Schizophrenia in the United States

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects less than one percent of the United States Population and only about one in five will recover completely. (Lippincott Advisor 2015-2017). It is a mental disorder that affects how a person feels, thinks, and behaves. It disturbs social life, perception, sense of self, language, and psychomotor behavior. While this disorder is not very common, it can be extremely disabling to some. Reality is interpreted abnormally but, this disease can be controlled with the right treatments regimens if discovered in time. This disorder affects men and women equally but, has been seen to be discovered earlier in men. Schizophrenia is typically diagnosed between late teens and mid-thirties with deterioration occurring within the first 5-10 years of diagnosis. (Lippincott Advisor 2015-2017).

There is not a known cause for Schizophrenia but, it is believed that there are contributing factors that play a role in the development of this disease. Some of the internal and external contributing factors include environmental contribution, the individual's brain chemistry, biological and genetic disposition. The external triggering factors could range from their interaction with others to events that may be occuring around them. Internal triggering factors are hallucinations, body image, delusional feelings, and right-left confusion. These are all things that could set someone with Schizophrenia off and help with diagnosing a patient with this disorder.

Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia can be subtle but, if left untreated can become very obvious. These signs and symptoms can be categorized into four different groups which include positive, negative, cognitive impairment, and mood. Positive signs include delusion, hallucinations, disconnects speech patterns, and disorganized behavior. Positive signs is the exaggeration of normal functions but, negative and cognitive impairment sings actually affect the ability to function normally. Negative signs include things such as ambivalence, alogia, apathy, and difficulty expressing emotions. Cognitive impairments include memory and attention deficits while mood impairments include depression and anxiety.

There are many forms of treatment for Schizophrenia in order to manage and control this mental disorder. Some examples of minimal invasive therapeutic treatment are psychotherapy, family, cognitive-behavior, and Milieu therapy. Someone with Schizophrenia may also partake in social skills training or cognitive remediation. More invasive treatments would include the different medications that can be taken. The medications used to help manage this disease are antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and anticonvulsants. Along with the treatment for Schizophrenic patients is maintaining patient safety, giving their medications as prescribed, assessing their behavior, and assessing for improvement of disorder. Schizophrenia can be managed and patients are able to have a better and higher quality of life than if they did not have access to these treatment options.

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