Schizophrenia Disorder

By Brandon Tantari

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that is usually characterized by delusions, incoherence, hallucinations, as well as physical agitation. (hearing voices or having a split personality)

Unlike other mental disorders like bipolar syndrome Schizophrenia is classified as a thought disorder not a mood disorder.

Schizophrenia: parenthetical definition

Todd exhibits a split personality and intense anger due to his Schizophrenia disorder.

Jill was diagnosed with Schizophrenia from her doctor after reporting signs of severe agitation and depersonalization (feeling detached from ones body)

Examples

Schizophrenia comes from the Greek words “schizo” which means split, and “phrenia” which means mind.

Schizophrenia is estimated to inhibit 1% of the words population.

Schizophrenia (extended)

Out of all the major mental disorders schizophrenia is the most chronic and disabling.

Having a split personality does not necessarily mean someone has schizophrenia, split personality is merely a symptom of the disease.

Schizophrenia (extended)

Doctors Diagnose schizophrenia by….

Interviewing the patient verbally (mental analysis)

Observing patients actions in social situations.

Taking brain scans and blood tests.

Diagnosis

Therapy

Many doctors resort to therapy when treating a patient with schizophrenia in order to help patients develop social and work skills to improve their lives and relationships.

Schizophrenia treatment

If therapy doesn’t work doctors will often switch to medication for treatment.

doctors usually provide anti-psychotics in two phases…

Acute phase- in this phase doctors provide the highest doses in medication in order to treat psychotic symptoms.

Maintenance phase- where dosage is reduced gradually to prevent further episodes.

Medication

Electroconvulsive Therapy is for severe cases of Schizophrenia.

during ETC a brief electric current is applied through the scalp to the brain which induces a seizure.

ETC is mostly used as a last resort in treatment when the patient is not responding to medication or therapy.

ETC Therapy (Electroconvulsive Therapy)

Schizophrenia is a common yet severe mental condition that affects about 1% of the worlds population.

People who inhibit the though disease often experience symptoms such as agitation, depersonalization, delusions, and inhibiting a split-personality.

Overview