Genetic
origin is one of the most commonly waged battles in the war of understanding
schizophrenia. Scientists of the social nature argue that genes have
no effect on mental illness, but only on traits, such as hair and eye
color. Their fears; however, most likely stem from the fact that if
schizophrenia and other mental diseases are genetic, their services
are no longer needed in the search for a cure. The genetic theory also
scares the parents of the person suffering from schizophrenia.
Scientists
in the genetic field are much more open to the environment theory. The
person's gene types only affect his/her responses, but his/her environment
can interact with latent or hidden symptoms of the disease and bring
it about. Factors such as stress and drug use while the mother who possesses
the schizophrenic gene can also affect the child she carries. Such factors
can bring the schizophrenic disorder to the surface.
The illness
leaves it's victims in "an exotic land whose inhabitants were engulfed
in constant chaos and terror" (Wyden, 14). The word schizophrenia
is Greek for "splitting of the mind". Psychologically speaking,
the disease takes a person's reality and distorts it into an entirely
different world; biologically speaking, it eats holes in the affected
person's brain.
Schizophrenia
is not a picky disease. Men and women suffer equally in this disease,
but the cases tend to begin earlier in the lives of the males who are
affected, most often between their late teens and early thirties.
Hospitals
are quick to diagnose their patients as "SCUT (schizophrenia, chronic
undifferentiated type)" (Shapiro, 7), although a patient cannot
be considered chronic until their symptoms have persisted for more than
six months. This is not necessarily due to an unfeeling nature or lack
of professionalism, but a lack of a clear, universally accepted definition
of schizophrenia. The nature of the disease is one of the most well
studied subjects in the research field, but the scientists still have
yet to come up with a concrete definition.
References
Schizophrenia:
Origins, Processes, Treatment, and Outcome
Rue
L. Cromwell/C.R. Snyder, Pgs. 3-13
Conquering
Schizophrenia: A Father, His Son, and A Medical Breakthrough
Peter Wyden, Pg. 14
Contemporary
Theories of Schizophrenia: Review and Synthesis
Sue A. Shapiro, Pg. 7