What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a mood disorder that effects the way a person acts, reacts and the way they look at the world around them. About 2 million Americans suffer from schizophrenia yet we do not know much about it. Of that 2 million 150,000 of them are in jail and another 150,000 are homeless. Forty percent of schizophrenia cases do not receive any treatment at all . If you ask people almost everyone knows or has heard what schizophrenia is. In this paper I want to provide an overview of schizophrenia; that is the cause of schizophrenia, the symptoms, how to diagnosis it, how to treat it, and then provide you with two case studies to show the complexity of Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a very complex disease and somewhat scary, but it can be controlled and treated, and the best defense is being informed and knowing the disease.
             The first thing that people need to know to help with the cure of schizophrenia is the causes. There is no single cause of schizophrenia. It involves many different factors. Schizophrenia is a disease of the mind, the symptoms of which are attributed to abnormalities in the transfer and processing of information within the brain. A lot of research has shown that schizophrenia is genetic, but not completely because if your identical twin has it you only have a fifty percent chance of getting it. One cause that is shown to aid in it is malnutrition or sickness during pregnancy. Another cause is a very stressful or violent family life. Researchers have found that one of the main reasons or reason is the level of dopamine in the brain.
             The scariest part of this horrible disease is the symptoms it causes. For most Schizophrenics the disease begins to attack them during late adolescence. What can be diagnosed as depression in teenagers is often the onset of Schizophrenia . Often teenagers struggle with the adjustments that they have to make both physically and mentally ...