1. Schizophrenia
By: Emily Boyles

2. What is Schizophrenia?
● Severe disabling brain condition
● Patients struggle with functioning in normal
everyday life:
○ Problems distinguishing between real and imagined
experiences
○ Difficulty thinking/speaking logically
○ Lack social skills
○ Experience extreme paranoia
● With medication and treatment schizophrenics
can be relieved from many of their symptoms, but
still must learn to cope with some for the rest of
their life.

3. What causes Schizophrenia?
● There is no specific cause of schizophrenia, but
there are contributing factors:
○ Family
■ Those with second degree relative are more likely to
get schizophrenia than the general public
■ 10% of people with 1st degree relative
■ Identical twins at 40-60%
■ Can't tell if someone will have schizophrenia by their
genes
○ Environment
■ Viruses
■ Malnutrition
■ Birth Complications
■ Psychosocial Contributions

4. Symptoms:
● Hallucinations
● Delusions
● Trouble creating and sharing logical thoughts
● Incoordination
● Inability to plan
● Depression
● Trouble interpreting others faces/actions
● No critical thinking skills and decision making
skills
● Inability to pay attention and use recently
learned information

5. Diagnosis:
● Many symptoms makes up Schizophrenia, not
just one or two
● According to the DSM-IV a person must show
signs of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized
speech, catatonic behavior, and negative
symptoms for at least one month

6. Treatment
Common Antipsychotic Medication:
● Do not cure schizophrenia. Only relieves some symptoms
○ Chlorpromazine
○ Haloperidol
○ Perphenazine
○ Fluphenazine
● Everyone reacts to medication differently, additional
medication can be given. Initial symptoms that usually
diminish after a few days include:
○ Drowsiness
○ Dizziness when changing positions
○ Blurred vision
○ Rapid heartbeat
○ Sensitivity to the sun
○ Skin rashes

7. Treatment:
Antipsychotic Medication:
● Use of antipsychotics increases the risk of diabetes, heart
attack,septicemia and other health risks
● Very important for patients to take medication regularly
● The symptom of loss of white blood cell requires patients to
get regular blood tests

8. Psychotherapy:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-
● Therapists test their patients reality
● Identify and change dysfunctional behaviors, thoughts, and
expression of emotion
● Teaches patients to not listen to hallucinations
Interpersonal Therapy-
● Therapists link their patients interactions to psychotic
symptoms
● Focuses on the unconscious and unresolved issues
● Teaches social functioning

9. Works Cited
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and
statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.).
Washington, DC: Author.
Canberk. Powerpoint Background. N.d. Blogspot. N.p., 10
July 2011. Web. 28 May 2012.
<http://pptbackgroundtemplate.blogspot.com/2011/07/dna-
poeerpoint-ppt-background.html>. Schizophrenia Brain. N.d.
Schizophrenia. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2012.
<http://www.schizophrenia.com/sz.images/szbrainloss.gif>
Schizophrenia Causes, Symptoms, Signs, Diagnosis, and
Treatments. N.p.: U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2012. Print.