Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, which causes the victim to be unable to tell the difference between reality and non-reality experiences, unable to think reasonably, unable to have normal emotional responses, and unable to act normally in public situat

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                 Running Head: Schizophrenia: A Disorder

Schizophrenia: A Disorder of Illusion and Reality

Ryan Mathews, Dominic Nguyen, and David Poretto

Coach Hailey

Health Period 2

10 October 2009

Schizophrenia: A Disorder of Illusion and Reality

        Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, which causes the victim to be unable to tell the difference between reality and non-reality experiences, unable to think reasonably, unable to have normal emotional responses, and unable to act normally in public situations.  The name "schizophrenia" was derived from Greek roots.  "Schizo" means "split", and "phren" means mind in Greek.

The main causes of schizophrenia are from genetic vulnerability and social and environmental risk factors.  Schizophrenia usually runs in families, in which relationship is essential in determining the risk of attaining schizophrenia.  If an identical twin has schizophrenia, then the other twin has a 48 percent chance of developing schizophrenia also.  On the contrary, if a first cousin has schizophrenia, then he or she has a 2 percent chance of developing schizophrenia.  Social and environmental factors are important because it may influence the emotional and physical body changes of teen undergoing puberty or hormonal changes in ways such as viruses, poor social interaction with others, and high stress.  Schizophrenia normally occurs in people in their teenage years or in their twenties and thirties.  Schizophrenia is fairly common in the U.S. with one percent being diagnosed with schizophrenia, which is about 20 million.

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        The symptoms of schizophrenia are the positive symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders.  Negative symptoms are a “flat affect,” a lack of pleasure in everyday life, a lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities, and speaking little.  Cognitive symptoms are poor “executive functioning,” trouble focusing or paying attention, and problems with “working memory.”  If these symptoms are positively occurring in people, then they can test to see if they are diagnosed with schizophrenia.  Doctors first check with X-rays and blood sample testing to find out the cause for the symptoms.  If the doctor finds nothing, then the patient is then referred ...

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