Schizophrenia Causes - What are the causes of Schizophrenia??

What are the causes of Schizophrenia??

What causes schizophrenia? A complicated question that needs an answer but unfortunately the exact answer is not known yet. Researchers have shown that many factors could be involved in causing this disease including genetics or brain chemistry.

But what should be known is that this mental disorder has biological basics it is not caused by bad childhood or low self esteem like many psychological disorders, it is real and should be treated immediately, so let’s take a look at what could be the cause of this mental disease:

• Genetics causes: scientists have found that schizophrenia tend to run in families which means the chances of getting this illness is higher if you have a related person especially parents, brothers or sisters suffering from it. Normally schizophrenia occurs in 1 percent of the general population but if this disease is running in your family the percentage is multiplied by 10! And if you have an identical twin having schizophrenia the risk is very high and the percentage jumps to 50 percent to develop this disorder.
• A recent research have found that schizophrenia is not caused by a single gene in fact several genes are associated with the development of this disorder and they are all responsible for the brain chemistry imbalance.
• Brain chemistry imbalance: an imbalance of certain chemicals in the brain tends to be the cause of the symptoms of this mental illness like hallucinations or delusions. The productions of too much or the over sensitivity of a brain chemicals such as dopamine or other brain chemicals affects the reaction of the brain toward some stimuli like sounds, sights and smells.
• Dopamine is a brain chemical –neurotransmitter- that helps cells in the brain to communicate with each other by the transmission of signals.
• Brain abnormal structure: scientific researchers have found that the brain structure in people with schizophrenia is abnormal and looks different compared to the brain structure of the normal people. However, not all the schizophrenic people have an abnormal brain structure and this abnormality can occur in non schizophrenic people.
• Other factors: some factors may be the cause of schizophrenia, some of them are related to environment of the patient such as highly stressful situations or a viral infection, also substance abuse may trigger this mental disorder like cannabis and marijuana especially if the person has a family history of the disease. Schizophrenia may occur when the body is undergoing hormonal and physical changes especially during young adult years.

Who may get Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia affects 1 percent of the general population, nearly 2 million Americans suffers from this mental disorder. Anyone in the world from all the races can develop schizophrenia and both sexes male and female, all the ages may be affected by this disease young, adult or old, however, scientific researches shows that schizophrenia generally appears in the early adulthood equally in men and women with a slight difference of 5 years. Schizophrenia may occur in children under the age of 10 but it is very rare.

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