Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that can vary in severity across different people.  Positive symptoms of Schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and disorganized behavior, whereas negative symptoms include weak or absent emotion, speech, and socialization.  In order to diagnose an individual with Schizophrenia, two of the previously stated symptoms must be present and the individual must have deteriorated in everyday functioning for at least 6 months.  Researchers believe there may be a genetic link or predisposition to developing Schizophrenia; however, all attempts at identifying single genes have failed.  One new hypothesis behind a genetic predisposition for Schizophrenia is that mutations are arising in our genes that may cause Schizophrenia.  There is also evidence to suggest that damage to certain parts of the prefrontal cortex may cause Schizophrenia.  Even more surprising, however, is this article that found evidence between genes and cannabis use that may cause Schizophrenia.  There are psycho-therapeutic methods that can be used to treat Schizophrenia as well as antipsychotics that can be prescribed as treatment.

This is a video of a documentary done by Oprah on a young girl diagnosed with Schizophrenia:

The Economy of Mood Di$order$

Mood disorders are a group of mental disorders that involve a disturbance of mood.  The most prevalent mood disorders in the U.S. are Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Bipolar Disorder (BD) or Manic Depression.  A survey in 2002 reported that about 5% of adults in the U.S. have a "clinically significant" depression within a given year, and more than 10% do at some point in life.  Since the year 2000, children between the ages of 3+ have been increasingly diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  In order to combat these disorders, most physicians and psychiatrists alike will prescribe antipsychotics and antidepressants to these adults as well as young children.

Click here to watch a video by Frontline PBS that delves into the horrifying facts and figures about the increased rates of diagnoses and antidepressant prescriptions among children in the U.S.

What really bothers me is that there is hardly enough research to say that antidepressants have a significantly better effect on the individual than the placebo effect, according to many clinical trials.  Moreover, we lack longitudinal research to demonstrate long-term side-effects that may result from the use of these antipsychotics and antidepressants.  In my opinion, economic interests have placed these drugs in the market too soon, but the FDA won't regulate these drugs because they claim there is "insufficient data" to demonstrate any negative side-effects posed by these drugs.