Mental Disorder Paper

Definition and Description Schizophrenia is defined as a severe, often chronic brain disease that can make a person unable to function at work or school, maintain relationships, and take adequate care of their personal needs. It is believed that schizophrenia is the result of a disruption in basic brain functioning, which in effect leads to loss of touch with reality. is a psychotic disorder, or a group of disorders, marked by severely impaired thinking, emotions and behaviors. Schizophrenia patients typically experience enhanced perceptions of sounds, colors and other features of their normal environment. Patients suffering with this disease experience a variety of different psychotic symptoms, which include, hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, bizarre and disorganized behavior. According to World Health Organization (WHO) the brain dysfunction may also lead to impaired thinking, blunted emotions, loss of motivation, interest or pleasure. Together, these effects of the disease make social interactions severely difficult or near impossible. Schizophrenia in adults can be divided into three phases/stages. According to the World Health Organization, within the acute phase, the patient has an overt loss of contact with reality. This can also be referred to as psychotic episode. The second phase is stabilization, where the initial psychotic symptoms have been brought under control, however, the patient is at risk of relapsing if treatment is interrupted. The third and final phase is the maintenance phase, this is where the patient is relatively stable and can be kept indefinitely on anti-psychotic medications. However, it is important to state that within the maintenance phase, relapses are not unusual and patients do not always return to full functioning once they 've been diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia.

Historical Background It is believed that schizophrenia was first called dementia praecox by Emil Kraeplin in 1896. He described the

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