Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that affects a person's feelings, thoughts and behavior.

The main symptoms that include delusions and hallucinations are worrying and make it difficult for one to do daily activities.

Diagnosis of schizophrenia involves excluding other psychological and mental health disorders and determining that symptoms are not caused by drug addiction, substance abuse or other medical condition.

Your doctor may use different diagnostic tests - such as CT scans, MRI or blood tests - to rule out neurological disorder and physical illness as the cause of the symptoms.

The goal of schizophrenia treatment with antipsychotic medications is the effective management of psychotic symptoms and warning signs at the lowest possible dose.

Schizophrenia - diagnosis and treatment Schizophrenia - Diagnosis, and Treatment: Types of Therapy and Antipsychotic Medication

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a psychological disease and disorder of the mind, known for thousands of years, and is widespread in women usually more than men.



A person with schizophrenia has difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is not. The period in which the disease is seen is the stage between adolescence and the age of 30 years, and men are infected earlier than women.



According to studies, the spread of the disease is more common in industrial cities than in the countryside or villages.

Causes of Schizophrenia

Scientists have not known the main cause of this disease to the date, but what specialists have suggested is that schizophrenia is caused by several factors such as genetic, social, and psychological factors.





There are a number of factors that inevitably lead to schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder in neurotransmitters, or even in the brain itself.

The fact is that these factors are not an exact reason for this disorder but they may lead to schizophrenia, these factors are important because prevention is better than treatment, and knowledge of the causes and factors and understanding of their impact contribute significantly to the treatment.

These factors are:





Genetic factors: One of the most important causes of this serious psychological disorder , where studies were conducted to prove the role of inheritance and its impact on the disease, as the proportion of infection increases the relationship with a person in this disease.

Regardless of the importance and high proportion of this factor, researchers believe that it is a genetic tendency to be effective with the cause of the disease and the availability of other factors.





Pregnancy and childbirth: Studies have shown that a large proportion of schizophrenic patients have been affected by complications in pregnancy and childbirth. This has been seen as a factor in getting ready for the disease but not directly causing it.





Psychological factors: The conflicts and problems of maturity that a teenager may face and experience repeated failures or severe psychological trauma in early childhood and make the teenager return to a safer stage to satisfy him, or resort to the imagination to escape from reality.

It is important to note that these factors are not only associated with the environment but are also affected by the nervous system and the endocrine system





Social factors or family problems: Studies have shown that the role of the family affects schizophrenic patients; patients living in families with a high degree of emotional change, hyperactivity, criticism, and aggression are most likely to relapse and these factors increase the chance of disease and impede its improvement.





Substance abuse and Addiction: Several studies have shown that people who smoke cannabis are more likely to develop schizophrenia than others and that those taking alcohol, sedative, and steroids regularly often get sick as a result of the use of these drugs.





Chemical factors: Patients with schizophrenia suffer from excessive sensitivity to dopamine receptors.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps to transfer nerve signals between the neuron and the other.

This has led scientists to say that the disease may be caused by a defect in the brain chemicals, but this theory is a secondary factor, as the excessive dopamine in the brain leads to the narrowing of thought and determining it, while schizophrenic patients have fluency in thought and breakdown in the logical coherence.





Structural brain changes: Modern techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging have shown that people with schizophrenia have difficulty connecting activity in different areas of the brain and the lack of coordination between them.



Read more: Dissociative Identity Disorder or Multiple Personality Disorder





Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

The specialists diagnose the disease by recording the patient's personal history and listening to those who surround him and interact with him daily. They also rely on clinical examination and x-rays in the diagnosis of the disease.

The special evaluation and special assessment tools are conducted for schizophrenic patients. The first thing specialists will want to do is psychological assessment and complete medical examination.

This will allow your specialist to track the symptoms for approximately six months to revoke other possible disorders , such as bipolar disorder, mood swings , and other possible causes.





As we mentioned above, schizophrenia diagnosis involves the exclusion of other mental and psychological health problems; Experts try to prove that symptoms are not caused by drug use, medication, or medical condition. The diagnosis of schizophrenia may include:





Physical examination: This can be done to help eliminate other problems that may be causing symptoms, and to check for all the complications involved.





Medical tests: These may include tests to help exclude similar symptoms, alcohol and medication tests. The doctor may also require imaging studies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan.





Psychological assessment: The doctor or mental health professional examines the psychological condition by observing external appearance and behavior, asking a range of questions about thoughts, moods, hallucinations, delusions, drug abuse, and the likelihood of resorting to violence and suicide.

This can also include a discussion of family history and personal history.





Schizophrenia diagnostic criteria: Your doctor or mental health experts may use the criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and published by the American Psychiatric Association.





First Episode Psychosis

When you lose contact with reality and hear or believe things that are not really available, then the doctor says that condition psychosis. It may include experiencing hallucinations, having paranoia, hearing sounds and other delusional thinking.



According to the National Institute of Mental Health , around 3 out of 100 people experience an episode of psychosis in their lifetime.





Not everyone who has a psychotic episode suffers from mental illness. But schizophrenia can be the most common factor of early psychosis - especially in teenagers and young adults.





Psychosis can make it hard for anyone to tell what is real and what is not. Changes in ideas and assumptions can be gradual.

People who first experience psychotic symptoms cannot understand at the moment what is happening in their levies. They can only feel distressed or confused

In these circumstances family members, friends or other people in the community can be the first to spot for this type of mental behavior.



