Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder that seems to blindside its victims. Researchers have spent millions of dollars on developing treatments for schizophrenia, and have discovered that it is a physical illness. Brain chemistry and brain activity are different in a person who is suffering from schizophrenia compared to a person without schizophrenia. Like other illnesses schizophrenia does have symptoms and signs. It can be inherited and it does get better with medication.
The brain is made up of nerve cells, called neurons, and chemicals, called neurotransmitters. An imbalance of one neurotransmitter, dopamine, is thought to cause the symptoms of schizophrenia. Serotonin, another neurotransmitter is also thought to play a significant role in causing the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Brain activity differs in a brain with schizophrenia and a brain without schizophrenia. In the brain with schizophrenia, far more neurotransmitters are released between neurons. Thus, the symptoms of schizophrenia occur.
The "dopamine hypothesis" has been the main theory regarding the cause of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Researchers believe that many of the symptoms of schizophrenia are a result of excess of dopamine in the brain. Antipsychotic medications block dopamine transmission and are used to treat and improve the symptoms of schizophrenia.
New theories suggest that the neurotransmitter serotonin may also play a role in causing the symptoms of schizophrenia. Some antipsychotic medications treat symptoms of schizophrenia by blocking dopamine and serotonin transmissions. Many patients who have not been helped by "dopamine only" medications have been helped by medications that affect both dopamine and serotnin transmissions, such as Colzaril, Risperdal and Zyprexa.
Researchers have studied relatives of people with schizophrenia and have found that schizophrenia runs in families. Identical twins are studied with particular interest, since researchers have discovered that if one twin has schizophrenia, there is a fifty percent chance that the other twin will develop the illness.
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Schizophrenia Introduction Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, disabling brain disease that affects approximately one percent of the population. ... Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia Generally, schizophrenia's onset is in adolescence or young adulthood. Schizophrenia affects young men just as much as young women. ... Delusions are also common in those with schizophrenia. ... Suicide is a serious danger to those with schizophrenia. ...
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Types of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a group of disorders that are characterized by the loss of contact with reality, and the marked disturbances of thought and perception as well as bizarre behavior. ... Since then there has been several different classifications of schizophrenia that have been made. ... The first subtype of schizophrenia that I will be discussing is the paranoid subtype. ... The next subtype of schizophrenia is the disorganized type. ... Catatonic schizophrenia is another subtype. ...
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There are many ways to define what schizophrenia is, not only by what the illness truly is to the different forms of schizophrenia, which includes paranoid schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, disorganized schizophrenia and undifferentiated schizophrenia. I will be focusing on what schizophrenia in general is: what the true definition of this common mental illness. ... Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain, which can be one of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses known to humans. ... Schizophrenia deals with an individual who is hearing voices or seeing things that...
