Introduction
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that makes a patient fail to establish between real and unreal things in the surrounding. Schizophrenic patients experience hallucination that makes them hear sounds and voices that other people cannot hear. In most cases, schizophrenic patients are aggressive because they think that people close to them influence their way of thinking. Various scholars have written much about this mental condition; however, most of these elite learners dealt with various aspect of the mental condition. This paper seeks to conduct an analysis of schizophrenia, which include the theoretical perspectives, research methods used to analyze the mental disorder, positive and negative components associated with schizophrenia, controversies surrounding schizophrenia and some of the ways through which these controversies can be solved.
Theoretical perspectives
Edward Tolman introduced the theory of cognitive mapping that sought to provide a deeper understanding of the theoretical perspective. He noted that a normal person has cognitive maps that collects, stores, code, and recall and decode information about the environment (Kalmady, Ganesan, Agarwal, and Bose 10). It is important to note that the collection of information involves the use of human senses. Tolman noted that the process of cognitive mapping is controlled by the functions of the hippocampus, which connects to other parts of the brain. Failure in the execution functions of the hippocampus elicits schizophrenic conditions in a victim. The failure of the hippocampus section of the brain makes it hard a person to collect, code, decode and store information that is used to generate cognitive maps; thereby the makes the person to fail to integrate spatial and non-spatial information (Kalmady, Ganesan, Agarwal, and Bose 11-13). For this reason, a schizophrenic person experience hallucinations such as hearing voices and sounds that others do not hear. Apart from that, the failure to integrate spatial and non-spatial information makes a schizophrenic person to experience problems with social relations. The rationale behind it is that a schizophrenic person thinks that other people in the social domain cause the failure in his or her brain activities.
Research methods used to investigate schizophrenia
In as much as many scholars have used various scientific research to establish the causes and symptoms of schizophrenia, Kaene and Silverstein (682) used the survey research method to establish other causes of schizophrenia. Notably, the authors establish that schizophrenia is that influenced by vision activities because eyesight in the human body is linked to brain activities. The authors considered various people in terms of age, gender and socio-economic status as sampling units. After the survey, the authors found out that vision impairment affects the ability of the brain to perform its functions accordingly and for that reason, it causes schizophrenic conditions in a patient. Apart from establishing other factors influencing schizophrenic conditions, the authors sought to provide a clinical research that would help medical practitioners to describe schizophrenic related impairment, connect behavioral differences to cognitive failure and find out whether there was a correlation in symptoms of schizophrenia. As Tolman, Kaene and Silverstein stated that vision helps a person to construct ideas and pictures from the environment and use them to influence their thinking and therefore behavior. Among the people who were used as samples in study, Kaene and Silverstein noted that almost 90% experienced brain computational activities, which were linked to the way they behave. Following this insightful information, Kaene and Silverstein, noted that all schizophrenic patients have visual thinking problems that relate to brain computational problems. Positive and negative components associated with schizophrenia
Positive and negative components related to these mental conditions will be based on symptoms that cause positive and negative impacts to the patient. Although, schizophrenia is a chronic condition that affects the way of thinking of a patient, it is associated with good and bad. A schizophrenic patient usually experience hallucinations some of which help him and other people in the social divide to predict danger or any future events (Kaene and Silverstein 685). The rationale behind it is that, schizophrenic patients can smell odors that a normal person cannot smell hear lowest sounds or distant sounds that no normal person can hear; thereby, predicting the safety of the environment.
Apart from that, schizophrenic patients experience movement disorders because they react to changes in their ability to acquire code and recall information, which makes them to keep quite or avoid movement for some time. For this reason, it makes it easy for medical practitioners to attend to schizophrenic patients. Considering that schizophrenic patients have problems with social relations, they always fail to feel goodness of life as experienced by others in the social realms (Kaene and Silverstein 686). Apart from that, schizophrenic patients experience the inability to initiate activities thereby rendering them to live in an idle status. Their ability to perceive others as enemies might make schizophrenic patients to fail to interact with others in the society. As that is not enough, schizophrenic patients fail to observe personal hygiene thereby exposing patients to other communicable diseases. Controversies related to schizophrenia
Pharmacists and medical practitioners from the U.K. and America have differed in establishing which medications should be used in alleviating the mental problem of schizophrenia. Notably, European countries have allowed the use of some drugs such as Clozapine to be used in treating schizophrenia. However, the Food and Drug Administration in America allowed the use of schizophrenia to cure psychotic problems (Fleischhacker 209). The differing concept in the way Clozapine should is that the European medical scientists tend to adopt an evidence-based approach towards prescribing medicines and drugs to patients. Unlike in Europe, American adopts a pragmatic view whereby they tend to prescribe drugs based on their ability to cure and the medical condition of the patient in question. In Europe, the regulatory bodies have not licensed other anti-psychotic drugs based on an evidence-based approach because it tends to limit their ability utilize the drugs effectively. Notably, some of the European countries have expanded their licenses as based on clinical data trial reports. Essentially, they are adopting the American way of prescribing anti-psychotic drugs to involve or to be influenced by medical laboratory testing trial reports.
Ways to overcome the identified controversies
In order to overcome such controversies, medical regulatory bodies across the world should adopt a standard way of licensing anti-psychotic drugs. This way, the medical field will not experience situation whereby Clozapine is licensed to cure a wide range of psychotic conditions (in America), while in some U.K., it is licensed to specific conditions. Apart from that, there is the need for experts to conduct medical laboratory tests regularly to prevent situation of adopting outdated methods and practices of managing a medical condition. The rationale behind it is that the environment within which people lives keeps changing thereby eliciting mutations, which influence some of the components of the mental condition.
Conclusion
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that influences the thinking of the patient. Many scholars have attributed its causes to genetics, the environment and lifestyle. However, theoretical perspectives regarding schizophrenia are considered. Cognitive mapping theory introduced by Tolman was considered the best in term of understanding schizophrenia. In terms of treatment, European countries and America have differed in terms of licensing Clozapine. The latter believe that the drug can be used to manage all psychotic problems, while Europe believed that schizophrenia was the only one Clozapine could manage. This issue has raised controversies in the management of schizophrenia; however, there are measures taken by the two regions to conduct more research and adopt standards ways of licensing and using the drug.
Works cited
Fleischhacker, Wolfgang. "Second-generation Antipsychotics: Discrepancies between Licensed Indications, Evidence Base and Actual Use." Psychopharmacology 169.1 (2003): 207-10. Print.
Kalmady, Sunil, Ganesan Venkatasubramanian, Sri Mahavir Agarwal, and Anushree Bose. "Cognitive Mapping Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Critical Overview." Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine 36.1 (2014): 9-26. Print.
Silverstein, Steven M., and Brian P. Keane. "Vision Science and Schizophrenia Research: Toward a Re-view of the Disorder Editors’ Introduction to Special Section." International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 37.4 (2011): 681-89. Print.
