What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is an incurable mental
illness. It is taken to be a psychotic disorder that makes the
person unable to link thought, emotion and behavior. This leads
to a withdrawal from his personal relationships and reality. In
schizophrenia people undergo psychotic episodes. A psychotic
episode is the term coined for unnecessary and unusual mood
swings, becoming restless and eager without any good reason and
being withdrawn. Schizophrenia, thus deeply affects/hampers the
functioning of one’s thinking, conduct, social and personal life.
When is it Schizophrenia? The diverse symptoms are a clue to
the different kinds of schizophrenia. The indicators that are
broadly divided into three categories thus vary with the types
of schizophrenia.
Positive symptoms- schizophrenic suffer from hallucinations and
delusions. These are the positive symptoms. Hallucinations make
a person see things that are not actually there. For instance he
may perceive a rope lying nearby as a snake and get petrified of
it. In case of delusions, the individual might think himself to
be someone, which he is not. He becomes oblivious of the reality
and enters his own imaginary world. This can be too fatal at
times for the schizophrenic and even for those near him.
The positive symptoms most often indicate the most common type
of schizophrenia known as ‘paranoid schizophrenia’. The
hallucinations and delusions make the individual act like a
paranoid who is constantly scared of someone or something.
Negative symptoms- are exhibited when the person behaves like a
mannequin i.e. he does not act or show any emotion. He becomes
dull, impassive, unaffected and still personality and thereby
displays a reaction less or catatonic conduct.
‘Catatonic schizophrenia’ is deemed to be the reason behind
these indicators. Disorganized indicators- show an individual’s
distorted thoughts and memory; he is unable to connect various
events, understand them and does or says a thing over and over
again.
This uncommon and perplexed behavior is mostly the cause of
‘disorganized type’ of schizophrenia. However, if the symptoms
are unlike any of these then the schizophrenia is believed to be
of undifferentiated kind.
Who gets affected? Unfortunately the accurate reasons behind
schizophrenia are unknown till date. But experience has enabled
doctors to posit some peculiar factors that invoke and provoke
schizophrenia.
Genes- in many cases worldwide, schizophrenia is transferred
genetically. Studies disclose that those individuals who have
had a family history of this mental disorder are quite liable to
be afflicted by it.
The imbalance of the brain chemical called ‘dopamine’ often
disturbs the brain functioning and produces schizophrenia.
An unusual structure or working of brain is even a cause of
schizophrenia.
Change in hormones at the onset of puberty, during pregnancy,
excess of stress hormone in the body and any other viral
infection can very well develop schizophrenia.
Addiction to narcotics may at times lead to schizophrenia.
Prevention and Medication
In order to prevent the frequent occurrence of psychotic
episodes, doctors prescribe medicines after few tests. Once the
tests confirm the mental disorder as none other than
schizophrenia, treatment commences. The medicines so prescribed
are quite efficient to a large extent however, if a
schizophrenic becomes irregular in dosage, schizophrenia
relapses without delay.
Nowadays some other treatments such as the electro conclusive
therapy (ECT), personal therapy, animal assisted and stem cell
therapy have turned out to be too beneficial in curing
schizophrenia to a considerable extent. Apart from these,
doctors emphasize a balanced diet that provides all essential
nutrients to the body and is particularly rich in vitamin E.
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