Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Schizophrenia

During the 1950s, mentally disordered people who were

harmful to society and

themselves could be treated with medications and were able to return safely

to their

communities. During the 1980s, the cost of health care increased more than

any other

cost in our national economy. As a result, strategic planning has been made

to reduce

costs. “The political decision made to deinstitutionalize chronic mental

patients started

with the appearance of phenothiazine medications. Dramatically reducing the

instability

influenced by psychosis, these medications were of great significance to

many

individuals with serious mental disorders. At both the state and federal

levels,

legislators looked at the high cost of long-term psychiatric hospitalization.

Social

scientists guaranteed them that community-based care would be in the best

interests of

all concerned: the mentally ill and the general, tax-paying public (Barry

13).” It was

believed that a social breakdown syndrome would develop in chronically mentally

ill

persons who were institutionalized. The characteristics of this syndrome

were

submission to authority, withdrawal, lack of initiative, and excessive dependence

on the

institution.

While deinstitutionalization was kindhearted in its primary

logic, the actual

execution of the concept has been greatly undermined by the lack of good

community

alternatives. At this time a large amount of the individuals using community

mental

health treatment services are the homeless. Nearly half of the homeless are

chronically

mental ill. These individuals are often separated from their families and

all alone on the

dangerous street. These homeless schizophrenics stay away from social

structures

such as community health treatment centers. Since they start a new life of

independence they often stop taking their medications, become psychotic and

out of

place, and begin to live on the street. Since the schizophrenics are

deinstitutionalized

they are thrown into a whole new world of independence. Since their brain

functions

different than the usual human being they can’t cope with the problems

of life. The

schizophrenics drive themselves crazy wanting to kill themselves and others

in order to

escape from this perplexing world.

Schizophrenia is the most common psychoses in the United

States affecting

around one percent of the United States population. It is characterized by

a deep

withdrawal from interpersonal relationships and a retreat into a world of

fantasy. This

plunge into fantasy results in a loss of contact from reality that can vary

from mild to

severe. Psychosis has more than one acceptable definition. The psychoses

are

different from other groups of psychiatric disorders in their degree of

severity,

withdrawal, alteration in affect, impairment of intellect, and regression.

The severity of psychoses are considered major disorders

and involve confusion

in all portions of a person’s life. Psychosis is seen in a wide range

of organic disorders

and schizophrenia. These disorders are severe, intense, and disruptive. A

person with

a psychotic disorder suffers greatly, as do those in his or her immediate

environment.

Individuals suffering from withdrawal are said to be autistic. That is, the

person

withdraws from reality into a private world of his or her own. The psychotic

individual is

more withdrawn than a person with a neurotic disorder or any other mental

disorder.

The affect, mood, or emotional tone in a person with a psychotic disorder

is immensely

different from that of normal affect. In the mood disorders, one observes

the

exaggeration of sadness and cheerfulness in the form of depression and mania.

In the

schizophrenic disorders, affect may be exaggerated, flat, or inappropriate.

In psychotic disorders, the intellect is involved in the

actual psychotic process,

resulting in derangement of language, thought, and judgment. Schizophrenia

is called

a formal thought disorder. Thinking and understanding of reality are usually

severely

impaired. The most severe and prolonged regressions are seen in the

psychoses,

regression. There is a falling back to earlier behavioral levels. In

schizophrenia this

may include returning to primitive forms of behavior, such as curling up

into a fetal

position, eating with one’s hands, and so forth. The symptoms of

schizophrenia usually

occur during adolescence or early adulthood, except for paranoid schizophrenia,

which

usually has a later onset. The process of schizophrenia is often slow, with

the

exception of catatonia, which may have an abrupt onset. As an adolescent,

a person

who later develops schizophrenia is often antisocial with others, lonely,

and depressed.

Plans for the future may appear to others as vague or unrealistic.

It is possible that there may be a preschizophrenic phase

a year or two before

the disorder is diagnosed. This phase may include neurotic symptoms such

as acute or

chronic anxiety, phobias, obsessions, and compulsions or may reveal

dissociative

features. As anxiety mounts, indications of a thought disorder may appear.

An

adolescent may complain of difficulty with concentration and with the ability

to complete

school work or job-related work. Over time there is severe deterioration

of work along

with the deterioration of the ability to cope with the environment. Complains

such as

mind wandering and needing to devote more time to maintaining one’s

thoughts are

heard. Finally, the ability to keep out unwanted intrusions into one’s

thoughts becomes

impossible. As a result, the person finds that his or her mind becomes so

confused and

thoughts so distracted, that the ability to have ordinary conversations with

others is lost.

The person may initially feel

that something strange or wrong is going on.

He or she misinterprets things going on in the environment and may give mystical

or

symbolic meanings to ordinary events. The schizophrenic may think that certain

colors

hold special powers or a thunderstorm is a message from God. The person

often

mistakes other people’s actions or words as signs of hostility or evidence

of harmful

intent. As the disease progresses, the person suffers from strong feelings

of rejection,

lack of self-respect, loneliness, and feelings of worthlessness. Emotional

and physical

withdrawal increase feelings of isolation, as does an inability to trust

or sociate with

others. The withdrawal may become severe, and withdrawal from reality may

be

noticeable from hallucinations, delusions, and odd mannerisms. Some

schizophrenics

think their thoughts are being controlled by others or that their thoughts

are being

broadcast to the world. Others think that people are out to harm them or

are spreading

rumors about them. Voices are usually heard in the form of commands or

belittling

statements about his or her character. These voices may seem to appear from

outside

the room, from electrical appliances, or from other sources.

There are many different factors that lead to schizophrenia.

The main way to

acquire schizophrenia is through heredity. A person has a 46% chance of

getting

schizophrenia if his or her mother and father has it. One identical twin

has a 46%

chance of getting schizophrenia if the other twin acquires it (Coon 546).

There are also

some environmental factors that lead to schizophrenia. One is if the mother

gets the flu

during the second trimester of pregnancy causing brain damage to the unborn

child.

Another factor is complications at birth that could affect the child mentally.

Another

factor causing schizophrenia is stress because the mind is overworked and

eventually

can’t function properly. An important factor concerning schizophrenia

is how a child is

raised. If the child has abusive parents, he or she will have serious mental

problems in

the future.

Early in this disease, there may be obsession with religion,

matters of the

supernatural, or abstract causes of creation. Speech may be characterized

by unclear

symbolisms. Later, words and phrases may become puzzling, and these can only

be

understood as part of the person’s private fantasy world. People who

have been ill with

schizophrenia for a long time often have speech patterns that are disoriented

and

aimless and deficient of meaning to the casual observer. Sexual activity

is frequently

altered in mental disorders. Homosexual concerns may be associated with all

psychoses but are most prominent with paranoia. Doubts concerning sexual

identity,

exaggerated sexual needs, altered sexual performance and fears of intimacy

are

prominent in schizophrenia. The process of regression in schizophrenia is

accompanied by increased self-fixation, isolation, and masturbatory

behavior.

The schizophrenic person finds himself or herself in a

painful dilemma. He or

she retreats from personal intimacy or closeness because of the intense fear

that

closeness will be followed by ensuing rejection or harm. This retreat from

intimacy

leaves the person lonely and isolated. This dilemma often becomes the

nurse’s

dilemma. The nurse wishes to form a productive emotional bond but at the

same time

seeks to lessen the client’s anxiety. For the schizophrenic person,

moves toward

emotional closeness will eventually increase anxiety.

The dopamine theory of schizophrenia is based on the action

of the neuroleptic

drugs, better known as antipsychotic drugs. Neuroleptics are the drugs of

choice for

treating the symptoms of schizophrenia. The neuroleptics are believed to

block the

dopamine receptors in the brain, limiting the activity of dopamine and reducing

the

symptoms of schizophrenia. Amphetamines, just the opposite, enhance

dopamine

transmission. Amphetamines produce an excess of dopamine in the brain and

can

provoke the symptoms of schizophrenia in a schizophrenic client. In large

doses,

amphetamines can simulate symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia in a

nonschizophrenic person. Some symptoms of schizophrenia are due basically

to

hyperdopaminergic activity. Other symptoms, such as apathy and poverty of

thought,

are related to neuronal loss.

Drugs reduce most of the disturbing, disorganizing, and

destructive aspects of

the schizophrenic person’s behavior. Drugs, however, do not improve

or affect the

fundamental stupor, unresponsiveness, lack of ambition, and symbolic defects.

Group

therapy is especially useful for clients who have had one or more psychotic

breaks. It

has been shown that groups can benefit the client in the development of

interpersonal

skills, resolution of family problems, and the effective use of community

supports.

Groups allow opportunities for socialization in safe settings, the expression

of tensions,

and sharing problems. The most useful types of groups for schizophrenics

are groups

that help the client develop abilities to deal with such issues as day-to-day

problems,

sharing consistent experiences, learning to listen, asking questions, and

keeping topics

in focus. Groups available on an outpatient basis over a long period of time

allow for

individual growth in these areas. It would help greatly if better rehabilitation

programs

were offered after hospital treatment. One such approach is the use of

half-way

houses, which can ease a patient’s return to the community. The half-way

houses offer

patients supervision and support, without being as restrictive as hospitals.

They also

keep people near their families. Most important, half-way houses can reduce

a

person’s chances of being readmitted to a hospital.

Although the therapy and drugs help the schizophrenics

deal with their problems

tremendously there is not enough to go around because states are closing

their mental

institutes for financial reasons. Even though the cost of mental institutes

are high, the

schizophrenics are better off being kept in them because they could cause

a huge

uproar on the streets. Without the mental institutes the schizophrenics will

get worse

because they are unable to live independently. Many schizophrenics might

even be

harmful to society because their brain is out of control. The paranoid

schizophrenics

could go on a rampage and try to kill everyone in sight because they think

that

everyone is out to hurt them. This could be the future of our world if we

don’t take time

to treat these schizophrenics who desperately need it no matter what the

cost.Works Cited

Barry, Patricia D. Mental Health and Mental Illness. Philadelphia: J. B.

Lippincott,

1994.

Coon, Dennis. Introduction to Psychology. New York: West Publishing Company,

1995

McCuen, Gary E. Treating the Mentally Disabled. Hudson, Wisconsin: Gary E.

McCuen, 1988.

Varcarolis, Elizabeth M. Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. Philadelphia:

W. B.

Saunders, 1990.