Mental health articles

There is a rapid onset of this condition that may be precipitated by a stressful event. The person will present with features of a thought disorder with delusions and hallucinations, and usually all these features resolve within a month. The person experiencing a brief psychotic disorder may require short-term admission to an
acute mental health admission unit and treatment with antipsychotic medication. This focuses on the most profound and persistent
form of psychosis: schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia, is a combination of two Greek words: schizein ‘to split’ and phren ‘mind’. However, the Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler was the first to introduce the term ‘schizophrenia’, in 1911, believing that this was not a split of personality, referring to two separate identities, that the separation, or splitting, referred to the cognitive, or thinking, component and the emotional aspects which had separated or split from one another . As a diagnosis, schizophrenia is demoralising and stigmatising, affecting one in 100 of the
general population . Schizophrenia affects men and women
equally, although the age of onset tends to be earlier in men .
The majority of people develop the illness in adolescence or early adulthood, only 10–15% develop this disorder over the age of 45 . The incidence of schizophrenia are:

• 15–20% of people with schizophrenia fully recover after their first episode and do not suffer subsequent episodes.
• The majority of people with schizophrenia have periods of good health with doccasional problems .
• 55% of people with schizophrenia show good to fair social functioning when assessed 13 years after their first episode of schizophrenia .
Ten per cent of people diagnosed with schizophrenia commit suicide usually within the first year of being diagnosed with the condition .
Furthermore, people with schizophrenia can lead unhealthy lifestyles and develop disordered eating patterns, which may mean they are at risk of developing diabetes, heart disease or stroke (cerebrovascular accident); and as a result their mortality rates can be 1.5 times higher than the rest of the population .

Tags: episode, psychotic, schizophrenia