PROMPT:
How can Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) be developed from the environment (experiences or biological) or genetics? If it is genetics, what may trigger the gene to synthesize? Then, choose a current media, where someone may be suffering from this disorder, and give the main exhibited behaviors that may have led to the diagnosis.
Again, be sure to provide evidence from the person’s or character’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior. Include details from class materials, readings, and research on personality to support your discussion. Please do not use anyone you know; identify a fictional character and provide support using the DSM-5 criteria for your support andprovide a treatment plan.
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Schizophrenia – The Result of Genes Triggered by the Environment; Case of Thomas Holmes
Diana Samvelyan
Glendale Community College
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Schizophrenia – The Result of Genes Triggered by the Environment; Case of Thomas Holmes
One of the hardest parts of helping those who suffer from a mental disorder is that it is
difficult to give them the correct diagnosis (Pinel & Barnes, 2017, pp. 474-475). It is sometimes
very arduous for a psychiatrist and/or a clinical psychologist to diagnose their patients, because
In-Text Citations
Be sure to cite
everything! This
is a scientific
schizophrenia. I am not schizophrenia. I am not my mental illness. My illness is a part of me”
paper, which
needs to provide
for
(Boll, 2016). This is a quote by Jonathan Harnisch, a famous artist, novelist and filmmaker, who proof
statements.
Anecdotal
is
provided insight into the feelings of a person suffering from schizophrenia. As psychiatrist Neel information
not proof. If you
are using the
Burton M.D. (2017) stated in his article A Brief History of Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia through same source in
the paragraph, no
need to cite
again, unless you
the ages, “The term ‘schizophrenia’ was coined in 1910 by the Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen
are providing a
direct quote, or
change sources.
Bleuler, and is derived from the Greek words ‘schizo’ (split) and “phren” (mind)”. In their
their symptoms might just be an extreme of a normal human emotion/feeling. “I have
textbook, Biopsychology, J. Pinel and S. Barnes (2017) state that schizophrenia is a
psychological disorder, which typically onsets in an individual during adolescence or early
adulthood (p. 475). They described the disorder with two types of symptoms: positive symptoms
(delusions, odd behavior, hallucinations, disorganized speech or thought, inappropriate affect)
and negative symptoms (avolition, affective flattening, catatonia; p. 476). The research question
to be answered is whether this illness comes from the person’s genes or is it created by the
environment the sufferer lives and develops in. It is argued that schizophrenia is developed
epigenetically –it is a genetic disorder, however the expression of it may depend on the
environment in which the individual develops/onsets the disorder. This paper hypothesizes that
Thomas Holmes suffers from schizophrenia and the best treatment approach is pharmaceutical:
the use of typical and atypical antipsychotics, such as chlorpromazine and reserpine.
Thesis Statement
The thesis
statement should
be entered in the
last sentence of
the introduction.
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Schizophrenia certainly has genetic basis, as we have seen in the results of different
researches pertaining to the illness (Pinel & Barnes, 2017). Pinel and Barnes (2017) state, “…
[I]t was discovered that the concordance rates for schizophrenia are higher in monozygotic twins
(45-50 percent) than in dizygotic twins (10-17 percent)” (p. 476). Even though genes play a
substantial role in the expressions, we can see in many other illnesses (both psychological and
non-psychological), there is no single factor that has been proven to cause that illness alone.
There is typically an interplay between genes and the environment in the development of most
illnesses. In their article, Schizophrenia: a consequence of gene-environment interactions?, Tim
Karl and Jonathon C. Arnold (2014) claimed,
It is the combined action of multiple genes of small effect size and a number of
environmental risk factors, which causes the development of this mental disorder. This is
conceptualized in the “Two-Hit Hypothesis” of schizophrenia, which predicts that genetic
and environmental risk factors interactively (G x E interaction) cause the development of
the disorder. G x E interactions occur when the expression of an individual’s genetic
predisposition is dependent on the environment they are living in or when environmental
influences on a trait differ according to an individual’s genome (p. 1).
This interpretation of Karl and Arnold (2014) clearly helps us conclude that if an individual has a
genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, then the environmental factors might trigger the
expression of the illness. On the other end, if the environment caused schizophrenia, then we can
say that the person’s genes were already predisposed to the expression of the disorder. Thus, the
authors try to show us that schizophrenia is a disorder that is a combination of multiple factors, to
include genetic and environmental factors.
There are several symptoms characteristic of schizophrenia, which can be observed in an
4
individual suffering from the illness (Pinel & Barnes, 2017). However, as Pinel and Barnes state,
there is also a lot of overlap between the symptoms of schizophrenia and other mental illnesses
(2017, p. 476). That is why medical professionals need to refer to the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) to
diagnose a patient with schizophrenia. Thomas Holmes, a 30-year-old man, was diagnosed with
schizophrenia at the age of 18. He was taken to a medical professional after his parents noticed
that Thomas talked to non-existent people, who, as he described, wanted to kill him. This
represents the delusions, one of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. He was saying that the
employees of the 7-Eleven store were talking about him all the time and were trying to come up
with a plan to kill him. In the description of his illness, Thomas was saying that he has thoughts of
being killed and chased all the time – non-stop, and for him, the only way to stop those thoughts
was to commit suicide. He had made several attempts of suicide; however, he also stated that he
asked people for help to avoid the suicidal attempts. Thomas once told his brother that the aliens
had already come to take him to a new planet far from the earth, which was a sign of delusion.
Thomas’ parents also told the doctor that he could not perform everyday simple tasks like washing
his hands and taking shower – evidence of odd behavior. According to Pinel and Barnes (2017), if
an individual is having any two of the positive/negative symptoms of schizophrenia described in
DSM-5 for one month, provided one of those symptoms is hallucinations, disorganized speech or
delusions, then that person can be considered suffering from the illness (p. 476). So, Thomas’
family had already noticed in him delusions, hallucinations and odd behavior for almost two
months. This was the reason I confidently diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
When it comes to the treatment of schizophrenic patients, there are still people who think that
it is possible to cure those people with drugs like chlorpromazine and/or reserpine, however, as
5
Pinel and Barnes state, the drugs only alleviate the symptoms of the illness, allowing the patients
to live outside the walls of hospitals, they do not cure the illness (2017, p. 477). The symptoms
never go away forever, unless some magic happens. The treatment used for a patient with
schizophrenia would be the use of antipsychotic drugs. As described by M. Richard and N.
Brahm (2012) in their article Schizophrenia and the immune system, “Traditional pharmacologic
therapies for schizophrenia include first- and second-generation antipsychotics” (p. 762). These
drugs help to decrease the levels of dopamine in patients, which helps to alleviate their
symptoms, thus allowing them to live their lives at least by not harming themselves, or others,
and not forced to live in an asylum. As the clinical psychologist who is currently treating
Thomas Holmes with antipsychotic drugs (in this case chlorpromazine), in the future I expect my
patient to be able to live a normal life with his family outside of hospitals. I expect and hope that
he will not have suicidal thoughts and that he will not be considered a danger to himself and/or to
the society he lives in. As supported in this paper, even though genetic factors greatly determine
the presence of schizophrenia in an individual, the environment also plays a key role in its
expression. This means that our life is the interplay between nature and nurture, which is
between our genes that we inherit from our parents and the environment that we grow up and
develop in…
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References
References like
the rest of the
paper need to
be in APA
format. If you
do not have an
APA
handbook, it
can be
researched
online.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Boll, J. (2016, August 23). Editor’s Pick: Positive Quotes on Living with Schizophrenia.
Retrieved from https://www.rtor.org/2016/08/23/quotes-on-schizophrenia/
Burton, N. (2017, September 11). A Brief History of Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia through the
ages. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-andseek/201209/brief-history-schizophrenia
Karl, T., & Arnold, J. C. (2014). Schizophrenia: a consequence of gene-environment
interactions? Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 435.
http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00435
Pinel, J. P. J., & Barnes, S. (2017): Biopsychology (10th ed.), Hoboken, NJ: Pearson
Richard, M. D., & Brahm, N. C. (2012). Schizophrenia and the immune system:
Pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment. American Journal Of Health-System
Pharmacy, 69(9), 757-766. doi:10.2146/ajhp110271
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