"Make The Voices Stop: The Treatment of Schizophrenia" The term schizophrenia is used to designate the disease which is classified as an abnormal disintegration of mental functions. Schizophrenia is a serious and debilitating mental illness which is characterized by its symptoms being: loss of contact with reality, withdrawal from society and bizarre disorganization of speech and ideas. When these symptoms begin to occur an observer will begin to notice a slow and painful spiral into schizophrenia. The psychiatric world has taken a physiological and psychological approach to the disease; utilizing assessing the disease. The organic pathology of schizophrenia can be expressed in different ways. However, one can make a clear connection between the organic pathology of this disease and parallel this with its mental behavioral symptoms. The treatment of schizophrenia can be organic or psychological in process, and the debate on its treatment rages on; however, evidence will show that a high pharmacological treatment is the most successful route to dealing with this illness. The diagnosis of schizophrenia had its own evolution. The disease was very difficult to diagnose, because of the complexity of its symptoms. It was often mistaken for a personality or anxiety disorder. Often the patient was labeled as "crazy", and unable to be helped. Obviously, now there is more structure to attempting to diagnose the disease. First there is a full physical and mental examination, partly just to separate its symptoms from those of other personality disorders and phobias. Part of the problem was the lack of a clear set of criteria to classify a person as schizophrenic. However, that has changed, in the 50s there was the creation of the DSM III and DST IV checklists, these are refined checklists that identify those symptoms. These lists are accepted by the psychiatric world to be indications and a basis for the diagnosis of schizophre...
