Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is any of several psychotic mental disorders any characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language and withdrawal from social contact (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=schizophrenia).

There are many types of schizophrenia, such as paranoid type schizophrenia, which is characterized by delusions and auditory hallucinations. Disorganised type Schizophrenia is characterized by disorganized, messy speech and also other traits that can interrupt daily life. Catonic type Schizophrenia is characterized by disturbances of movement. Undifferentiated-type Schizophrenia is characterised by all of the above symptoms. Residual-type schizophrenia is characterized by a past history of at least one episode of schizophrenia, but the person currently has no positive symptoms Studies suggest that it is a combination of both nature and nurture that contribute to the onset of the disease.

Schizophrenia has been found to have a high genetic correlation, meaning that if one family member has schizophrenia, there is an increased likelihood that another family member (or future offspring) may also develop it. Of course, while an individual may be predisposed to schizophrenia because of genetics, which is not to say that he will ever develop the disorder. Some researchers feel that there is minimal evidence that exists to prove that schizophrenia is genetic, along with many psychiatrist who believe that the twin studies that have been done to prove that schizophrenia is genetic are wrong. While the percentages of twins that both are schizophrenic are high, they are not the usual 100% or 50% that are normally seen among people with genetically transmitted disorders. The only genetic testing for schizophrenia patients found that in some patients with schizophrenia part of the human chromosome 22 was missing. Though this was only found in a very small percentage of patients. Therefore, there is not enough evidence to form the conclusion that schizophrenia is caused by nature.

The environment in which a person lives can contribute to schizophrenia regardless of genetics. There are many environmental factors which may contribute to schizophrenia. For example, studies show that children born in winter months have a 10% higher risk of developing schizophrenia. A recent research study showed that people who had multiple copies of a version of the COMT gene and who smoked marijuana had a 1,000% increase in their risk of developing schizophrenia. This research explains the increased risk of developing schizophrenia for people who smoke cannabis / marijuana. A recent study done in Finland indicated that adopted children who had a high genetic/biological risk of schizophrenia had an 86% lower rate of developing schizophrenia when brought up in a healthy family compared to a dysfunctional family. In the healthy family only 6% of the children developed schizophrenia, whereas 37% of the children of dysfunctional families developed schizophrenia

So is schizophrenia caused by nature or nurture? Explain.

Do you believe that schizophrenia could one day be eradicated from the world? Explain.