Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

     After studying the brain a little bit in this past chapter's assignment, I came across a few psychological illnesses when reading the textbook and through various other readings I've done outside of class and the concept of Schizophrenia sparked my interest. 

     Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by delusions, perceptual distortions, disorganized thinking or speech that affect emotions and cause an individual to be out of touch with reality. There has been a plethora of genetic research findings in order to further understand the idea. For example, it has been shown that the prevalence of schizophrenia is pretty much the same across various cultures. Another interesting find is that when studying twins, identical twins are more likely to show higher concordance rates than fraternal twins, shedding light on the disorder. 

    There is what is known as the dopamine hypothesis that explains the origin of schizophrenia. This hypothesis shows that schizophrenia is related to over-activity of dopamine. Dopamine is a compound present in the body as a neurotransmitter and a precursor of other substances. Drugs that block dopamine decrease the symptoms. Medications used to treat schizophrenia are designed specifically to decrease the amount of dopamine. This prevents dopamine from being released at the time synapse. 

    It is clear that schizophrenia is a unique disorder that can affect cognition, the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. If this perspective is blocked off from psychology, it is difficult to live an ordinary life.