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