Unfinished

Schizophrenia

Student Name

HCA/240

11/30/2014

Margaret McGannon

Schizophrenia

1887, Dr, Emile Kraepelin was the first to discover and diagnosed Schizophrenia. But the term, Schizophrenia, is only about 100 years old. Prior to that the mental disorder was called ‘multiple personalities’ or ‘split personalities’. It is said this disease has been around since the beginning of mankind. There are documents that even trace schizophrenia back to old Pharaonic Egypt.

There are a multitude of myths in regards to Schizophrenia. The more an inflicted person learns about this disease the better care and treatment that person can get. One misleading myth is people with schizophrenia are dangerous. Now some people do suffer from delusions that could cause violent outburst. Statistically, Schizophrenic people ‘are more likely to be victims of violence than harmful to other people.’ (childmind.org)

Other myths include that the disease comes on suddenly, when in fact people usually shows signs in adolescence. Childmind.org also states that only a fifth of people actually has vision delusions and about seventy percent hear voices. Just because a parent has the disease doesn’t mean the child will inherit it. Schizophrenia is NOT genetic. Another misconception to Schizophrenia is that drug use contributes to the illness. This is absolutely untrue. What is true about some drugs are they are hallucinogenic, but this is a short term affect. People can live normal lives with this disease.

Early treatments included Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), antipsychotic medications, and admission into insane asylums, fever therapy (inducing a fever into patients by injecting sulfur or oils), sleep therapy, gas therapy, and prefrontal leucotomy (removal of a portion of the brain). These treatments are so barbaric and inhumane that researchers have developed better treatments over the years. Schizophrenia is defined by ‘a severe brain disorder in which people...