Schizophrenia • Definition: The inability to distinguish what

is real from what is imaginary • 2.5 million Americans suffer from

Schizophrenia • About 1 percent of the population has

Schizophrenia• Neither doctors nor scientist can accurately

predict who will get the disease• The cause is largely unknown, although the

disease almost surely arises from neurons that take a wrong turn during fetal development

• Strikes most people right before adulthood

Schizophrenia Symptoms: -Delusions-Hallucinations-Frequent incoherent speech -Absence of feeling -Men typically lose their libido

•Catatonic Schizophrenia: Patient often seems to be in a stupor, resisting all requests and instructions, or engages in purposeless movements, bizarre postures, exaggerated mannerisms or grimacing.

•Paranoid Schizophrenia: The patient becomes convinced of beliefs at odds with reality, hears voices that aren't there or sees images that exist no where but in his/her mind.

Schizophrenia • Andrea Yates: Confessed to drowning her 5 children one by one in a

bathtub in 2001...

• John Nash: Won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994

Schizophrenia • Andrea Yates:

– Drowned her 5 children one by one in 2001

– Prison psychiatrist diagnosed her as having postpartum depression

– Psychosis: The inability to distinguish reality from imagination lies at the core of Schizophrenia

– In 1994, after her first child was born, she said she heard Satan’s voice telling her to kill baby Noah…

Schizophrenia • Andrea Yates: Found not guilty

– Jury found that she was legally insane when she drowned her 5 children

– "She needs help," the jury foreman said at a post-verdict press briefing. "Although she's being treated, I think she's worse than she was before. I think she'll probably need treatment for the rest for her life."

Schizophrenia and Religion • “The seeming authenticity of the voices means that people with

Schizophrenia can be barraged by commands that, they are convinced come from God or Satan.”

• If you are truly a religious believer, this inference is not illogical. Who else can speak to you, unseen, from inside your head?

• Andrea Yates, believing she was possessed by Satan, thought that her children “were not righteous.” If she killed them when they were young, then God would take them up to heaven.

Schizophrenia and Religion • There is no evidence that people with

Schizophrenia have impaired moral judgments. Then why do some obey commands to break the law or even worse?

• “Perhaps one need look no further than Genesis 22, when Abraham heard God’s command to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, he did not hesitate to take the boy up to the mountain to the place of sacrifice and raise the knife.”

Schizophrenia • John Nash:

– According to Dr. Nancy Andreessen, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa, the disease, in its early stages, can inspire Olympian leaps of creativity and insight

– “ People don’t see things others don’t, most of which aren't there. But because they perceive the world in a different way, they also sometimes notice things, real things, that normal people don’t.”

Electroshock Therapy• Almost always used as a last resort to treat patients suffering

from severe depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia• These patients have had no success with antidepressants or

mood stabilizing medications• The patient is always anesthetized• An electric current shoots through the brain causing a brief 20

second seizure

How/Why it works…• Psychiatrists/Neuroscientists aren’t exactly sure…• Theories:

– 1. Neurotransmitter Theory: Shock works like an antidepressant medication, changes the way the brain receives important mood related chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and Norepinephrine.

– 2. Neuroendocrine Theory: Seizures actually help the hypothalamus release hormones throughout the body responsible for mood

– 3. Brain Damage Theory: Damages the brain, causing memory loss and disorientation that creates an illusion that problems are gone• Memory loss is the #1 side effect

The Big Debate• Success rate is 80% compared to antidepressant medication

(50%-60%)• Today most psychiatrists recommend a combination of

electroshock and medication• Treatment always used as a last resort, patient must give

informed consent or permission to use the therapy must come from a court ordered psychiatrist

• Critics see the therapy as a “temporary fix” not a permanent solution