Splitting of the mind

Schizo means split, and phrenic, in this case, refers to the mind. Even though schizophrenia can be interpreted to mean "splitting of the mind", it does not refer to a split personality, as some media sources might portray, but rather schizophrenia describes a scattered or fragmented pattern of thinking. Schizophrenia’s actually a syndrome, meaning there’re all sorts of symptoms that might be associated with it and different patients might experience different symptoms, although the symptoms can be broadly categorized into three major areas: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms.

Alright taking a step back, most human symptoms from any illness are extreme versions of a normal physiologic process (for example everyonehas a heartbeat and tachycardia is a fast heartbeat, everyone has a normal body temperature,but during a fever that temperature is higher). In schizophrenia, patients have positive symptomswhich aren’t positive in the sense that they’re helpful, but positive in the sensethat they’re some new feature that doesn’t have some "normal" or physiologic counterpart / melbourne dental clinic(http://www.prosmiles.com.au/).These are the psychotic symptoms, so delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and disorganizedor catatonic behavior; none of which occur physiologically. Delusions are false beliefs that the patientmight feel very strongly about, so much so that they won’t change their mind, evenif you give them evidence against it. There are all sorts of different delusions, like,for example, a delusion of control, where somebody thinks that some outside force orperson or thing is controlling their actions.

They could also be delusions of reference,where someone might think that insignificant remarks are directed at them, like a newscasteris speaking directly to them through the TV. Hallucinations are a second type of positivesymptom, and can be any kind of sensation that’s not actually there, including visualbut also including auditory sensations, like hearing voices or commands. A third type isdisorganized speech An example being something like a "word salad", which seems likejust a random jumbling of words or phrases, like "pencil dog hat coffee blue".

Disorganizedbehavior on the other hand could be like if they exhibit bizarre or silly behavior that’sout of context and doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose, like for example wearingmultiple layers of jackets on a hot summer day. Also sometimes the behavior is describedas "catatonic", which has to do with their movements, posture, and responsiveness. Solike they might be super resistant to moving, or be in an unresponsive stupor. Negative symptoms, are like when there’sthis reduction or removal of normal processes, and this is like a decrease in emotions theycan express, or a loss of interest in things they once found interesting.

One type of anegative symptom is called flat affect, where they don’t respond with an emotion or reactionthat would seem appropriate, like if they saw something very unexpected like a smallmonkey playing in their living room, they might simply sit and watch idly as if nothingwas happening. Another type is alogia, or poverty of speech, which is a lack of contentin speech, so like if somebody asked them "do you have any children?", they mightrespond with "yes", instead of "yes, one boy and two girls". A third type ofnegative symptom is avolition, which is this decrease in motivation to complete certaingoals, so someone might stay at home for long periods of time, without trying to reach outto friends or find work.

Cognitive symptoms include things like notbeing able to remember things, learn new things, or understand others easily. These symptomsare more subtle though, and more difficult to notice and might only be detected if theyhave really specific tests performed. An example might be somebody not being able to keep trackof several things at once, like a phone number and an address. People with schizophrenia seem to cycle throughthree phases, typically in order. During the prodromal phase, patients might become withdrawnand spend most of their time alone, and often this seems similar to other mental disorderslike depression or anxiety disorders / porcelain veneers Melbourne (http://www.prosmiles.com.au/cosmetic-dentistry/porcelain-veneers/).

During the active phase, patients experience moresevere symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior,or catatonic behavior. Following an active phase, patients often enter into a residualphase, where they might exhibit cognitive symptoms like not being able to concentrateor becoming withdrawn again, as with the prodromal phase. For an official diagnosis of schizophrenia,patients need to be diagnosed with two of the following symptoms—Delusions, hallucinations,disorganized speech, disorganized behavior or catatonic behavior, or negative symptoms,and at least one of them has to be either delusions, hallucinations, or disorganizedspeech, So basically they couldn’t have just disorganized behavior and negative symptoms.Even though some patients have cognitive symptoms as well, they aren’t specifically neededfor a diagnosis.

Also though, for a diagnosis, signs of these disturbances must be ongoingfor at least 6 months, meaning they’re likely in one phase or another for 6 months, butthere must be at least one month of active-phase symptoms. And finally, those symptoms can’tbe attributable to another condition, like substance abuse. Now that we’ve diagnosed it...why does iteven happen in the first place? What causes schizophrenia? Well we don’t really know,since it seems like the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia are pretty unique to humans,or at least they’re hard to imagine or notice in animal models like mice or rats. One clueis that the majority of antipsychotic medications that improve schizophrenia symptoms blockthe dopamine receptor D2, which reduces dopamine levels in neurons. This suggests that maybeschizophrenia has something to do with increased levels of dopamine.

These medications, though,are neither universally nor completely effective, and don’t work for everyone with schizophrenia,which adds to the confusion and means there’s probably more to it than just the D2 receptors.Interestingly, one of the most effective antipsychotic drugs, clozapine, is a weak D2 antagonist,suggesting that other neurotransmitter systems like norepinephrine, serotonin, and GABA areinvolved. Twin studies have shown support for a genetic basis as well, even though therehaven’t been any specific genes conclusively linked to schizophrenia yet. Also, environmentalfactors, like early or prenatal exposure to infection, and certain autoimmune disorderslike celiac disease have been linked with schizophrenia. Finally, another importantset of clues involves the epidemiology, schizophrenia seems to happen slightly more in men thanwomen, with onset in the mid-twenties for men but late-twenties for women; and the clinicalsigns of schizophrenia are often less severe. Some studies suggest this difference mightbe due to an estrogen regulation of dopamine systems.

There doesn’t, however, seem tobe any differences among race. Now treating schizophrenia can be really tricky,and antipsychotic medications are often used, but it’s super important to combine theefforts of several clinicians and health professionals, including professionals in therapy or counseling,medicine, and psychopharmacology. Antipsychotics can be very effective at reducing symptoms,but they often come a lot of additional considerations to keep in mind, like cost and the potentialfor unwanted side effects like tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal.

Alright taking a step back, most human symptoms from any illness are extreme versions of a normal physiologic process (for example everyonehas a heartbeat and tachycardia is a fast heartbeat,