Schizophrenia Research Paper

Imagine hearing voices that nobody else could hear and believing that people could read your mind. That is what schizophrenia does to yo Imagine hearing voices that nobody else could hear and believing that people could read your mind. That is what schizophrenia does to you. Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Over 2.2 million people suffer from schizophrenia in the United States. ("Schizophrenia Facts and Statistics.”) Developing schizophrenia is common, and doctors will diagnose it after observing symptoms. There are different types of symptoms known as positive and negative symptoms. Negative symptoms include lack of social interest, attention deficits, unusual speech, loss of expressed …show more content…
A psychiatrist will provide this to help improve the patient's state of mind. To recover, patients go to regular sessions with a psychiatrist discussing relationships, feelings and thoughts. These sessions helps patients understand their disease and what it is doing to them. A psychiatrist also helps the patients determine what is reality and what is not. Patients also may be rehabilitated with counseling, problem solving support, social skills training and money management. Another method is called cognitive remediation which is a behavioral treatment using drills, exercises, tests and computer programs. These activities help the patient with cognitive skills, attention, memory, planning, organization and managing problems. Finally, the last two methods are family education and self help groups. Family support and love helps the patient so that they do not have to go through the process alone. Self help groups help avoid relapse, non compliance, legal problems and repeat hospitalization …show more content…
They may isolate themselves from society because they are having hallucinations or delusions. Schizophrenic patients also have 50 times higher risk, than the general population, of attempting suicide. Suicide is the number one cause of premature death to schizophrenic patients. 12%- 13% of patients commit suicide and 40% attempt to commit suicide at least once. Schizophrenics are put in jail frequently for cases such as trespassing. 20% of the Americans in jail have a mental illness. 55% of mentally ill patients are not being treated for multiple reasons and many even have anosognosia. (Schizophrenia facts and statistics) Anosognosia is when people refuse to acknowledge that they have a disorder at all or they are unaware of their