Schizophrenia was first??identified more than a century ago,

But we still don’t know it’s exact causes, it remains one of the most misunderstood and stigmatized illness today.

So let’s work through what we do now From symptoms to causes and treatments.

Schizophrenia is considered a syndrome, which means it may encompass a number of related disorders that have similar symptoms but varying causes.

Every person with schizophrenia has slightly different symptoms, and the first signs can be easy to miss, subtle personality changes, irritability or a gradual encroachment of unusual thoughts patients are usually diagnosed after the oneset of psychics, which typically occurs in the late teens early 20s for men, and this is late 20s or early 30s for women.

At first psychotic episode can feature delusion, hallucination, and disordered speech and behavior.

These are called positive symptoms, meaning they occur in people with schizophrenia, but not in the general population.

It’s a common missed perception that people with schizophrenia has multiple personalities, but these symptoms indicates a disruption of thoughts process, rather than the manifestation of another personality.

Schizophrenia also has negative symptoms, these are qualities that are reduced in people with schizophrenia, such as motivation expression of emotion of speech, there are cognitive symptoms as well,

Like difficulty in concentration remembering information and making decisions.

So what consists of the onset of the psychosis? There likely isn’t one single cuz.

But a combination of genetic and environmental risk factors that contribute, schizophrenia has one of the strongest genetic links of any psychiatric illness.

Though about 1% of people have schizophrenia, children or siblings of people with schizophrenia are 10 times likelier to develop the disease.

And an identical twin of someone with schizophrenia, has a 40% chance of being affected, Open immediate relatives of people with schizophrenia, exhibit milder version of traits associated with the disorder, but not to an extent that requires treatment.

Multiple genes almost certainly play a role, but we don’t know how many or which ones.

Environmental factors like exposure to certain virus in early infancy, might increase the chance that someone will developed schizophrenia, and use of some drugs including marijuana may trigger the onset or psychosis in highly susceptible individuals ,these factors don’t affect everyone in the same way.

For those with very low genetic risk no amount of exposure to environmental risk factors Will leads them to develop a schizophrenia.

For those??with high risk , moderate additional risk might tip the balance.

The antipsychotic drugs drugs used to treat schizophrenia, have helped researchers work backwards to trace signatures of the disorder in the brain. Traditional anti-psychotics block dopamine receptors, they can be very effective in reducing positive symptoms, which are linked to an access dopamine and a particular pathway, but the same drugs can make negative symptom worse,

?and we have found that negative symptoms of schizophrenia, May be tied to too Little dopamine??in other brain areas, some people with schizophrenia show a loss of neuron tissue.

And it’s unclear whether this atrophy is a result of the disease itself, or drug induced suppression signaling.

Fortunately newer generation??antipsychotics aim to address some of these issues issues, by targeting multiple neuron transmitters, like serotonin in addition to dopamine .

it’s clear that no one transmitter system is responsible for all symptoms.

And because this drugs affect signaling throughout the brain and body, they can have other side effects like weight gain, in spite of this complications antipsychotics can be very effective, especially when combine with other interventions, like cognitive behavioral Therapy .

Electro convulsive therapy that will provides rabbits usually short-lived relief is also re-emerging as an effective treatment especially when other options have failed.

?Early intervention is also extremely important.

After months or years of untreated psychosis certain psychosis can become embedded in someone’s personality.

And yet the dehumanizing stigma attached to this diagnose can prevent people from seeking help , people with schizophrenia are often perceived as dangerous, but are actually more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.

And proper treatment may help reduce the likelihood of violence associate with schizophrenia, that’s what education for patients their families and their communities helps erode the stigma and improves access to treatment.

Continue to educate yourself about the symptoms causes and treatments of different mental health conditions with this playlist.