Friday, April 13, 2012

Schizophrenia

What Is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and debilitating mental illness. It isconsidered one of the psychotic mental disorders and is characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. The thought problems associated with schizophrenia aredescribed as psychosis, in that the person's thinking is completely out of touch with reality at times.

What Are Causes of S...chizophrenia?
There is no single cause for schizophrenia. Rather, it is the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors. Genetically,schizophrenia and bipolar disorderhave much in common, in that thetwo disorders share a number of the same risk genes. However, the fact is that both illnesses alsohave some genetic factors that are unique. Environmentally, the risks of developing schizophrenia can even occur before birth. For example, the risk of schizophreniais increased in individuals whose mother had one of certain infections during pregnancy. Difficult life circumstances during childhood, like the early loss of a parent, parental poverty, bullying, witnessing parental violence; emotional, sexual, or physical abuse; physical or emotional neglect; and insecure attachment have been associatedwith the development of this illness.

Schizophrenia Symptoms:
A person with schizophrenia may not have any outward appearance of being ill. In other cases, the illness may be more apparent, causing changes in behavior as well as bizarre behaviors. These may include social withdrawal, depersonalization (intense anxietyand a feeling of being unreal), loss of appetite, loss of hygiene, delusions, hallucinations, and a sense of being controlled by outside forces.

Schizophrenia Treatment - Medications
While there are a number of helpful treatments available, medication remains the cornerstone of treatment for people with schizophrenia. These medications are often referred toas antipsychotics since they help decrease the intensity of psychotic symptoms. Many health-care professionals prescribe one of these medications, sometimes in combination of one or more other psychiatric medications, in order to maximize the benefit forthe person with schizophrenia.
Medications that are thought to be particularly effective in treating positive symptoms of schizophrenia include olanzapine (Zyprexa), risperidone (Risperdal),quetiapine (Seroquel), ziprasidone(), aripiprazole (Abilify), paliperidone (Invega), and asenapine (Saphris).





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