Schizophrenia Research Paper

This paper will focus on many different variables that exist for schizophrenia. In order to educate the readers about this mental disorder, perhaps the best way to start is by defining the symptoms that indicate a person has schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia are delusional which means they can be a bit out of touch with reality (Pec, Bob, Lysaker, 2015). Schizophrenics are unable to have coherent speech at certain times and have difficulty controlling their bodily movements. In some cases, they appear jumbled and irregular in emotions (Pec, Bob, & Lysaker, 2015). The most common symptom are their hallucinations, in which they see people who do not really exist or personify inanimate objects. As one can tell, some of these symptoms are more distinguishable than others. The most telling symptoms are obviously the delusions, incoherent speech, and hallucinations.

History of Schizophrenia

To be able to understand schizophrenia, one must understand how schizophrenia came to fruition. One o the most well-known psychologists who was able to put a name to the illness was Eugen Bleuler (Pec, Bob, & Lysaker, 2015). Before Eugen Blueler, which was during the twentieth century, not much information existed about schizophrenia. Those who were delusional and hallucinated were considered bewitched. They were put into harsh conditions due to their abnormal behaviors. Because schizophrenic people acted out in such adverse ways, talking about such abnormalities were considered taboo. This is where the origination of the negative mindset came from. Since not much of research had been conducted to determine the root cause of schizophrenia, society was unsure how to treat people with abnormalities.

In the twentieth century, Blueler was able to pinpoint certain criteria that he referred to as schizophrenic symptoms (Pec, Bob, & Lysaker, 2015). These symptoms were the hallucinations, delusions, and being out of touch with reality. These symptoms were the most uncommon, and easy to spot for psychologists. Not only did Blueler find different types of symptoms, but he also found several causes that increased the risk factor o having schizophrenia. One of the main causes, he believed, was that of a traumatic childhood experience which would have impacted the child for a lifetime (Pec, Bob, & Lysaker, 2015, p. 59). He was able to correlate other symptoms with schizophrenia as well. The other causes were isolationand neurocognitive abnormalities (Pec, Bob, & Lysaker, 2015, p. 60).

Causes of Schizophrenia

There are a few known causes of schizophrenia that are important to include in this paper. According to some researchers, people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia have elevated homocysteine (hcy) (Misiak, et. al., 2014, p. 661). This is a type of an amino acid, which can basically enable protein in the body. Ironically, there are even more causes that cause this elevation. In a study conducted to determine the cause of schizophrenia, researchers associated heightened levels of homocysteine with family history of schizophrenia, cannabis abuselow vitamin B12age, gender, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, medications (Misiak, et. al., 2014, p. 661). There even is a likelihood that these levels can rise when a person goes untreated for schizophrenia for an extended period of time.

Multiple studies have been conducted to determine the causes of schizophrenia. Despite the overload of discussions and hypotheses that researchers have given, one cause has consistently shown up in many studies. Researchers seem to repeatedly find that there is a greater likelihood of a person being schizophrenic when they have a relative that is also schizophrenic (Misiak, et. al. 2014). When a person is related to someone who is schizophrenic, that does not guarantee that they, too, will be diagnosed with the same condition.

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