Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders - Literature review Example

Client’s 4 March It is very important to be in the pink of health but many healthy people do not acknowledge the fact that being healthy is really important. There are several brain diseases which affect the normal lives of countless human beings; schizophrenia is one such disease which directly affects the brain of human beings. This paper will shed more light upon this serious disease. The effects of schizophrenia will also be comprehensively presented in this paper. This brain disease affects both the sexes but men are more prone to developing it. Schizophrenia comes to light late in the teen ages, it directly affects the functioning of the brain and the patient becomes unusually suspicious of other people, auditory hallucinations become really common amongst patients suffering from Schizophrenia, they start believing that the whole world is conspiring against them and that other people want to harm them severely. This insecurity of theirs leads them into doing several acts which they would not have done had they not been suffering from Schizophrenia. The disease affects the speech and the behavior severely, being consistently disorganized in speech is a very big symptom of Schizophrenia. They may also appear incomprehensible to other people; some people may also get frightened by their behavior. “Schizophrenia is found all over the world. The severity of the symptoms and long-lasting, chronic pattern of schizophrenia often cause a high degree of disability. Medications and other treatments for schizophrenia, when used regularly and as prescribed, can help reduce and control the distressing symptoms of the illness. However, some people are not greatly helped by available treatments or may prematurely discontinue treatment because of unpleasant side effects or other reasons. Even when treatment is effective, persisting consequences of the illness – lost opportunities, stigma, residual symptoms, and medication side effects – may be very troubling.” (Schizophrenia as an Illness) The disorder has a variety of symptoms that involves cognition, emotion, perception, and other aspects of behaviour, which impair the patients ability to function and socialise normally (Buchanan & Carpenter, 2005). Schizophrenia patients commonly experience auditory hallucinations and they are prone to delusions of conspiracy or disguised acts of harm against them (National Institute of Health, 2009). As with the majority of similar psychological disorders, the severity of symptoms in schizophrenia may vary greatly. Generally, mild to severe forms resulting in fear, isolation and irritability are the most common. Only the mildest cases of schizophrenia do not affect aspects of everyday life, while the moderate to more severe cases of the disorder may prevent patients from maintaining jobs, personal relationships, or even caring for themselves (Keefe & Harvey, 1994) Brief History of schizophrenia: The history and the existence of schizophrenia before the modern era, especially prior to the eighteen-century is one of the most controversial questions. Many consider schizophrenia to be noted since the age of antiquity, “that it can be traced in the written documents to the old paranoiac Egypt as far back as the second millennium before Christ” (Theocharis,2005).Half a million cuneiform tablets were written in 3200 BC in ancient Iraq, several thousand of them covered medical texts (Abdul-Hamid, 2003). Kinner Wilson, a British archaeologist studied and analyzed number of tablets contained information of psychiatric disorders (Wilson, 1996). He found that these text described epilepsy disease and a number of mental illness associated with it, Phobia , obsessive compulsive , Persecutory delusions and there was a description of patient with severe psychotic symptoms which May apply to the diagnostic symptoms of the disease of schizophrenia according to Schneider symptoms(Abdul-Hamid, 2003). However In these pre-classical and classical times such symptoms were considered to be the result of supernatural forces invading the patent as a punishment for immoral behaviour (Abdul-Hamid, 2003; Lewis & Buchanan, 2002). It was also noted that in ancient India and Roma they recognized conditions similar to schizophrenia disorder (Jeste et al. 1985). But there was a shift in understanding mental illness back then towards a naturalistic stands point (Howells, 1991). Moving towards the medieval times, especially in Western societies there was a return in to pre-classical explanation of mental illnesses, It was Arabic physicians who kept the classical models of illnesses alive that time by practicing medicine according to Hippocrate , Aristotle and Galen ideas (Lewis &Buchanan, 2002).“Schizophrenia has probably existed as long as mankind” said Strongren(1982) , and Krapelin(1913,p.232) noted that “this disease is probably extremely old”. Lewis thought “that some such disorder has probably always been recognised” (In Hare, 1988). On the other hand, Hare(1988) considered schizophrenia a recent disease , he pointed out several pieces of evidence which support the argument against the existence of schizophrenia before 1800. A recent study by Evans et al (2003) aimed to analysis the old Greek and Roman texts looking for schizophrenia description .Results showed that there were no evidence of the modern diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia in this certain literature. Dendle (2005) reviewed hundred of demon possession cases from the early Middle Ages and found little evidence of such like condition. Another hypothesis support the argument which says that schizophrenia is a recent disease, is the link between this disease and Industrialization. Cooper & Sartorius (1997) clarify this hypothesis through 3 key points. Firstly, Industrialism led to improvements in health and medical care, which led to decrease in the mortality rates during infancy and childhood, which means that vulnerable children who would formerly have died young survived, if they later developed schizophrenia there is an increased risk of chronicity. Secondly, during Industrialization, the size and structure of towns and communities had grown to the degree that it became difficult to fit in schizophrenic patients in these societies. On the contrary they faced rejection from their communities and the tendency to put them in special institution. The third key point was that the psychological and social structure of families, which was influenced by the progress of industrialization, had an impact on their schizophrenic members. It is important to differentiate psychosis, which has many causes, and schizophrenia, which is a particular form of psychosis. It seems likely that irrespective of whether it existed pre Industrialization the incidence and prevalence seem to have increased. This paper comprehensively presented the effects of schizophrenia and it also shed light upon how this serious disease affects the normal day-to-day lives of patients who suffer from it. Works Cited Abdul-Hamid, W2003) Introduction to the Psychiatry of Ancient Iraq. The Arab Journal of Psychiatry. vol 14 . No 2 (129-136). Retrieved from: Buhanan , R and Carpenter, W (2005). Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disordes . In Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (8th ed). Editors Benjamin Sadock and Vircinia Sadock . Vol 1 : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. New York. Retrieved from: Cooper, J.E., and N. Sartorius. 1977 Cultural and Temporal Variations in Schizophrenia: A Speculation on the. Importance of Industrialization. BJP ,130:50-55. Retrieved from: Hare, E (1956b).Family sitting and the urban distribution of schizophrenia . Journal of mental Science 102,753-6. Retrieved from: Jeste, D.V.; Carman, R.; Lohr, J.B.; and Wyatt, R.J. Did schizophrenia exist before the eighteenth century? Comprehensive Psychiatry, 26:493-503, 1985. KRAEPELIN, E. (1913) Psychiatric (8th edn). Translated by R. M. Barclay (1919) from vols 3, part 2 as Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia. Edinburgh: Livingstone. Retrieved from: Schizophrenia as an Illness (2012). What is it? Web. Retrieved from: Read More