Adolescent Schizophrenia. The background

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Medicine - Neurology Psychiatry Addiction ( Atlantic International University ) language: English abstract: Adolescent schizophrenia is a largely misunderstood under-studied area of schizophrenia. Adolescence is a period of development marked at the beginning by the onset of puberty and at the end by the attainment of physiological or psychological maturity (Dictionary of Psychology). Schizophrenia may be defined as a general label for a number of psychotic disorders with various cognitive emotional and behavioural manifestations and is a term that originated with Eugen Bleuler in 1911 as a replacement for the term Dementia Praecox.The above definition may seem a little too academic but the term literally refers to a 'splitting in the mind'; a dissociation between emotions and cognition. Schizophrenia is a severe brain disease that results in a person losing touch with reality. The disease is accompanied by hallucinations delusions disorganized speech and behaviour among others. These are just a few of the accompanying symptoms but together they affect social interactions and thought processes and have serious impact on the functioning of the sufferer.We do not know exactly what causes schizophrenia but it affects 1 in 100 people and is one of the most serious mental disorders (Furnham 2008). The lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia in the United States of America is about 1 percent. The age of onset for schizophrenia occurs earlier in males than females with the age group 16-25 years of age having the highest prevalence rates (Castle & Murray 1993). Although the disease usually appears in late adolescence or early adulthood seemingly without warning it is a gradual disease that develops over many years (Gur & Johnson 2006). Schizophrenia is very rare before age 11 but symptoms can appear as early as the mid- to late teens and are usually seen before age twenty; with most cases developing