Schizophrenia

A disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel, and behave clearly.

The exact cause of schizophrenia isn’t known, but a combination of genetics, environment, and altered brain chemistry and structure may play a role.

Schizophrenia is characterized by thoughts or experiences that seem out of touch with reality, disorganized speech or behavior, and decreased participation in daily activities. Difficulty with concentration and memory may also be present.

Treatment is usually lifelong and often involves a combination of medications, psychotherapy, and coordinated specialty care services.

Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW195
Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
US Patients: 1.1% of the population;Life expectancy decreased by 20 years; sedentary life leads to heart attacks;
World Patients: 20 million total cases; 16.7 Million-disabled due to schizophrenia, 75% unemployed; Violence-6X population; with alcohol-24X.
Sex Ratio: M+;F
Age Onset: M-early 20’s; F-late 20’s and post-menopausal in women. Psychosis (reality-unreality) often preceeds schizophrenia.
Brain Area: dopamine controls positive motivations; genes CRHR1 and CRHBP relate to suicidal behavior, several brain areas involved
Symptoms: Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, withdrawal, apathy, weak emotions, word salad; cognitively poorer generally
Progression: Usually non-violent; more likely to be victims,unless using alcohol or drugs.
Causes: 70-80% heritable; raised in city, older parents, drugs or pot used as teenager, several factors during pregnancy; childhood traumas
Medications: antipsychotics, hospitalization to stop harm to self or others, many create restlessness, muscle-jerking, weight gain
Therapies: exercise, CBTs, other talking therapies, along with medications, ½improve, some get well; the other half, life-time involvement.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE.

Youtube Video: How Paranoid Schizophrenia Impacts My Life

Youtube Video: What is Schizophrenia?

Amazon or Library Book: Surviving Schizophrenia

Support Group: sczaction.org 1-800-493-2094

(Schizophrenia Action Alliance)

Contact your local Social Security office for possible Disability Income Benefits under their section 12:03.

4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED

The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis

Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.

Healthcare utilization and comorbidity shortly before suicide mortality in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a nested case-control study
by Wan-Chen Lee on July 3, 2022
Few studies have analyzed healthcare utilization before suicide among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined the pattern of healthcare utilization and comorbidities shortly before death among patients with ADHD who died by suicide and compared these data with those of living controls. This study used Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to identify patients with ADHD (N = 379,440) between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2016....
Hippocampal structural alterations in early-stage psychosis: Specificity and relationship to clinical outcomes
by Gina Brunner on July 3, 2022
Hippocampal dysfunctions are a core feature of schizophrenia, but conflicting evidence exists whether volumetric and morphological changes are present in early-stage psychosis and to what extent these deficits are related to clinical trajectories. In this study, we recruited individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-P) (n = 108), patients with a first episode of psychosis (FEP) (n = 37), healthy controls (HC) (n = 70) as well as a psychiatric control group with substance abuse and...
Amisulpride steady-state plasma concentration and adverse reactions in patients with schizophrenia: a study based on therapeutic drug monitoring data
by Kankan Qu on July 2, 2022
The aim of the study was to evaluate the reference range of amisulpride for Chinese patients with schizophrenia and to assess its possible influencing factors based on therapeutic drug monitoring information. The relative adverse reactions of patients induced by amisulpride were also systematically investigated. A total of 425 patients with schizophrenia were assessed, including Positive and Negative Syndrome Scales, Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale, blood routine examination, hepatorenal...
Extended gene set analysis of human neuro-psychiatric traits shows enrichment in brain-expressed human accelerated regions across development
by Justin P Cheung on July 2, 2022
Human neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with genetic and environmental factors affecting the brain, which has been subjected to strong evolutionary pressures resulting in an enlarged cerebral cortex and improved cognitive performance. Thus, genes involved in human brain evolution may also play a role in neuropsychiatric disorders. We test whether genes associated with 7 neuropsychiatric phenotypes are enriched in genomic regions that have experienced rapid changes in human evolution...