The causes, treatment and future prevention of schizophrenia

Essay by DementedHigh School, 11th gradeA+, December 2003

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Schizophrenia is constantly being researched and new causes are continually being discovered, making it difficult to identify and cure patients which may be affected by an undiscovered cause. Schizophrenia is diagnosed uses a system of different characteristics of the disease. If the patient possesses a certain number of these characteristics then they are said to be schizophrenic. Treatments for schizophrenia are varied and specialized based on the particular characteristics and background of the patient, but with such little knowledge of this disorder, some cases go untreated and most schizophrenics experience relapse within two years of their being released from a treatment facility. (Davison, 288) Society must be better educated concerning the symptoms and causes of schizophrenia to ensure early detection of cases and to curb misunderstandings about this devastating disorder.

The causes of schizophrenia are rather varied and this leaves no definite way of either ensuring a person will or will not contract this abnormality.

As a result, it is difficult to diagnose and treat schizophrenics unless the full extent of a person's particular case is known. Genetics has long been one of the known causes of schizophrenia, if one twin develops schizophrenia, then their identical twin would have a 50% chance of contracting it, or their fraternal twin would have a 17% chance. (Volk, 85) Identical twins have such a high chance of both, rather than one developing the disorder and since they have the exact same genes, given this it can be concluded that schizophrenia is directly linked to a persons DNA. It is also known that neurological abnormalities are a major cause of schizophrenia, specifically overproduction of dopamine leading to a false reality and structural abnormalities of brain tissue. Most schizophrenics have their outer ventricles swollen, a direct connection to schizophrenia, however the actual relation is...