The Mental Disorder Known As Schizophrenia - 2245 Words

Introduction The intent of this paper is to take an in depth look at the mental disorder known as schizophrenia. This disorder is relatively new and has only been recognized by psychologists since the late 1880’s. Since its discovery there have been many researchers who have attempted to define what causes the disorder, however there is still no concrete evidence of its origin. It has been widely accepted that schizophrenia has roots in genetics, however there is also a growing amount of evidence to suggest environmental factors as well. Research on epigenetics has shown that subtle mutations of DNA can be associated with the onset of schizophrenia. It also has been presented that specific single nucleotide polymorphs can be directly†¦show more content†¦More subtle symptoms include a lack of interest, lack of social interaction, and inability to sustain relationships. At this time there are a number of medications that can be used to help ease the symptoms of schizophrenia. Thera py and rehab have also been proven effective once medication is stable. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history, origins, symptoms and treatments of schizophrenia. By examining the, be it short, history of the disorder one will be able to better understand the intent of current research and the problems being attempted to solve. History Although schizophrenia is considered to be one of the newer mental disorders to be recognized, there have been several researchers that have made major declarations as to the cause and depth of this disorder. The first researcher to provide a look into what is now called schizophrenia is Emil Kraepelin (Jablensky, 2012). Prior to Kraepelin’s research, psychologists had begun to describe symptoms that were unlike any of the known mental disorders of the time. Kraepelin saw that many of these symptoms were similar among each other but there were also slight differences in the cases. Kraepelin decided to group all symptoms that were describing similar events under one term, dementia praecox. Throughout his research Kraepelin struggled with finding one root cause that was similar across all patients, so he determined that the essence of this disorder was a notable decline in