What is Schizophrenia? Some people might know about this condition or some might have heard about it but don’t know what exactly it is or most of them might not know what is this condition exactly. So people who don’t know what is schizophrenia, it is a serious mental disorder seen to affect the brain region. Person affected with this is usually suffering from hallucinations and delusions. These individuals have disordered thinking, which imbalance their daily routine. It is a rare disorder, seem to affect less than 1% of the world’s population.
Types of schizophrenia
- Paranoid schizophrenia – this is the severe condition in which the individual behavior is extreme and difficult to control.
- Catatonic schizophrenia – this type seems to affect the emotional behavior which makes them break down .
- Undifferentiated schizophrenia – in this type they exhibit various types of characteristic symptoms.
It can also be classified based on their symptoms. So , what are the symptoms affected for an individual? The symptoms includes, impaired or improper thinking pattern, hallucinating, imbalanced speech, delusions, Loss of interest and motivation etc. The presence of these factors either one of them also confirms the presence of schizophrenia in that individual.
So the next question arises ,
What are the causes? Can it be inherited to the next generation through genes?
The cause of schizophrenia was unknown for ages. Recent studies have revealed schizophrenia is transmitted to next generations and runs in genes of the families. But this point can also be disagreed as in some cases, a child whose siblings or parents or relative is would be unaffected. So you might wonder why is this? Why are some offspring’s affected and some not affected? To inherit schizophrenia, not a single gene is involved. Multiple genes are responsible. If any one of the parents are affected , there are changes of up to 10-15% of the child will inherit the disorder. If the siblings are seen to be affected , there is 40-50% chances of being affected.
The stages of schizophrenia
- Prodromal – this is the initial stage here many symptoms are not observed as the disorder is still in developing stage. There might be minor changes like difficulty to think etc.
- Active – in this stage the disorder is active and exhibits various symptoms.
- Residual – in this stage the symptoms get severe in this stage and the affected hear, imaginary voices and show severe mental disturbances.
Hence genes along with the environmental factors causes schizophrenia, risk factors of schizophrenia include, lead exposure, heavily dense living area, prenatal exposure to hunger, neurochemical irregularities, chemical accident etc.,
So, is it curable? What is its treatment?
The treatment procedure involves lifetime. It involves a combination of treatments. Psychotherapy being an effective treatment procedure. Antipsychotic and anti tremor medications are helpful. Various therapies are helpful to balance the mental behavior of the affected individual, like rehabilitation, cognitive therapy, family therapy etc. But the most important therapy is to make these people feel they are normal and to accept them among the people and to make them confident. Hence don’t treat schizophrenia like a disorder but as a challenge. So hence the answer is here, YES, people do inherit schizophrenia!!