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Schizophrenia is
a type of psychosis and may be regarded as an illness that concerns
some of the functions within the brain. As with other illnesses one
may eventually get better or one may continue to function under par.
To ask about its cause first raises the question
of how it develops.
It may break out in adolescence and is most likely to appear in a person's
early 20s. In many cases, there may be someone in the family who has
been psychotic before, but for a large number of people who fall ill
in this way there are no indicators of a "familial contribution". Even
in familial cases, the contribution seems likely to arise from a number
of features, each of which only makes the person vulnerable, if other
things go wrong. These other things could include the person's perception
of intermittent and long-lasting stress or occasionally accidental events
that affect development (e.g., the mother catching influenza [but not
other illnesses] in late pregnancy). Much research is being carried
out at the moment into those features that may have adversely affected
the development of the brain ("neurodevelopment") in patients who later
had schizophrenia.
The first signs,
usually only noticed in looking back on events, are likely to include
an unexpected withdrawal of the degree or type of contact that the person
used to have with family or school. The person seems less capable of
of dealing with "minor" stresses in the accustomed way. This may develop
to an extreme over months or years (sometimes termed negative symptoms).
Alternatively, the person may develop elaborate constructions to interpret
the world, as they see it, which may reflect matters that are only in
their mind (sometimes termed productive or positive symptoms, that,
in the extreme, can take the form of delusions or auditory hallucinations).
Often the latter do not last a long time, especially if the person seeks
assistance.
Seen in this way it seems very reasonable to concentrate
research into
how the brain processes the information it receives from outside and
how one part of the brain processes information it receives from another
part. Problems with the former can lead to misinterpreting and exaggerating
parts of the external world that is perceived. Problems with the latter
can lead to one part of the mind not being accurately informed about
what another part is doing. The question of what factors trigger these
changes show how important it is to understand better the responses
of the body and brain to stress (biology and hormones) and factors affecting
the brain and "neuro-development".
see useful links on schizophrenia - half-way
down the co-operation
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