By:Rahul Kishore
Schizophrenia: The Disease
• Schizophrenia is a severe mental disease
• It prevents cognitive development in the brain
• It is not a split personality disease causing people to
see things
• Causes chronic mental health issues
How is The Disease Diagnosed?
• There is no laboratory test for
Schizophrenia
• Tests are dependent on psychiatrist but can
take a few minutes to months to show signs
• Most times a possible schizophrenic must
come in by themselves to be checked many
of these people never come for check ups
Symptoms of The Disease
• Two types of symptoms
• Negative Symptoms
Poor motivation or apathy
Self-neglect, including physical neglect (not taking baths)
Reduced or inappropriate emotion, such as showing no
emotion at all or becoming angry with stranger
Commonly mistaken to be depression
• Positive Symptoms
Delusions
Hallucinations, hearing things
Confused or Disorganized Speech
Causes of Schizophrenia
• There is no known cause of schizophrenia
• Theories include:
Problems in pregnancy such as malnutrition or being
exposed to a virus
The disease is passed down through family
Brain growth problems causing neurotransmitter damage
(neurotransmitters communicate ideas around the brain
using chemicals)
• Current research into the disease being
passed down through family shows promise
Who the Disease Affects
• Affects 1% of the
population of the US 350
300
• Usually diagnosed in
250
adolescents and early 200
adults Men
150 Women
• Current figures a slow 100 Both
decrease from an 50
0
increase 1986- 1991- 1997-
1987 1992 1998
Schizophrenia Treatments
• There is no cure for schizophrenia but most
medications considerably lower the
symptoms
• Treatments Include:
Antipsychotics
Professional help sessions
Typical narcoleptics or old drugs
Atypical narcoleptics or new drugs
The Life of A Schizophrenic
• Would be on medication always
• Would be tempted to commit suicide as 1 in
10 schizophrenics have
• Would be hospitalized during relapse
• Would be able to live on own during
recession
• Would almost never be cured
The History of Schizophrenia
• Discovered by Folvet in 1851 and termed “cynical
madness”
• 1878 Emil Kraepelin combined symptoms and
termed them “dementia of early onset”
• 1911 renamed “schizophrenia” by Eugen Bleuler
• 1959 Kurt Schneider listed his ‘first rank’ features
of schizophrenia creating two guides used in the
operational diagnosis of schizophrenia, the ICD-
10 and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
mental disorders (DSM).
Bibliography
• Canadian Health Agency
http://www.cpa-
apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2001/Feb/Decline_tab3.htm
• Cell Science, http://www.cellscience.com/shdss2.html
• National Institute for Mental Health, NIH Publication No.02-3517, Printed
1999, Reprinted 2002.
• Schizophrenia.com,
http://www.schizophrenia.com/newsletter/buckets/meds.html
• WebMd,
http://www.my.webmd.com/content/healthwise/162/51478
http://www.my.webmd.com/content/healthwise/2/451
http://www.my.webmd.com/content/healthwise/175/55447
http://www.my.webmd.com/content/healthwise/123/30689
http://www.my.webmd.com/content/healthwise/15/3788