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Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, which severely impacts the way 1% of people worldwide think, feel, and act. The term comes from the Greek, schizo meaning ‘splitting’ and phrenia meaning ‘of the mind’. Therefore schizophrenia literally can be defined as a split mind. This disorder makes it hard for a person to differentiate between real and imagined experiences. It weakens their abilities to think logically, express normal emotions, and behave properly in social situations. Schizophrenia is a serious thought disorder, which affects one’s work, family, social life and an individual’s capacity to function. It is extremely draining on the ill person, as well as the people who care for them. In 1809 John Haslam and Philip Pinel observed first symptoms. As time went another man by the name of B. Morel came up with a term demence precoce, which he observed in little boy. But it was still not until the 1800’s when a German psychiatrist, Dr. Emil Kraepelin had actually categorized the subtypes of a single syndrome. The three subtypes were hebephrenia, catatonia, and paranoia. He was mistaken when he said that this syndrome was incurable and early onset. In the 20th century a Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Eugen Bleuler had a different idea where he explained that schizophrenia might in fact be curable and possibly manifested later on in life. He was the one that explained that schizophrenia meant split of the mind and not split of personality. His four primary symptoms included loosening of associations, ambivalence, autism, and affective disturbance (Nietzel, Speltz, McCauley, Bernstein, 1998). While Europeans used Kraepelin’s criteria, North Americans used Bleuler’s. In 1959, K. Schneider had conducted a research and classified delusions and hallucinations as primary symptoms of schizophrenia. During the last half of the nineteenth century different subtypes of what we now call schizophrenia were described as separate diseases. Paranoid psychosis was characterized in 1868, hebephrenia in 1871, and catatonia in 1874 and were all grouped together by E. Kraepelin. This group was given the name dementia praecox. Bleuler changed the name to schizophrenia in 1911. The differentiation of the subtypes is based exclusively on the symptoms of the illness. Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized by delusions and/or hallucinations. Hebephrenic schizophrenia has as its predominant symptoms disorganized speech, disorganized behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. Catatonic schizophrenia is diagnosed when the outstanding features of the disease are behavioral disturbances, such as posturing, rigidity, stupor and often mutism. Also simple schizophrenia is characterized by an insidious loss of interest and initiative, withdrawal, blunting of emotions and the absence of delusions or hallucinations. Another method of subtyping schizophrenia that has been used by researchers divides patients into those with positive symptoms, and those with negative symptoms. The term positive signifies those symptoms which are present but should be absent. Negative symptoms on the other hand, indicate symptoms which are absent but should be present. This subtype has been elaborated into type I (those with “positive” symptoms) and type II (those with “negative” symptoms) by Dr. Timothy Crow and his colleagues in London who claim that these are separate diseases. Type II is a subtype of schizophrenia that most resembles traditional brain diseases. Some of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia include: • Delusions- false, strong beliefs • Hallucinations- hearing, seeing, or sensing something that is really not there • Thought disorder- thoughts and speech are jumbled that a person thinks someone is interfering with their mind Negative symptoms: • Loss of drive- lack of drive and motivation which is part of illness and not laziness • Blunted emotions- ability to express emotions are lost as well as lack of response or inappropriate response • Social withdrawal- fear with interacting with others because they may harm you in some way • Lack of insight- their experiences with delusions and hallucinations are so real that they deny they are ill and therefore refuse treatment Schizophrenia is more common than other genetic conditions such as Huntington’s disease or PKU. It is more common than multiple sclerosis, six times more common than diabetes and sixty times more than muscular dystrophy. Not all schizophrenics suffer same illnesses but they do show similar symptoms. Symptoms % Tense and nervous 80.4 Eating less 71.7 Trouble concentrating 69.6 Trouble sleeping 67.4 Enjoy things less 65.2 Restlessness 63.0 Can’t remember things 63.0 Depression 60.9 Preoccupied 59.6 Seeing friends less 59.6 Feeling laughed at 59.6 Loss of interest 56.5 More religious thinking 54.3 Feeling bad for no reason 54.3 Feeling too excited 52.2 Hearing voices/seeing things 50.0 There is no one single cause for schizophrenia. Family relationships, environment, biochemical, and genetic factors are included. Studies with twins have proved to us that genes are involved. Genes are a critical part in determining what you will inherit. Brain activity is another important element. Devices like CAT scans, MRI’s and PET scans have allowed scientists to study the brain and its function. They found abnormalities in he brain, which reveal that schizophrenia may or may not be hereditary. Overall chemical reactions are lower but dopamine levels are higher in the left side of the brain than normal. It is pointing to some nutritional deficiencies of the neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters enable neurons to communicate and are essential to the working part of the brain. Some of the examples are serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine, which maintain homeostasis. Too much or too little of these chemicals in the brain will throw off the normal function of the brain. If the proper enzymes are not responding to the overflow of these neurotransmitters, a poisonous substance will build up. It will penetrate into the blood and interfere with the other messengers of the body for proper contact. To prevent neurotransmitters from being disturbed and for proper functioning, vitamins like B12, zinc, Vitamin C, E, thiamine, and folic acid are administered.
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