Is Schizophrenia A Class Of Mental Disorders - 1119 Words

Schizophrenia is a class of mental disorders often symptomatic of a broad spectrum of behaviours which ultimately fail to determine what is real. Some of the symptoms that make up the spectrum of schizophrenia include hallucinations, invalid or illogical beliefs or thought processes, and abnormal social expression. It is worth noting that schizophrenia does not mean multiple personality disorder but rather a separating of mental function and is also rarely diagnosed separately but along with other conditions, such as depression, mania, and anxiety disorders. As to the causes of schizophrenia, both genetic [1] and environmental factors [2] have been found to influence the progress of schizophrenia, but there is still much which is unknown†¦show more content†¦counselling) and antipsychotics. Antipsychotics do not cure the subject of their psychosis but merely treat the positive symptoms by mainly blocking the dopamine receptors in the brain. Hence, new drugs and treatments ar e continuously in the pipeline to find a drug that manages the symptoms of schizophrenia with relatively few (preferably none) side-effects. Antipsychotic drugs are classified as either typical or atypical, based on their relative potency and side-effects. This classification is usually substituted with referring to typical as first generation and atypical as second generation, due to atypicals comparatively safer side-effects. However, it has been argued that due to the severe side-effects of both, the amount individual variation between psychotic patients, the patient’s tolerance to individual drugs, and the fact that antipsychotics treat symptoms rather than the psychosis, it might be better to class the drugs in regards to their mechanisms rather than their relative potencies [6][7]. Typical antipsychotics antagonise the D2 receptors and atypical antipsychotics target the D2 receptors among others (e.g. D3 and 5HT2 receptors). Currently, the main drugs used to treat schizophrenia include clozapine, risperidone and haloperidol. It is still debatable which class, as stated above, whether typical or atypical antipsychotics are better and produce relatively safer side-effects among