1. Schizophrenia So far, the causes of schizophrenia are not fully clarified. The current scientific findings suggest that schizophrenia is a multifactorial disease, which means that a large number of variables come into play for the disease to occur

2. The prefrontal cortex controls many cognitive and emotional functions, the kinds of functions often impaired in people with schizophrenia. It is responsible for many higher- order or executive-type functions, such as regulating attention, organizing thoughts and behavior, prioritizing information, and formulating goalsthe very types of deficits often found in people with schizophrenia (Barch & Smith, 2008). Evidence shows that the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia, such as problems with memory, learning, reasoning, and attention, often begin in childhood in people who later go on to develop schizophrenia In the Figure , we see a visual representation of the loss of brain tissue in the brains of adolescents with early-onset (childhood) schizophrenia. The most prominent sign of loss of brain tissue is the presence of abnormally enlarged ventricles, which are hollow spaces in the brain (see Figure 12.3) (Shenton et al., 2009) (Nevid, Rathus and Greene).

3. Prodromal phase in schizophrenia, is the period of decline in functioning that precedes the first acute psychotic episode. Acute episode of schizophrenia are characterized by delusions, hallucinations, illogical thinking, incoherent speech, and bizarre behavior. Residual phase In schizophrenia, is the phase that follows an acute phase, characterized by a return to the level of functioning of the prodromal phase.

4. Gender Differences Men have a slightly higher risk of developing schizophrenia than women and tend to develop the disorder at an earlier age (NCA, 2005; Tandon, Keshavan, & Nasrallah, 2008). The disorder typically begins in women between age 25 and the mid-30s and in men between ages 18 and 25. Women tend to have a higher level of functioning before the onset of the disorder and to have a less severe course of illness than men. Men with schizophrenia tend to have more cognitive impairment, greater behavioral deficits, and a poorer response to drug therapy than women with the disorder (Nevid, Rathus and Greene). People with schizophrenia may experience auditory hallucinations as female or male voices and as originating inside or outside their heads. Hallucinatory is may hear voices con- versing about them in the third person, debating their virtues or faults. Some voices are experienced as supportive and friendly, but most are critical or even terrorizing (Nevid, Rathus and Greene)..

5. Schizophrenia has been approached from each of the major theoretical perspectives. Although the underlying causes of schizophrenia remain elusive, they are presumed to involve brain abnormalities in combination with psychological, social, and environmental influences

6. High-risk children (children whose biological parents had schizophrenia) were almost twice as likely to develop schizophre- nia as those of nonschizophrenic biological parents, regardless of whether they were reared by a parent with schizophrenia. It is also notable that adoptees whose biological parents did not suffer from schizophrenia were placed at no greater risk of developing schizophrenia by being reared by an adoptive parent with schizophrenia than by a non- schizophrenic parent. In sum, a genetic relationship with a person with schizophrenia seems to be the most prominent risk factor for developing the disorder. The results strongly supported the genetic explanation. The incidence of diagnosed schizophrenia was greater among biological relatives of adoptees who had schizophrenia than among biological relatives of control adoptees. Adoptive relatives of both the index cases and control cases showed similar, low rates of schizophrenia. These findings and others show that family linkages in schizophrenia follow shared genes, not shared environments.

7. There is no cure for schizophrenia. Treatment is generally multifaceted, incorporating pharmacological, psychological, and rehabilitative approaches. Most people treated for schizophrenia in organized mental health settings receive some form of antipsychotic medication, which is intended to control symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions and decrease the risk of recurrent episodes. Antipsychotic drugs block dopamine receptors in the brain, which reduces dopamine activity in the brain and helps quell the more obvious symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions. The effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs has been repeatedly demonstrated in double-blind, placebo-controlled studies (Nevid, Rathus and Greene).

8. Schizophrenia approachIn sum, no single treatment approach meets all the needs of people with schizophrenia. The conceptualization of schizophrenia as a lifelong disability underscores the need for long-term treatment interventions that incorporate antipsychotic medication, family therapy, supportive or cognitive-behavioral forms of therapy, vocational training, and housing and other social support services. To help the individual reach maximal social adjustment, these interventions should be coordinated and integrated within a comprehensive model of treatment.

9. Alice Alverio Schizophrenia Works Cited Nevid, Jeffrey S., Spencer A. Rathus and Beverly Greene. Abnormal Psychology . n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ9H19E02tE