In the Stone Age this illness was looked as a possession by the devil or from evil spirits. It was also thought of as an assault from the gods for immoral behaviour. This idea was changed when the Pharoanic Egyptians were plagued by thCHNKWKS ‚ø€TEXTTEXTteFDPPFDPPhFDPPFDPPjFDPCFDPClFDPCFDPCnFDPCFDPCpSTSHSTSHrhSTSHSTSHhs¢SYIDSYID
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Course ID # and Title: AK/EN3960Q The Healing Fiction: Literature and Medicine
Course Instructor's Name: Professor Nanci White or Donna Bush
Tutor's Name: Professor Nanci White or Donna Bush
Assignment # and Title: Assignment #2 Past and Preset ideas about Schizophrenia
Number of Pages (with this cover sheet): 10 (email with redo permission incl.)
Assignment Due Date: revised copy with Professor White s permission (email incl.)
STUDENT INFORMATION
Surname: Garrett First Name: Jaclyn
Student Number: 203989977
Telephone Number: (home) (905) 476-7100
E-mail Address: [email protected]
Mailing Address: 11-131 The Queensway South
Keswick, Ontario
L4P 1Z8
Signature:
Past and Present ideas about Schizophrenia
Jaclyn Garrett
English 3960
November 17, 2002
Professor Nancy White (revised)
Schizophrenia is a topic that is discussed in Dr. Oliver Sacks book, The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat. In this short chapter we are introduced to an elderly man who has suffered with this mental illness for years. Dr. Sacks talks briefly about how he diagnosed this disease, and tries to suppress the illness. However, he explains that because the man has had the illness for so long would be hard finding a cure for him. Why is it that this man can not be helped? Does it matter the length of time that a person suffers with schizophrenia with if and how they are to be cured. Within this essay I will look at the past definitions of schizophrenia and the definition that doctors use to diagnose the disease in modern medicine. I will also discuss different cures that have been used since the disease was first discovered, and finally the symptoms that are connected tois illness. By this time schizophrenia was believed to be caused from the heart and the uterus. It was thought that a fetus could contract this disease from the mother when in the womb. They believed that this illness originated from blood vessels or sometimes demons. Egyptians looked at mental illness as problems resorting from physical illnesses. In the time of Ancient Greece scholars believed that an imbalance of the body was a cause of schizophrenia. Hippocrates believed that all delusions were caused from a morbid state of the liver. This idea from Hippocrates had been elaborated from earlier physicians who had examined a liver of an animal so that they could figure out where this illness originated. (Hall/Kahl)
Views changed once more, when the Christian Saints decided take the ideas that were already written and examine more closely the origins of the disease to create a definition. However, when any of the Saints talked of hallucinations or hearing voices it was decided that this was a sign that God was speaking to them, (Emental-health.com). This disease was considered divine rather then being evil, as it was thought of in earlier times. The idea of hallucinations changed in the 15th century and people with this disease were no longer looked at as being divine but were believed to show evidence of possession. Women who suffered with this illness were looked at as being witches. (Emental-health.com)
The ideas of possession and witchcraft lasted until the 18th century when the nervous system was finally used to explain the reasons for having schizophrenia, (Emental-health.com). By studying the nervous system the definition of schizophrenia was changed to the definition we know today: a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life& (Webster s). Another modern definition of schizophrenia is, any of a large group of mental disorders in which the patient loses touch with reality and in which the person is no longer able to think or act normally, (Signet/Mosby). The change in the definition of schizophrenia could be considered helpful toward finding a way for the doctors to be able to diagnose the disease properly and to create a cure to end this disease.
This cure to end schizophrenia has gone through many changes to get to what we have discovered today. With each century that this disease has been documented there has been a cure that has been used. In the Stone Age, the evil spirits were extracted from the person by drilling a hole into their heads, (Emental-health.com). This hole was done when the person was still conscious so that the procedure could be done effectively.
In Pharoanic Egypt a person was cured was with a temple sleep. Where a person with schizophrenia was placed into a temple where they would be given suggestions from priests that would hopefully provoke dreams that were believed to be sent by the gods. These dreams were used as insights into the illness and would give suggestions on how to cure the person. This sleep cure was used in Ancient Greece as well. The Greeks believed that the sleep experienced by the person with the illness was caused by the god Asclepios and that he also helped create the cure. Hippocrates, however, believed that bloodletting; vomiting, purgatives, and purulence were that ways that you cure the person. Hippocrates decided on these cures as he felt that you needed to extract the disease to cure the patient.
By the 16th century chains and stocks were no longer what was needed to rid the patient of the demons (what they believed schizophrenia was). Institutions were introduced in this century and also in the 17th century. By this time shock treatment was the usual method for curing the patients of schizophrenia. Another popular way was to strap a patient to a chair until they lost all sensation and calmed down. This cure was changed by the 18th century when schizophrenia was recognized as a disorder of the mind, and this theory carried through into the 19th century where body and mind were linked in this theory. However, although this new theory was discovered the 17th century the outstanding cure of shock treatment was decided to be ineffective and needed to be changed. (Emental-health.com)
By the 20th century a final definition of schizophrenia was formed, however, an acceptable cure had still not been found. There were years of painful trial and error before a cure was discovered. An example of a trial cure is that of fever therapy. It was recorded that people with schizophrenia recover slightly when their temperature is high, and so doctors would create a fever in a patient by injecting them with sulphur and oil. These trials continued until the 1950 s when the first anti-psychotic medicine was introduced. Chlorpromazine, consisting of sedating, hypnotic and narcotic drugs, which caused people to become indifferent or catatonic like . This effect of the drug was deemed a chemical lobotomy, (Emental-health.com). The only problem with the drug were the many side effects it caused, such as, tremors, restlessness, loss of muscle tone and postural disorders, (Emental-health.com). These side effects were called, narcoleptics, which means nerve seizing.
Chlorpromazine stayed around for 30 years until Clozapine was offered. However, clozapine caused a blood disorder called argranulocytosis, which stopped clozapine from being offered until 1990 when the drug was offered through prescription to schizophrenia patients.
Today a cure for schizophrenia is constantly being researched. Doctors are still trying to define the symptoms of this mental illness so that a proper, more effective drug can be found and possibly a cure for the disease. The odd cures over the years have been caused from lack of information and a misjudgement about the symptoms that schizophrenia produces. The first signs of schizophrenia often appear as confusing, or even, shocking, changes in behaviour, (Schizophrenia Closet). Schizophrenic symptoms can be seen at the early stages of the illness, and are nit identical in everyone. Some people may have only one episode of schizophrenia in their lifetime. Others may have recurring episodes& (Schizophrenia s Closet). Some of the symptoms schizophrenia includes are psychosis, which is a state of mental impairment, which also includes hallucinations or delusions. Other symptoms include social isolation or withdrawal, or disorganized speech. Another symptom of schizophrenia is deterioration in work or academic activities. Relationships with friends and family, as well as personal care and hygiene are affected.
A patient suffering will not only show social deterioration they can also show signs of changes in their characteristics. These changes usually effect the persons personality& (Schizophrenia s Closet). For example, an open person would become subtle and withdrawn or even very moody. Emotions also become switched. The person may laugh at something that is supposed to be sad, and could cry in a moment that is suppose to be a happy one. In some cases the person could even become emotionless.
A person with schizophrenia can also suffer with thought disorder, (Schizophrenia s Closet). This symptom is serious because it causes thinking and rational response to become non-existent. A person with schizophrenia will have thought process, however, the disease causes thought to either be too fast or too slow. A person with schizophrenia may also skip topics constantly, becoming confused while they speak. At times schizophrenics get ideas that they are in danger from someone else thereby causing them to withdraw from people.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that has just started to be understood. In recent studies done by the University of Toronto a gene called Nogo was found to be linked to schizophrenia, (U of T& ). If a way is found to suppressor even extract this gene a possible cure for schizophrenia could be found. This gene could also be a way find out using gene study techniques which people carry the gene that causes schizophrenia and extract the problem before it starts. Instead of waiting for a person to display the symptoms, they could use the research a cure for schizophrenia before a person is infected with the disease.
Works Cited
Hall, Hakan, and Ulrika Kahl. Schizophrenia throughout History. 26 Sept 2002. Online. Internet. Available
http://www.hubin.org/facts/history/history_schizophrenia_en.html (11 Nov 2002)
Long, Dr. Phillip W. Basic Facts about Schizophrenia. n.d. Online. Internet.
Available http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-sc02.html (13 Nov 2002).
N.p. Schizophrenia s Closet. 16 Nov 2002. Online. Internet. Available
http://www.drleons.com/schizo/closet.htm (18 Nov 2002).
N.p. Emental-health.com& Schizophrenia. n.d. Online. Internet. Available
http://www.emental-health.com/schizophrenia.asp (9 Nov 2002).
Schizophrenia. Mirriam-Webster s Medical Desk Dictionary. Library of Congress Cataloging 1986.
Schizophrenia. The Signet/Mosby Medical Encyclopedia. Penguin Books Ltd. 1987.
U of T scientists on track of gene for schizophrenia. The Toronto Star 13 Nov. 2002.
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