Friday, January 14, 2011

Schizophrenia

After watching "A beautiful mind" in class, I got a general idea of schizophrenia.  Basically, this disease affects people's cognitive ability.  Most people are affected by this disease in young adulthood (17-28 years old) due to a combination of genetic, environmental, and social factors.  The most common attributes of schizophrenia are hallucinations, paranoia, and bizarre delusions.  To treat this disease, anti-psychotics are used.  In olden times, insulin treatments were used to "reset" the mind; however, these therapies were ineffective.  Most people with this problem have a hard time with social aspects of life.  Also, drug usage seems to increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia and may actually increase the symptoms.  The suicide rate of schizophrenics is about 5%.  To me, this is a relatively low number after seeing what these people have to go through, especially after they realize that many of their "memories" are in their head.  Many of the things that they thought were real actually never existed.  The life expectancy of schizophrenics is down 12-15 years of the normal human average. 

Many famous people have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Syd Barrett- Pink Floyd
Lionel Aldridge- Super Bowl winning player
ALbert Einstein's son
James Watson's son- father discovered DNA sequence

Many other famous musicians and artists have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.  You would think that this disease would give those who suffer from it a different outlook on the world.  This insight might actually help them in their creative crafts.




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