Schizophrenia is a mental disease in which the patient suffers from hallucinations and delusions. The disease is often confused with multiple personality disorder because the two diseases share symptoms that are very similar. A person with multiple personality disorder has independent personalities with their own identities residing within the same body. A person who is suffering from schizophrenia suffers from hallucinations and delusions in which they see things that are happening outside of themselves and their behaviour is influenced and directed by those hallucinations and delusions. Schizophrenia cause is not known, but there are several theories as to different conditions that combine to form the disease.
Schizophrenia cause has yet to be linked to a single entity. This article is a run down of what scientists do know of that can lead to the disease.
Schizophrenia runs in the family. If a person has a close relative that has been diagnosed with schizophrenia the chances are increased greatly that the person will be diagnosed with schizophrenia himself. If one of your parents has schizophrenia, you have a ten percent chance of developing schizophrenia yourself. Twins from a family that has schizophrenia in its gene pool are at an even bigger risk and have up to a fifty percent risk of developing the disease.
Scientists are still studying schizophrenia cause. The major causes of the disease seem to be a multitude of genes that create a person to be predisposed to developing it. They have found links between viral infections, intrauterine starvation and perinatal complications as factors that can lead to schizophrenia. They think other schizophrenia cause might be a variety of stressors, though the specific stressors are not yet known.
The human genome has several regions that are currently being looked into in the hopes of identifying a specific gene as the schizophrenia cause. So far, the strongest evidence says that chromosomes 6 and 13 might have something to do with it, but this has not yet been undeniably proved yet.
Because schizophrenia cause is not yet known, it is not yet possible to definitely diagnose the disease. Until there is a genetic cause or a definitive enzyme or physical indication that can be identified, there is no definitive test that can be done. Blood test, MRIs, Cat Scans-none of these will tell a doctor whether or not her patient is schizophrenic. Instead, diagnosing the disease is done through a psychiatrist's observation of the patient as well as testimony given by the people in the patient's life and the patient himself. It is also not uncommon for the disease to be misdiagnosed because so many of the symptoms of schizophrenia are also indicators of other mental disorders.
Because the diagnosis is difficult it is important that if you or anyone you know starts to exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia that you (or they) seek treatment by a doctor immediately. While schizophrenia cause has not yet been determined it has been proved that the earlier the disease gets diagnosed, the more effective the treatment will
Signs of Schizophrenia Tip #1
Schizophrenia is not the same thing as having multiple personality disorder. In multiple personality disorder a person has a number of independent identities that all share one host body. Typically one of the personalities is dominant and the others exist under the surface. With Schizophrenia, there could be independent personalities but the person suffering from the disease believes that these identities exist outside of him or herself. |
Signs of Schizophrenia Tip #2
There are different types of schizophrenia. The most widely known is that of paranoid schizophrenia in which the schizophrenic believes that there are people who are out to "get" him (or her). Commonly the patient associates himself with an elite group and believes that it is his membership with that group that has made him a target of others. |
Signs of Schizophrenia Tip #3
Schizophrenia is normally treated with anti-psychotic drugs. There are new drugs being developed all the time. Other treatments include Electro Convulsive Therapy in which the patient is driven to convulsions by receiving a series of shocks to the brain. This treatment is thought to fix the electrochemical balance of the brain. |