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Thesis Of Schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is diagnosed in 0.5%-1% of the population in their lifetime (van Os et al, 2010). Its literal translation is ‘split-brain’, though it does not refer to multiple personality disorder, but rather a split from reality characterized by its disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking and inappropriate emotions (Myers, 2010). Much research has been carried out to gain a better understanding of the causes of this serious disorder. A popular theory is the diathesis-stress model. This theory of schizophrenia proposes that stress can elicit a pre-existing vulnerability to the disorder (Jones & Fernyhough, 2007). This model focuses on the interaction between genetic heritability of the disorder, and the environments interaction …show more content…

Within twins, monozygotic twins have a 48% probability if their twin is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and with dizygotic twins it is a 17% probability (Kalat, 2015). This shows that there is a genetic bases for schizophrenia, it also highlights that other non-genetic factors must play a role in the development of the disorder. These results have been backed by many research carried out on adoption studies. An adoption study in Finland carried out aimed to test the hypostasis that family rearing plays a factor in the development of schizophrenia (Tienari et al, 2004).Their research found that adoptees at high genetic risk (biological mother had schizophrenia) were more sensitive to problems in the adoptive family environment. Adoptees with high risk and a severally dysfunctional family rearing were significantly coordinated with a diagnosis of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (Tienari et al, 2004). In support of the diathesis model neither high risk nor dysfunctional rearing were significantly linked with a diagnosis (Tienari et al, 2004). The research found that a ‘healthy’ adoptive family, acted as a ‘protective effect’ for the adoptees with

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