics participating in the study were exposed to an unpleasant odor emanated by a type of acid. ... As a result, researchers came to conclude that apparently the prefrontal cortex was "hijacked" in the brains of schizophrenics to detect a potential threat (Chicago Reuters 1). ... People with SAD get depresse...
To me, each position represented the fear and the curiosity a schizophrenic has. ... The music of the dance let the audience think like how a schizophrenic would, demented. ... Through this costume, the creator of the dance lets the audience see how gloomy a schizophrenic can be. It was made to seem like that schizophrenics or people with psychological disorders are usually depressed and the thought of evil things are constantly on their mind. ... Through the use of all theses techniques, Mulcahy is able to give the audience an insight into the life of a schizophrenic. ...
Major depression, mania, or a mixture or alternation of depressive and manic symptoms must last for at least two weeks along with two of the following, for at least a month: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and negative schizophrenic symptoms. ... Symptoms of depression are depressed mood, diminished interest and pleasure, appetite and weight changes, sleep pattern changes, fatigue, feeling worthless, hopeless, helpless, or guilty for no reason, thoughts of death or suicide, lack of concentration, and indecisiveness ( Facts About Schizoaffective Disor...
Various studies of schizophrenic and unipolar depressed patients have shown that high EE (expressed emotion), critical and/or hostile relatives are more likely then low EE or EOI (emotionally overinvolved) relatives to attribute to the the patient's symptoms and other negative behaviors to factors that are stable. 2. ...
There are certain characteristic changes that a schizophrenic person undergoes such as, personality changes, thought disorder, perceptual changes and sense of self. ... Such changes become obvious to people close to the schizophrenic. ... Perceptual changes turn the world of a schizophrenic topsy-turvy. ...
