A Case Study of Schizophrenia - Essay Example

A Case Study of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a recurrent disease, which has a debilitating and severe effect on the brain. Studies have shown that one in 100 Americans has had schizophrenic fits throughout their lifetime (Berrios, 1996). Yet preventive therapies, introduced in the early 1990s, have proven successful in mitigating its impact among patients with hereditary schizophrenic proclivity (APA, 1994). The course of the disease has also been the object of profound biochemical research, which focused on the nature of neurotransmitters and their occasional degrading impact on centers in the central nervous system that modulate thought and behavior. Research has helped develop advanced curative techniques (JAAPA, 2002). Among symptoms typifying Schizophrenia are: (a) hearing what other people do not; (b) believing that others can read their minds; (c) believing that others can control their thoughts; and (d) the illusion that others are plotting to harm them (APA, 1994). People that have this disease may appear normal and the disease may go unnoticed if the person does not express his or her thoughts; and these symptoms create feelings of dread and fear which makes the victim appear withdrawn or extremely agitated (Jones, 2007). Medical treatment and prescription drugs help relieve the symptoms. Most people can cope with the disease with proper medical care and a support system. Case studies have determined that social classes are equally prone to the illness, yet research has noted that certain social classes suffer their first fits earlier than others, explains JAAPA (2002). A record of patients from higher social class has an average age of 24.8 years when the onset of Schizophrenia is recorded compared to the lower class which as an average of 33.1 years of a recorded diagnosis (JAAPA, 2002). This case study further explains that untreated psychosis in the lower class guarantees a less favorable treatment outcome. The phenomenology aspect of schizophrenia is the starting point of investigators in an effort to understand the disease of schizophrenia. The cause and origin of Schizophrenia is complex in that there are no boundaries in its symptoms (Verhoeven & Tuinier, 2008). The phenomenology study of genetics and biological research has not been able to associate a linkage between schizophrenia and a specific locus of DNA (Verhoeven & Tuinier, 2008). However, some empirical research has concluded that schizophrenia is extremely unpredictable and diverse in its symptoms (Verhoeven & Tuinier, 2008). The psychological cultural aspect of schizophrenia is focused upon the self in terms of bodily experiences, such as the emotions, perception of the senses, and mental faculties as it affects the physical abilities (Lin, 2008). The cultural aspect of the disease determined from a longitudinal study explains that schizophrenia has re-occurring episodes from childhood well into adulthood. Also, alterations of the sense of self is constructed between patients and their significant others as well as the contexts of everyday life, observed in dreams, reflections, and forecasts of self-interest, reports Lin (2008). The structuralism aspect of schizophrenia is grounded in Wundt’s psychological methods (Shook, 1995). Wundt was concerned with the conscious activity of the disease and its symptoms. Wundt and his colleague, Emil Kraepelin, produced a system of classification for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and many other mental disorders called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), explains Kraepelin (2009). An analysis of the following case study will be discussed along with an explanation of theories. Next, a description of therapies administered under the major psychological models will be provided. Lastly, a conclusion will be discussed on various treatment methods according to various schools of thought; and how these methods would work in the following case study as an outcome of therapy. Case Study #4: MAX Max, a male aged 27, graduated from high school and shortly after he found a job in a supermarket. About half a year later he began to feel haunted in his workplace. He suspected that his boss had deliberately mounted small video-cameras to monitor him and find him at fault. Max also started hearing voices that kept reminding him he was an evil person. These feelings made the youngster tense to an extent that in peak hours he would lose his composure and curse at clients. One instance saw him shout at a customer who could not find an item on his shopping list. Max decided he was dealing with an FBI agent and that the question was part of a far-reaching plot designed to extract from him the “truth”. One year into his job, he felt so haunted by the supermarket cameras that he quit. On leaving, he laid the blame on his boss, saying he monitored him at his home as well. Max' parents noticed that their son's condition aggravated in that he felt growingly confused and agitated. At that point they referred him to the health services. The behaviorist theory intends to shape behavior using conditioning processes. One behavioral therapeutic approach to schizophrenia using behavioral therapy is the use of systematic desensitization often used on clients suffering from fear or anxiety of an object or situation (Behaviorism, 2009). Another behavioral therapeutic approach would be to use behavior modeling, and rewards or punishments in an effort to show the patient healthy behaviors (Behaviorism, 2009). However, schizophrenia is partly biological and behavioral theory offers no cognitive alternative of cause explains Wakefield (2006). Furthermore, research has determined that long term behavioral and drug treatment to schizophrenia does not show remission of the disease (Wakefield, 2006). Therefore, behavioral treatment alone is not an effective treatment of Max’s symptoms of schizophrenia. The Gestalt theory is concerned with the whole package and the human’s need to be organized based upon social phenomena in terms of what is better for society as a whole and is grounded upon phenomenological sociology (Pack, 2008). Gestalt therapy would focus upon helping the patient adjust in way that allows him or her to function productively in society. Gestalt therapy focuses upon helping the client without reminding the client of past hurts or embarrassments (Pack, 2008). Gestalt therapy attempts to help the client find his or her own voice through psychotherapy with an emphasis on phenomenology, existentialism and holism (Pack, 2008). Existentialism reminds individuals that he or she must take responsibility for their own actions and shape their own destinies; and holism grounds the therapy on the entire – mental, physical, and social – condition of a patient. The Gestalt approach seems appropriate to Max’s illness in which the symptoms of schizophrenia may be arrested for a period of time. The psychoanalysis theory analyzes the conscious and unconscious portions of the mind with a focus upon releasing repressed fears and conflicts from the unconscious into the conscious mind and eventually into a resolved state of being. Psychoanalytical therapy would focus upon the unconscious aspect of the destructive aggression which is unbound to reality in the schizophrenic patient (Shepherd, 2008). Psychoanalytical empirical studies of schizophrenic patients have determined that the patient unconsciously destroys his own mind in an attempt to avoid an overwhelming ego which is at the core of the schizophrenic dilemma, explains Shepherd (2008). The patient is oblivious to the outside world and is trapped in a repetitive nightmare where everyone is trying to hurt him. The psychoanalytic therapy is focused upon unbottling repressed fears and inhibitions to help the patient feel safe and redirect his thoughts from the repetitive cyclic nightmare to the positive aspects of life (Shepherd, 2008). The psychoanalytical approach should work well along with the Gestalt therapy as the psychoanalytical approach deal mostly with bottled up emotions; the gestalt approach will help Max function in real life situations more quickly. Conclusion Symptoms of Schizophrenia include the following: (a) hearing what others do not; (b) believing that others can read their minds; (c) believing that others can control their thoughts; and (d) the illusion that others are plotting to harm them (APA, 1994). The phenomenology aspect of schizophrenia is the starting point of investigators in an effort to understand the disease of schizophrenia. The psychological cultural aspect of schizophrenia is to focus upon the self in terms of bodily experiences, such as the emotions, perception of the senses, and mental faculties as it affects the physical abilities. Max’s case study illustrates classic symptoms of schizophrenia. The best treatment for Max is a Gestalt therapeutic approach which should help Max focus in a conscious way that allows him to function productively in society along with the psychoanalytical approach to help unbottle the unconscious aspects of the schizophrenia. References APA (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th, ed.) American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from Oxford Reference Online. Behaviorism (2009). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from EBSCOhost database.   Berrios, G. (1996). The history of mental symptoms: descriptive psychopathology since the nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from Oxford Reference Online. JAAPA (2002). “Effect of social class at birth on risk and presentation of schizophrenia: case- control study.” Journal of the American Academy of Physicians Assistants; 15, 10. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from Gale: Apollo Library-University of Phoenix.  Jones, A. (2007). Supplementary prescribing and schizophrenia: a case study: Adrian Jones uses a case study of a young woman with schizophrenia to explain how supplementary prescribing was used to manage her care in hospital and facilitate her discharge. Mental Health Practice; 10, 35-37. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from Gale: Apollo Library- University of Phoenix.  Kraepelin, E. (2009). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from EBSCO host database.   Lin, S. (2008). Body, image and alterations to sense of self; experiences of schizophrenics. Taiwan Journal of Anthropology; 6, 3-46. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from EBSCO host database.   Pack, M. (2008). “Back from the edge of the world”: re-authoring a story of practice with stress and trauma using gestalt theories and narrative approaches. Journal of Systemic Therapies; 27, 30-45. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from ProQuest database.   Shepherd, M. (2008). The silent revolution in psychoanalysis: Hyman Spotnitz and the reversibility of schizophrenia. Modern Psychoanalysis; 33, 3-22. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from EBSCO host database.   Shook, J. (1995). Wilhelm Wundt’s contribution to John Dewey’s functional psychology. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences; 31, 347-369. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from EBSCO host database.   Verhoeven, W., and Tuinier, S. (2008). Clinical perspectives on the genetics of schizophrenia: a bottom-up orientation. Neurotoxicity Research; 14, 141-150. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from EBSCO host database.   Wakefield, J. (2006). Is behaviorism becoming a pseudo-science?: power versus scientific rationality in the eclipse of token economies by biological psychiatry in the treatment of schizophrenia. Behavior and Social Issues; 15, 202-222. Retrieved December 6, 2009, from ProQuest database.   Read More