Schizophrenia

One out of every hundred people suffer from schizophrenia (Meyers). That is 7.5 million

people worldwide as of 2017. People from, American Mathematician and Nobel Prize winner

John Nash, to Zelda Fitzgerald the eccentric wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, to Dutch Artist Vincent

Van Gogh, are all examples of people who have suffered from schizophrenia (Fescoe). Often

misunderstood, this mental illnesses is extremely stigmatised. People suffering from

schizophrenia are often suspected to be dangerous, violent, and often unable to make any type of

recovery or live a normal life. Many also believe that they have a split personality or multiple

personalities and that their symptoms are caused by traumas. These are all misconceptions made

by people who are unaware of the true state of schizophrenics. There should be an increase in

awareness for schizophrenia in order to improve the understanding of the diagnosis and

treatments of those who suffer from this illness.

As defined by the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia is a chronic and

severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. The word

schizophrenia comes from Greek skhizein ‘to split’ and phrēn ‘mind’ (Merriam-Webster). From

this, many people assume that schizophrenia is a split in personality similar to that of Multiple

Personality Disorder or more formally, Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dissociative Identity

Disorder is when a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities (Haycock).

However, “The intended reference is to a split between rationality and emotions, not a split

within a personality.” explains Randon Welton assistant professor of psychiatry at Penn State

Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

There are five subtypes of schizophrenia: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic,

undifferentiated, and residual. Paranoid schizophrenia is the most common subtype of

schizophrenia. It is characterized by preoccupations with delusions or hallucinations. These

usually will have themes of persecution or grandiosity. Disorganized schizophrenia is

characterized by disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion. Catatonic

schizophrenia is characterized by immobility, extreme negativism, and parrot like repeating of

speech or movement. Undifferentiated schizophrenia is made up of characteristic from different

subtypes. Finally, residual schizophrenia refers to the withdrawal, following the lessened or

complete disappearance of schizophrenic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions.

While the symptoms of schizophrenia vary between patients, they can be placed into two

categories: positive and negative symptoms (National Institute of Mental Health). Positive

symptoms refer to symptoms which are an excess of normal function. These symptoms include

hallucinations, delusions, and disorganization of thought. Hallucinations are sensory experiences

that occur in the absence of a stimulus. These can occur in vision, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.

Delusions are strongly held but false beliefs, delusions persist even when there is evidence that

the beliefs are not true nor even logical. Disorganized thinking is when a person has trouble

organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically (National Institute of Mental Health).

Negative symptoms refer to a patient who has symptoms which lack baseline or normal

functioning behavior. These symptoms include catatonia, apathy, and expressionless faces.

Catatonia is when one would be motionless and speechless for long periods. Apathy is when one

shows a lack of interest, concern, or enthusiasm. There are many subtypes of schizophrenia in

which these symptoms fall under.

Although no one is sure of the exact cause of schizophrenia, there are a number of

theories that attempt to explain it. The Diathesis Stress Theory is one of the most established

explanations that has been developed as it has an abundance of scientific research. The Diathesis
Stress Theory proposes that schizophrenia is the result of a combination of genetic,

environmental and biological factors (Taylor). Symptoms may be triggered by different

“environmental stressors”. These stressors include to abuse, trauma, family conflict, and school

problems (Flow Psychology).

The Genain Quadruplets, Nora, Iris, Myra and Hester, are an excellent case study that

supports the Diathesis Stress Theory. Each of the monozygous or identical quadruplets have

schizophrenia but the severity of their disorder differs. Nora and Myra being the superior set of

the four, and Iris and Hester being the inferior pair. Myra and Nora received more preferential

treatment by their parents, and had generally more successful lives. Iris and Helen were

considered by their parents to be dull and stupid. Psychological tests of the sisters confirmed

lower cognitive abilities in Iris and Hester. Iris worked briefly but spent most of her adult life in

an institution while Hester never left their home and never visited an institution. Nora became

overtly psychotic in 1951, at age twenty one, and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia

(catatonic subtype). Within seven months of Nora's hospitalization, Iris was first hospitalized at

the age of twenty two. She was also diagnosed as having schizophrenia (catatonic subtype).

Myra was first diagnosed as schizophrenic (catatonic subtype) in 1955. Hester had emotional and

functional problems for a number of years and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia (catatonic

type) at the age of twenty four (Mirsky and Quinn). The Genain Quadruplets provide a great

example of the Diathesis Stress Theory. Since the girls are genetically identical but suffer from

different severities of schizophrenia, genetics, while still an obvious cause, can be ruled out as

the only factor. Showing that one's environment can equally play a role in one’s development of

schizophrenia.
 The Dopamine Theory is another theory to explain the cause of schizophrenia. This

theory states that schizophrenia is caused by an overactive dopamine system in the brain

(University of Washington). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a “chemical messenger” that

travels from one neuron to the next, that is involved in the regulation of emotions, voluntary

movement, learning, and attention (Meyers). Much of the support of this theory comes from the

use of dopamine antagonists as treatments for schizophrenia. Dopamine antagonists are

medications that block dopamine receptors. There are different types of medications used for

treatment based on the patient's symptoms. While these drugs do not offer a cure for the disease,

they do reduce schizophrenic symptoms.

John Nash was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic but he was also an american

mathematician renowned for his work in game theory and the winner of the Nobel Prize for

Economics in 1994. His collegiate experience began at the Carnegie Institute of Technology

(now Carnegie Mellon University). In 1948 he received his Bachelor’s and his Master’s degrees

in the field of mathematics. In 1950 he completed his Doctorate at Princeton and he later went on

to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1959, at age thirty, John began to

display symptoms of schizophrenia. He suffered from many delusions and hallucinations. He

believed men wearing red ties were apart of a “crypto-Communist Party.”, he thought the New

York Times was publishing messages from aliens and only he could understand them, and he

even declined a prestigious appointment at the University of Chicago because he believed that he

was in line to become emperor of Antarctica. These symptoms eventually led to Nash’s

resignation of his faculty position at MIT. Nash moved in and out of psychiatric hospitals and

endured dangerous treatments. Eventually he appeared to overcome the illness that had afflicted

him for so long. He went on to join the Princeton mathematics department as a senior research
mathematician and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994. However, the youngest of his

two sons, John Charles Martin Nash, like his father suffers from paranoid schizophrenia

(Rettner).

Schizophrenia has a strong link to genetics. As seen in the graph below schizophrenia can

occur in eight percent of people who have a sibling with schizophrenia, twelve percent with a

single parent, fourteen percent with a dizygotic (or fraternal) twin, thirty-nine percent with both

parents, and a startling amount of forty-seven percent with an monozygotic or identical twins.

(Haggerty)

For some, schizophrenia will appear suddenly, for others it will develop gradually.

“People who have a later onset of the disease tend to do better than those who experience their

first episode of psychosis in their teens” said Dr. Gilda Moreno, a clinical psychologist at

Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami. Schizophrenia has a more severe effect on people who

start showing symptoms in their teens and young adulthood. The symptoms of schizophrenia will
normally begin to be displayed between the ages of fifteen to twenty-five. In some cases

adolescents and children can also be affected, although it is rare for people under the age of ten

and over the age of forty. Men will typically develop symptoms earlier than women. While the

average age in which symptoms begin to be displayed in men is eighteen the average age is

twenty-five in women (Myers).

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that is greatly misunderstood. Many of those

who suffer are thought to not be able to make progress toward normality. Myra, the eldest of the

Genain Quadruplets, was living on her own at age eighty-one, and John Nash’s symptoms

greatly improved. However, four percent of schizophrenics are homeless and around ten percent

commit suicide or perish. Unfortunate situations like these can be prevented through the

education of the general public. There can be an end to the stigmas and misconceptions regarding

schizophrenia.

Work Cited

Myers, Davis G. "Abnormal Psychology." Myers' Psychology For AP. New York

City: Worth Publishers, 2011. 561-603. Print.

"Diathesis Stress Model of Schizophrenia." Flow Psychology. N.p., 2 June 2014. Web. 3

Apr. 2017.
 Fescoe, Kristen. "20 Famous People with Schizophrenia." Online Psychology Degrees.

N.p., Nov. 2015. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

Haggerty, Jim, MD. "Do People Inherit Schizophrenia?" Psych Central. N.p., 17 July

2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Haycock, Dean. "Probing Question: How Do Schizophrenia and DID Differ?" Penn State

University. Penn State University, 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

National Institute of Mental Health. SCHIZOPHRENIA. Bethesda, MD: National Institute

of Mental Health, 2015. National Institutes of Mental Health. National Institutes of

Health, Feb. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Mirsky, Allan F., and Olive W. Quinn. "The Genain Quadruplets." The Genain

Quadruplets 14.4 (1988): n. pag. Semantic scholar. SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN, 08

Nov. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

Mish, Frederick C., ed. "Schizophrenia." The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Sixth ed. 2004.

Print.

Rettner, Rachael. "How 'Beautiful Mind' Mathematician John Nash's Schizophrenia

'Disappeared'." LiveScience. Purch, 02 June 2015. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

"Schizophrenia." University of Washington. University of Washington, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

2011, Vanessa Taylor July 17. "Diathesis Stress Theory." Diathesis Stress Theory.

Schizophrenic.com, 17 July 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.