Schizophrenia, disabling disease

• April 24, 2024

The disorganization of thought, hallucinations and delusions, negative symptoms such as the flattening of emotions (anhedonia) and anomalous motivation are some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, one of the mental disorders that has attracted the most attention and despite multiple investigations , the physical or genetic causes that cause it are still unknown.

It is estimated that schizophrenia affects one percent of the world population, in Mexico about one million people suffer from it. It occurs equally in men and women, but in men it manifests between 15 and 25 years of age, while in women between 25 and 35.

The origin of schizophrenia may be related to adverse environmental stimuli, obstetric complications, hypoxia, toxicity of alcohol or other drugs, perinatal problems in prolonged childbirth, infections, endocrine abnormalities and inadequate nutrition, explained Alfonso Escobar Izquierdo, researcher emeritus of the Biomedical Research Institute of the UNAM.

"All these factors can cause brain injuries and participate in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. In turn, genetics is involved with this condition. When there is a schizophrenic in the family, there will surely be other members with this condition. "

The neuropathology of the disease includes lesions in the limbic system, cytoarchitectonic anomalies in the prefrontal, orbitofrontal, temporal, parietal and occipital cortices, the hippocampus, the thalamus, the striatum, the pale globe and the reticular formation.

In schizophrenia, sensory impulses have an abnormal impact on the neocortex, this causes the patient to lack emotions, to present an erroneous cognitive interpretation and to have anomalous and incongruent behaviors. The loss of pleasurable experiences is another manifestation of the disease: the patients show no reaction to emotional stimuli.

The hallucinations are related to the alterations in the temporal lobe, the thought disorder with the anomalies in the hippocampus and the negative symptoms with the alterations of the prefrontal neocortex. At the same time, the attention and information with the thalamus and the neural circuits of the midline, he explained.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder for which there is no cure, in addition, by the stage in which it appears is a disabling condition, arises in the productive age of human beings, so when a person maintains symptoms for more than six months As hallucinations, changes in mood or apathy, you should consult a specialist.

"The mind of the schizophrenic is in the inopia both emotion and thought, reduced in activity, empty of language and devoid of imagination and interest," Escobar Izquierdo concluded.

Video Medicine: Top 10 Worst Symptoms of Schizophrenia (April 2024).