Schizophrenia Essay, Research Paper

Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious psychiatric illnesses. It affects about one percent of the general population. This is a socially and financially devastating disease that robs people of their most productive years of life.

Schizophrenia still continues to be one of the most complex, puzzling and disabling of the major mental illnesses. Most symptoms develop in men around the age of sixteen and twenty-five years old, and around twenty-five to thirty years old in women. Schizophrenia rarely develops in children and most schizophrenics appear to have a normal childhood. A delusion, which is a false belief that defies logic and common sense, is a common symptom of schizophrenia. The person thinks someone is watching them constantly or they think people can read their mind. Hallucinations, hearing, seeing or sensing something that isn t there, are another common symptom of schizophrenia. Some people experience heightened senses, which is hypersensitivity of sense that leads to visual distortions. Others experience auditory hallucinations. They sometimes carry on conversations or are told to do things by one or may voices that are not there. Very rarely, but still as devastating, some experience visual hallucinations or smell odd smells coming from themselves. More that 300,000 adults in this country are unable to distinguish their imaginations from reality. However, it is a common belief the people with schizophrenia are violent people. This is an untrue statement. The truth is that people with schizophrenia are actually less violent than other. They are often afraid of being hurt because they are in such a fragile state.

In the 1700 s and the 1800 s, before much was known about mental diseases, schizophrenia was thought of as witchcraft. Anyone who displayed signs of this disease was thought to have been possessed. The Puritans believed “distraction”, as they called it, was either possession by the devil, or punishment for sins. Yet, the strange behavior of those afflicted was looked upon with tolerance. Through much of the 1700 s, family or friends were expected to take care of the mentally ill. Dorothea Dix was a school teacher who took up the cause of the mentally ill in the mid 1800 s, found disturbed individuals living in terrible conditions, “confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls and pens: chained, naked, beaten with rods and lashed into obedience.” She worked to help these people live a more normal life.

A dismal outlook for schizophrenia was dramatically changed in the 1950 s with the development of the first antipsychotic drug, Chlorpromazine (Thorazine). Since then, more that a dozen other similar-acting antipsychotic medications have been developed. These drugs work by blocking binding sites of dopamine, which is a main factor in schizophrenia. Chlorpromazine was first used as an antihistamine. Then, it was found to calm hyperactive schizophrenic patients out of withdrawal and reduced major symptoms of the disease. A lot of false medication was used before the discovery of chlorpromazine. An insulin coma, as one example, was used to relieve most symptoms by overloading the patient s body with insulin. This helped some patients, because it calmed them down, but killed most of them. Electroconvulsive therapy, where brief pulses of electronegativity are passed through the brain, was also used. It was thought that using this type of treatment, symptoms could be reduced or eliminated, but it did neither. This only helped the severely depressed and only calmed them for a little while. Doctors also attempted a frontal lobotomy, which was a surgical removal of the front parts of the brain. A frontal lobotomy was done because it was thought that the front part of the brain was responsible for schizophrenia. This did nothing but make a quieter patient. These practices were commonly used to try to suppress the main symptoms of schizophrenia. Mainly, these practices did nothing but torture the patient and make him or her suffer extremely. Many schizophrenics will carry on conversations with voices or people who are not really there. The voices may tell them what to do and how to harm themselves or others. This puts the patient at a huge risk for committing suicide. The medication that is prescribed to them attempts to stop the voices or other symptoms. In turn, most schizophrenics would experience severely painful side effects. These side effects included constipation, drowsiness, dry mouth and blurred vision, which would most like diminish after a few weeks. Other side effects that is less likely to diminish included restlessness, slurred speech, trembling of hands and feet, muscle rigidity in the neck and head. Most patients experienced a tremendous amount of weight gain and could not lose the extra pounds, while some also experienced sun sensitivity and fainting.

The next story about Janet (below) is one case of schizophrenia. It shows what a typical schizophrenic would go through in life. The ending is like most schizophrenics, where the stress becomes too much and the patient attempts to escape it by killing themselves. Eighteen to fifty-five percent of people living with schizophrenia attempt suicide, with more than ten percent of a success rate. Many schizophrenics cannot cope with the stresses of everyday life and feel that the only way to escape would be to kill themselves.

Environmental factors can affect the person too. If the person is constantly treated as a nuisance, is abused about how the act or is not shown love and understanding, he or she may be lonely and turn to other things to help them deal with it. In turn, some talk to the voices in their heads and actually think that the situation is really that bad and may listen to what they are being told. It can