Mental Disorder: Schizophrenia

Background and Significance Paper
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Introduction
Mental disorders and conditions such as schizophrenia are a major concern worldwide not only because of the financial and emotional pressure they instill on the affected and their families but also because they usually lead to death if proper treatment is not administered. It is estimated that schizophrenia affects about 1% of all adults globally with some of the symptoms becoming visible in individuals between the ages of 16 and 30 years. It is a chronic mental disorder that disorientates a person’s ability to think, feel and behave accordingly. As such, one notable symptom of schizophrenia is psychosis. Some of the risk factors for psychosis are demographics, social factors, persecutory delusions, command hallucinations, co-morbid antisocial personality pathology, substance use, poor insight, treatment non-adherence, and physiological factors. Psychosis impacts an individual’s cognitive abilities and makes them to see, hear and believe imaginary things. These risk factors and symptoms expose psychotic patients to commit acts of aggression relative to the general public and patients with other psychiatric conditions. These aggressive behaviors and acts of violence within inpatient psychiatric settings pose significant public health concerns that not only affect patients and their families but even treating physicians. Therefore, it has been proposed that understanding aggressive behaviors and violence in psychosis may provide a clue in its prevention and treatment, reduce stigma, and enhance the legal position of patients with schizophrenia. This background and significance paper seeks to examine in-depth on aggressive behaviors and violence in psychotic and schizophrenic patients and provide possible solutions.
Background and Significance
Schizophrenia is one of the deadliest mental disorders that impacts individuals during late adolescence and early childhood. Statistics indicate that it impacts about 1% of the global population (Reinharth, Reynolds, Dill, & Serper, 2014). Schizophrenic patients are characterized by various symptoms and key among them being psychosis. Psychotic patients tend to act contrary to the norm and seem to have lost touch with some aspects of reality. As such, they are plagued by hallucinations, delusions, thought and movement disorders. Hallucinations are evidenced by seeing and hearing imaginary things and voices respectively (Reinharth, Reynolds, Dill, & Serper, 2014). Some of the psychotic patients start to believe that they not only have super powers but that outside forces are in control. Schizophrenic patients experiencing psychosis also tend to isolate themselves and fail to exhibit any emotional feelings. Several risk factors contribute to the onset of psychosis. Some medical experts have proposed that psychosis is a product of genetic inheritance. Studies have shown that the risk of suffering from psychosis increases by 10% if one of the parents was diagnosed with the disease (Reinharth, Reynolds, Dill, & Serper, 2014). Chemical imbalance in the brain is also another factor that may causes psychosis. Other risk factors include injuries and illnesses, trauma, and abuse of drug...