Schizophrenia: Unveiling Pathology, Symptoms and Treatment

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Introduction

At around age fifteen, I was browsing around YouTube and found myself looking at various random video clips. Soon enough, I found a specific video that caught my attention. The video was a schizophrenia simulation, and I found it interesting because the video showed different aspects of a psychotic episode from a patient with schizophrenia. This sort of point of view blew my mind because it was like I was put in the shoes of an individual who has this illness. At that point in my life, I did not know what schizophrenia was, so this mental illness was fairly new to me. Eventually, I read numerous academic articles, essays, and videos that revolved around schizophrenia because the illness was very bewildering in my view of it.

Pathology

Schizophrenia is a persisting or constantly reoccurring severe mental disorder. This mental illness affects many things in an individual, which can include the way someone thinks, conveys emotions, acts, associates with others, and perceives reality. The dysregulation of multiple pathways is what causes schizophrenia. Dopaminergic, GABAergic, and glutamatergic are all neurotransmitter systems that are subsequently affected in individuals with schizophrenia. The connections between these receptors contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The epidemiology of schizophrenia is around one percent internationally, which is approximately 2 per one hundred thousand people. The age of onset of schizophrenia is around adolescence, and it affects both men and women equally.

Signs and Symptoms

Schizophrenia symptoms can be put into three different categories: positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms are symptoms that make people feel sensations that are not real. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, unrealistic beliefs, or struggling to organize ideas and speech. Negative symptoms refer to the lack of normal behaviors. Negative symptoms include anhedonia, affective flattening, no usual facial expressions, and not being able to follow through. People with schizophrenia may also struggle to sustain activities in time or even start them at all.

Cognitive symptoms involve problems with memory and awareness. Cognitive symptoms include attention troubles, difficulty understanding problems, and inability to follow complex instructions. There are seven common signs of schizophrenia. The signs include being hostile, having poor personal hygiene, overreacting to criticism, being expressionless, saying irrational things, having insomnia or oversleeping, and being forgetful or unable to concentrate. Social withdrawal is also a sign of a person with schizophrenia. For example, a person with schizophrenia may not attend social events and may stay alone most of the time. Individuals with this illness may also suffer depression, which has several similar symptoms. Schizophrenia can affect the body and the mind, and some complications can be depression, self-harm, or suicide. The poor personal hygiene sign affects the body because people with this illness may get sick more often or have poor oral hygiene.

Medical Specialists

Medical specialists that people with schizophrenia should be referred to are psychiatrists and psychologists. Psychiatrists are doctors and can diagnose those with schizophrenia as well as specialize in treatment for this mental illness. Psychiatrists can prescribe medications as well as do psychotherapy. Psychologists, unlike psychiatrists, cannot prescribe medicine. Psychiatrists are able to give tests to see how well people with schizophrenia are able to function in their normal daily lives. Schizophrenia patients should be referred to psychiatrists because they are able to prescribe medication to them and professionally do “talk therapy” with patients, which is effective in maintaining their symptoms. Patients should also be referred to psychologists because they are able to do cognitive rehabilitation, remediation, or enhancement. These sorts of therapies teach patients how to be communicative as well as create an understanding of the necessities of others.

Diagnostic Tests and Treatment

There are really no laboratory tests used to precisely diagnose those with schizophrenia. Therefore, medical specialists might use diagnostic tests in order to rule out that the symptoms are not caused by things like medications, substance misuse, or a medical condition. Some major diagnostic tests used to rule out other things that might cause similar symptoms include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT) and a psychiatric evaluation. An MRI or CT scan may help medical specialists rule out a possible brain tumor that might be causing similar symptoms of schizophrenia.

A psychiatric evaluation helps by checking if the patient has any hallucinations, substance misuse, delusions, or is probable for viciousness or suicide. The reasons for schizophrenia are still unidentified. Therefore, the treatments for this illness are mainly to eliminate symptoms caused by this disease. A recent treatment for schizophrenia is dopamine D2-receptor blockers, as well as psychotherapy. Dopamine D2-receptor blockers are effective because they reduce the outcome of dysregulated striatal dopamine release. Psychotherapy is useful by managing the symptoms of a patient, and therefore, the patient would be able to enhance their coping skills and pursue life goals.

Prognosis and Psychosocial Issues

After ten years of treatment, about half of the people with schizophrenia would recover enough so they can live independently. A quarter recovered partially, still needing support, fifteen percent remained unchanged, and ten percent would end up killing themselves. After thirty years, more people become independent. However, the suicide rate goes up fifteen percent. People with schizophrenia are not always able to take care of themselves; they tend to have poor hygiene, poor diet, smoke, sedentary lifestyle, or become obese, resulting in their life expectancy being reduced by 20 years. The majority of people with schizophrenia are unemployed, and thus, most of them live with community support. A person with schizophrenia has various medications. Therefore, it usually becomes a financial issue since most individuals with schizophrenia are unemployed. Patients also need to attend psychotherapies, so the schedules of the caregivers are subject to change in order to keep up with appointments.

Assistive Technology (AT)

Two forms of assistive technology (AT) are smartphones and recording devices. Smartphones can help patients diagnosed with schizophrenia by setting alarms or reminders for medication management as well as having music in order to block out voices. A smartphone also has many other useful applications, like apps specifically made for those with schizophrenia. A recording device is also an AT for those with this illness because patients with schizophrenia are often very forgetful and have trouble with their memory. Therefore, recording devices are beneficial by being able to record certain things that the patient might find extremely important, as well as being easily navigational. The cons of both smartphones and recording devices as AT is that people living with schizophrenia are often unemployed and therefore in need of financial assistance than those who do not have the condition. AT can be expensive to purchase, and this causes problems for those who are financially unstable.

Although the ﬁndings from this research prove positive for AT, certain key considerations must be addressed before AT progresses. People living with schizophrenia are more likely to be unemployed and in receipt of social welfare when compared to individuals who are not living with this condition (Brown, 2011). AT can be expensive to buy and maintain. This could be problematic for individuals who are not ﬁnancially secure. Services would have to explore how they can ensure that they can equitably provide modern mental health care thatis in alignment with our current technological environment. There will be a need for appropriate pathways and procedures to ensure AT is available to people who could benefit from it.

Although the ﬁndings from this research prove positive for AT, certain key considerations must be addressed before AT progresses. People living with schizophrenia are more likely to be unemployed and in receipt of social welfare when compared to individuals who are not living with this condition (Brown, 2011). AT can be expensive to buy and maintain. This could be problematic for individuals who are not ﬁnancially secure. Services would have to explore how they can ensure that they can equitably provide modern mental health care that is in alignment with our current technological environment. There will be a need for appropriate pathways and procedures to ensure AT is available to people who could benefit from it.

Although the ﬁndings from this research prove positive for AT, certain key considerations ust be addressed before AT progresses. People living with schizophrenia are more likely to be unemployed and in receipt of social welfare when compared to individuals who are not living with this condition (Brown, 2011). AT can be expensive to buy and maintain. This could be problematic for individuals who are not ﬁnancially secure. Services would have to explore how they can ensure that they can equitably provide modern mental health care that is in alignment with our current technological environment. There will be a need for appropriate pathways and procedures to ensure AT is available to people who could benefit from it.

Although the ﬁndings from this research prove positive for AT, certain key considerations must be addressed before AT progresses. People living with schizophrenia are more likely to be unemployed and in receipt of social welfare when compared to individuals who are not living with this condition (Brown, 2011). AT can be expensive to buy and maintain. This could be problematic for individuals who are not ﬁnancially secure. Services would have to explore how they can ensure that they can equitably provide modern mental health care that is in alignment with our current technological environment. There will be a need for appropriate pathways and procedures to ensure AT is available to people who could benefit from it.

Although the ﬁndings from this research prove positive for AT, certain key considerations must be addressed before AT progresses. People living with schizophrenia are more likely to be unemployed and in receipt of social welfare when compared to individuals who are not living with this condition (Brown, 2011). AT can be expensive to buy and maintain. Thiscould be problematic for individuals who are not ﬁnancially secure. Services would have to explore how they can ensure that they can equitably provide modern mental health care that is in alignment with our current technological environment. There will be a need for appropriate pathways and procedures to ensure AT is available to people who could benefit from it.

Research Sources

The first reference source by Goldberg was extremely helpful because it efficiently gave detailed information on the symptoms of schizophrenia. Goldberg was thorough throughout the entire source, and it included an overview of early signs, symptoms, tests, and medication, all pertaining to schizophrenia. Its content was well organized by putting the overview of the illness first and gradually going down to the medication that people with schizophrenia take. I relied on this reference because it gave me various amounts of information relating to schizophrenia as a whole. What I did not find useful about this website was that it was quite broad, and I would have liked it to be more specific on what exactly happens in a schizophrenic mind. My second source by McCutcheon, Marques, and Howes, I found to be very credible because it was published by JAMA Psychiatry, which focuses on mental illnesses.

This source was very detailed, from the medication to the actual genetic factors of schizophrenia, and was fairly easy to comprehend. The source ensured an in-depth look at what exactly schizophrenia is, as well as observations, treatment, and the neuroscience portion of schizophrenia. What I did not like about this source was that it was not really organized because I found that some information should have come before others and vice versa.

My last source, the National Institute of Mental Health, was also credible because this organization is concentrated on mental health. I found this source to be helpful because they have small sections of topics they were going to discuss; for example, they had risk factors, treatments, and therapies, as well as information on how to join a study. What I found neat was that the National Institute of Mental Health provided a Join a Study subtopic, which addressed ways to get into clinical trials, and they gave informative details. This source was straightforward, but I believe they did not dig deep enough for me to completely understand the complex illness of schizophrenia.

Conclusion

Therefore, I would end my case study by referring to the source by Mccutcheon, Marques, and Howes as my primary source of information on schizophrenia because they very accurately described what exactly is schizophrenia as well as provided details exclusive to schizophrenia. This information helped me distinguish this mental illness from others. This source was up to date, as well as offering material that would help treat those with schizophrenia.

References

“The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness” by Elyn R. Saks
“The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music” by Steve Lopez

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