Traumatic Childhood Schizophrenia Research Paper

Schizophrenia is a psychological chronic disorder that disables the brain from functioning normally. When people hear the word schizophrenia, many people link it with hallucinations, hearing voices, and paranoia. But what particular aspect is associated with the cause of schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disease for which no clear cause is known. Many people only know the effect of having schizophrenia, but not what contributed to the development. Without many people realizing it, having either a tragic childhood, a traumatic brain injury or even using cannabis, are in fact, major factors to the contribution of the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
First of all, having a traumatic childhood increases the chances of having schizophrenia. A traumatic childhood could either be an emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Either of these abuses is very harmful and has a lasting negative impact on a child's mental health. Having a traumatic childhood leaves scars in the brain that can stay in the brain until the child is grown up. In Janssen research, they tested individuals who were in between the average age of twenty-four that all reported having a type of child abuse (919). In a research about CSA, childhood sexual abuse, they reported: “..those individuals who had been sexually abused were 15 times more likely
to exhibit clinical levels of psychotic symptoms than those who had not” (Steel 917). Similarly, physical abuse, CPA, revealed an increase of psychosis result when their participants had claimed in having experienced some abuse (Janssen 41). In addition, the increase in having paranoid like symptoms demonstrated that physically and sexually abuse is connected with each other while with other that did not exhibit any abuse of any sort, did not. “A community survey found that 46% of those with three or more Schneiderian symptoms of schizophrenia had experienced CPA or CSA, compared to 8% of those with none” (Ross 326). It becomes a flashback that became part of the schizophrenic experience like hallucinations or voices that oppressed them as their abuser did thus cause paranoia and even mistrust of people close to them. People in the experiments reported abuse in the highest category that had an estimated 30 times greater chance to develop a needs-based diagnosis of psychosis compared to those not exposed to childhood abuse (Read 422). Schizophrenia-like symptoms are clearly exhibited in most individuals with childhood abuse.
As a result of encountering abuse, many individuals developed a traumatic brain injury, otherwise known as TBI. TBI is when the brain receives an injury that can alter some functions within the brain. John Read stated that “researchers for the National Institute of Mental Health Genetics Initiative for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders have demonstrated that after controlling for gender and age, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is significantly related to being diagnosed schizophrenic..”(322). Since TBI is an injury to the brain, it can increase the risk of having a disturbance within the person’s mind such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, personality change, and cognitive impairment; these disturbances are similar to schizophrenia. For this reason, their “..study found that 17% of adults diagnosed schizophrenic had suffered TBI” (Read 322). A brain injury is different from a broken limb because unlike the broken limb, it can repair itself but with the brain, it can not. Brain development continues into young adulthood, and therefore any factors that interfere with brain development during this time may have far-reaching consequences.
Consequently, it led many people to seek a method to help cope with their agonizing childhood like cannabis, which, consequently is another factor for schizophrenia. Cannabis, also known as marijuana, is mainly used as an aid with pain, but it can also be used for pleasure. Swell mentions that a “Swedish conscript cohort reconfirmed that heavy cannabis users by the age of 18 years were 6.7 times more likely than non-users to be hospitalized for schizophrenia in the following 27 years” (420). In addition, cannabis can also distribute different effects within the person, depending on their state of condition. For instance, “cannabinoids can produce transient schizophrenia-like symptoms in healthy individuals, and exacerbate symptoms in schizophrenic patients” (D’Souza 420). Cannabis is also known as a hallucinogenic drug which impacts the neurotransmitters in the brain that helps regulate the everyday function. To illustrate, D’Souza’s subjects reported difficulty in the thought process, not being aware of their surroundings, illusions, and hallucinations, as well as loss of memory (415). Finally, there may be no clear cause of how schizophrenia is formed in people, however, there are some factors that do show evidence in the development of schizophrenia.
Having a traumatic childhood, a traumatic brain injury, and the usage of cannabis all are major factors in the causation of schizophrenia. It all affects the brain in different ways; such as leaving a traumatic scar within the brain that could build up once the person is grown up, an injury within the brain that affects the functions of it, and last but not least the use of cannabis that can produce symptoms of the mental illness, are all factors that can cause schizophrenia to
form.