Schizophrenia:
Meaning:
(Bear, Connors, Paradiso, 1996).
Type I: Characterized by psychotic espisodes that usually includes
delusions (such as "I am a royal king"). Hallucinations such as hearing voices, disordered paranoid thoughts.
Type II:characterized by loss of appropriate emotional response ("flat effect" or
inappropriate laughter or crying), abnormal postures (catatonia),
and lack of spontaneous speech.
Definitions:
Gray Matter (GM): consists of neuronal cell bodies, synaptic dendritic
and axonal extentions, supported by framework glia.
N-Acetylaspartate (NAA): an amino acid thought to be present in neurons,
dendritic and axonal extentions, but not in glia.
Gray Matter Heterotopia (GMH):
collection of normal neurons in abnormal locations secondary to arrest
of radical migration of neurons.
Brain Abnormalities:
structural abnormalities found within the brain causing schizophrenic symptoms
Suggested Reasons for Brain Dysmorphology:
There are several suggestions as to why
there are recurrent brain strucutures (especially, gray matter deficits)
present in schizophrenic patients.
References
*most devastating of all mental illnesses.
*starts during adolescence or early adulthood, but endures for life.
*over 2 million people in the U.S. are struck by this disease.
disease is characterized by loss of contact with reality, fragmented
and disrupted thoughts, perception, mood and movement.
Studies:
often used MRI scans, to have detailed assessment of tissue changes within
brain structures.
Discussion:
Schizophrenia has a many contributing biological factors to the great amount
of disability involved. Many therapists have tried to identified
this disease as an environmental outcome of stress. Yet, the abnormal
brain strucutres found among many studies imply that schizophrenia is indeed
a result of biological determinants. This gives researchers that
ability to determine more appropriate treatments for such a devistating
disease.
Unfortunately, very little
studies have been aplied to women with schizophrenia. It is important to
find relationships with the disease and gender-related brain strucutes,
to obtain the optimal pharmecutic therapy. Note that in the meta-analysis
study of 40 relevant studies, there were a total of 1314 patients.
Only 383 were women of these patients! It is essential to have more
studies done on schizophrenic patients who are females.
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