Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness described by a variety of symptoms, including loss of contact with reality, bizarre behavior, disorganized thinking and speech, decreased emotional expressiveness, and social withdrawal. Usually only some of these symptoms occur in any one person. More than any other mental illness, schizophrenia has a devastating effect on the lives of the people who suffer from it. A person with schizophrenia may have difficulty telling the difference between real and unreal experiences, logical and illogical thoughts, or appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Schizophrenia seriously impairs a person’s ability to work, go to school, enjoy relationships with others, or take care of themselves. Schizophrenia has been referred to as “the worst disorder affecting human beings” by Carpenter & Buchman, 1994. In addition, people with schizophrenia frequently require hospitalization because they pose a danger to themselves. About 10 percent of people with schizophrenia commit suicide and many others attempt suicide.
Once people develop schizophrenia, they usually suffer from the illness for the rest of their lives. Although there is no cure, treatment can help many people with schizophrenia lead productive lives. It has been estimated that no more than one in five individuals recovers completely. Schizophrenia usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood, between the ages of 15 and 30. It affects men and women equally, but the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties. Women, however, usually are not affected until their late twenties or early thirties. The disease can occur earlier in childhood as well but this rarely happens. Schizophrenia is often misdiagnosed and as a result, many people suffer for years before receiving appropriate treatment. Leaving schizophrenia untreated is hazardous and may be fatal to both the victim and the people around them. There are various medications and treatments that a schizophrenic can endure in order to help them maintain a normal lifestyle.
Research is gradually leading to new and safer medications and unraveling the complex causes of the disease. The cause is still not clear to us today. There seems to be not one single cause for schizophrenia, but rather a multiple of factors. There have been dozens of different explanations for the cause of schizophrenia; one states that brain abnormalities and chemicals in the brain contribute to the development of schizophrenia (Hemmings, 1989), while another argues that a person’s environment and early experiences within relationships causes schizophrenia (Faraone, 1997). The arguments for each account’s are convincing and may be undeniable, but most scientists and theorists agree with the genetic explanation for the cause of schizophrenia, which with an underlying genetic predisposition or vulnerability the individual is more likely to develop a schizophrenic disorder (Smith, 1993). Schizophrenia is associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and defects of the frontal lobe and is caused by genetic, other biological and psychosocial factors.
Scientists still do not know exactly what causes the disease. However, studies have shown that schizophrenia is a biological illness that involves some kind of chemical imbalance in the brain. When someone has a chemical imbalance, it means that some parts of the brain do not function properly. It is also important to know that many parts of the brain can still work just fine, even where there is an imbalance in other parts of the brain. It has also been provent that problems with intrauterine development and birth may increase the risk for developing schizophrenia. Overwhelming evidence purports that genetic mechanisms influence the propensity to develop schizophrenia. Family pedigree studies demonstrate that the risk of developing schizophrenia increases the more closely one is related to someone who already has the illness. For instance, first-degree relatives have a 10% risk whereas for first cousins the risk is reduced to 3%. (Kendler et al 1994) However, this study can be criticised because it fails to take into account of the shared environment: after all, closely related people tend to live together. However, were genetic mechanisms not involved, it is hard to see why cousins, aunties and uncles should have a 3-fold greater risk, when they usually live away from the person with schizophrenia. Therefore, in general, pedigree studies have provided supportive, but not conclusive, evidence for the role of genetic factors.
There is some evidence that have to do with environmental factors during pregnancy that have some correlation to schizophrenia. Certain illegal drugs, such as amphetamines and cannabis, may be the provoker needed for this life-long disease to reveal itself in people who have inherited a genetic predisposition to the disorder.
