Schizophrenia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Schizophrenia - Essay Example What sets the two forms of schizophrenia apart is that the person who is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia believes themselves to be wanted or hunted, usually by the voices that they hear in their head or the people that they believe they can see. They develop schizophrenia as well as paranoia. Schizophrenia affects at least one per cent of Americans, with the majority of them being teenagers or young adults. Schizophrenia is most common in people during their late adolescence until their mid-twenties if they are men and their late twenties if they are female. The chance of getting schizophrenia is equal between gender and ethnic groups. Schizophrenia is also a disease that can be passed down from someone who already has the disease, or has had it. This can be done genetically, or if someone, especially a child, is subjected for great lengths of time to someone who has schizophrenia. A person is more likely to get the disease themselves if they are related, even distantly, to someone who has already had it. As there is no real definable cause of schizophrenia, it is difficult to predict if somebody will get it. People are often misdiagnosed due to the lack of understanding that comes with schizophrenia; there have been many cases when someone has been diagnosed, come to later find out that it was something unrelated to schizophrenia. It is a very shaky disease to diagnose properly. With all types of schizophrenia, the majority of the symptoms remain the same. There are only one or two striking differences that set the different branches apart from each other. There are considered to be three branches of symptoms, which are positive, negative, and cognitive. Positive symptoms are considered to be the obvious behaviors that are not normal to a healthy person. These symptoms are easy to spot and are easiest to treat. Positive symptoms include unusual thoughts, hallucinations, and delusions. They are symptoms that verbally and visually pull a person