What exactly is schizophrenia? That's a question few people can answer in great detail. Most would simply answer that it was a disease in which a person had "two personalities." Schizophrenia is a brain disease that tends to run in families. Family members have a 10 percent chance of getting the disease. According to researchers, schizophrenia is a combination of more than one disease. There is no way in which schizophrenia can be reliably measured. There is, however, a proposed list of symptoms which point strongly toward schizophrenia as the diagnosis. Some of the symptoms are: auditory hallucinations where

Recent studies on patient suicide revealed that 40% reported suicidal ideation. Twenty-three percent of the patients reported suicide attempts and 6.4% died from suicide. The patients who died from suicide had less severe symptoms than patients without suicidal behaviors. However, suspiciousness and delusions, two symptoms considered to be positive, were more severe among successful suicides. The schizophrenic patients who are in the paranoid subtype are associated with a high 12% risk of suicide. The deficit subtype was connected with a low risk of 1.5%. These statistics suggest that negative symptoms like diminished drive, blunted affect, and social and emotional withdrawal, do not affect the desire of suicide in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The deficit schizophrenia subtype describes a group of patients who have a low risk for suicide. Suspiciousness which thrives in the absence of negative symptoms describes the somewhat elevated risk group. S!

Another result of schizophrenia that can be harmful to those patients who have it is depression. Without proper treatment, a major depressive episode can last between 6 and 12 months. However, in between these episodes, the patient can feel completely normal and well. They may not even notice any symptoms. Although some people with depression can go without treatment, most find it easier to receive help. Treatment for depression is important because: early treatment may prevent severity, thoughts of suicide may go away, those in between depression episodes may feel completely well, 1 out of 4 p

Some common words found in the essay are:
, auditory hallucinations, limbic system, schizophrenic patients, risk suicide, symptoms don't suggest, medical community, auditory hallucinations voices, low risk, research treatment, cruel disease, treatment prevent, negative symptoms,
Approximate Word count = 1069
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)