Symptoms And Treatment Of Schizophrenia - 3010 Words

As a nationally and globally spread issue, schizophrenia has been a debilitating psychological disorder for centuries. Known as one of the most severe disorders, schizophrenia is growing more and more capable of treatment by medication and other modes of therapy, but the disorder itself markedly changes the patient who is diagnosed. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history. The symptoms can frighten people with the disorder, causing them to become removed and distressed. Schizophrenic patients can sometimes seem simply odd but not remarkably different until they begin to speak their mind on what they are actually thinking and experiencing. This affects patients’’ families†¦show more content†¦The characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia, according to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000), first require t hat at least two symptoms from the following list are pointedly exhibited within a month: delusions, hallucinations, disordered speech, catatonic behavior, and other negative symptoms such as a lack of emotional expressiveness known as affective flattening, a deficiency of speech known as alogia, or a general lack of drive known as avolition. However, if the delusions or hallucinations are extreme, only one of these symptoms is required. These symptoms are mainly behavioral core symptoms. Moreover, affective core symptoms of schizophrenia include paranoia. Secondly, the patient must experience social and/or occupational dysfunction. The patient noticeably begins to perform insufficiently in these major areas of functioning. This traces to cognitive core symptoms in the sense of mental impairments. For example, schizophrenic patients often believe that they hear voices, feel paranoid and threatened without reason, and cannot grasp social cues or functions. Third, duration is a key as pect of the symptoms that characterize