What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a mental disturbance that deteriorates psychological capacities in various aspects, such as perception, thought, will and emotions.

The majority of patients suffering from this disorder, they tend to lose touch with reality, they suffer hallucinations, delusions, have abnormal thoughts and variations of functioning in the social and work environment.

In the etymological term, schizophrenia has its meaning (split mind). With which it underlines the variations in the thinking that people who suffer from this mental illness present.

Causes of schizophrenia

In spite of the different investigations concerning this disease, the origin of it is not yet known with certainty.

However, at present some advances have been found that allow us to determine different factors that usually cause this type of disorder, such as:

Alterations that occur early in the development of the brain

Studies carried out with modern techniques in which the histopathology and neuroimangen, have managed to find anomalies that occur in some regions of the brain of patients with this type of disorder.

It is also possible to find alterations in the functioning of the brain of the patients, in comparison with a healthy person.

Thanks to these discoveries, the theory that schizophrenia may have its origin in the variations that occur in the brain at a precocious in the development of the embryo.

Genetic predisposition

There is a higher percentage of suffering from the disease, when there are family backgrounds that have presented this case. However, the presence of antecedents is not 100% probable, since many patients with antecedents do not present it and many healthy, yes.

What determines that other non-genetic factors also tend to be determinants for the origin of this disorder.

Infections during pregnancy

Some infections that the mother has in the pregnancy cycle can cause alterations in brain development and that this does not evolve in a normal way, and that later on the disease may appear in the embryo.

Types of schizophrenia

Some experts think that schizophrenia is an isolated disorder, while others think it is a type of syndrome. However, the same patient may have different types, in which they are:

Catatonic schizophrenia: in this the motor alterations predominate, commonly the persistent immobility, although sometimes agitation crises or repetitive movements may occur.

Hebephrenic schizophrenia: in these types of alterations emotional variations dominate. The patient is characterized by manifestations that are called emotional incongruence. This type of disorders is notable for having an early onset unlike the other types.

Paranoid schizophrenia: it is the most frequent that occurs. Where the delusional ideas predominate where the patient thinks that they persecute him or the harm of other people towards the person who suffers the disorder.

Undifferentiated schizophrenia: when this mental illness meets all the aforementioned types or some of them, it is called undifferentiated.

Treatments for schizophrenia

Treatments for schizophrenia are made by pharmacological inputs, mainly antipsychotics and neuroleptics.

• The classics are the chlorpromazine, haloperidol or thioridazine.

• The atypical neuroleptics are colzapine, risperidone, ziprasidone and olanzapine.

These treatments have allowed, in most cases, the patient suffering from the disorders of schizophrenia to coexist in the community.