Schizophrenia

Motto: “more is known in how to care and treat schizophrenia but it is not always applied.
I want better from the mental health system for everyone.”

Yvonne Stewart-Williams

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder, in which people interpret reality abnormally. It is

characterised by the disturbances in thoughts, sensory perception and deterioration in
psychosocial functioning. It is a disease that makes it difficult for a person to tell the
difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically, to have normal emotional
responses to others, and to behave normally in social situations. People suffering of
schizophrenia may also have difficulty in remembering, talking and behaving appropriately.

Schizophrenia is the most common and serious enduring mental illness in the UK. About 1%
of the population in the UK has schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia has been redefined, studied and researched for decades. According with an
article written by Lilienfeld S. and Arkowitz H. (2010) back in the early 1900’s schizophrenia
was believed to be an “apparent hopelessness of disease”.

The nonspecific concept of madness has been around for many thousands of years and
schizophrenia was only classified as a distinct mental disorder by Kraepelin E in 1887 used
the term “dementia praecox” which meant “premature losses of brain function” for
individuals who had symptoms that we now associate with schizophrenia. Persons with
schizophrenia were referred to be “demented”. In 1911, E Bleuler coined the term
“schizophrenia”. He was the first to describe symptoms as positive or negative. ”. This is
related by to Fusar-Poli P. And Politi P. (2008).

Davidson J (2014) was writing about “the tragic history of surgery for schizophrenia” relating
how B Holmes and H Cotton were performing surgical treatment to cure schizophrenia. In
1916 Holmes announced that he found the cause of dementia praecox. He started to develop
an interest in psychiatry in 1905 when his son, Ralph, has been diagnosed with dementia
praecox. He claimed that a particular kind of intestinal blockage was the cause of the
disorder. In total Holmes operated 22 patients between 1916 and 1919 including his son
Ralph who died four days later from complications from the surgery. On the other hand,
Cotton removed teeth, tonsils, gall bladder, cervices, colons, thyroids and other part of the
body. He performed 645 surgeries with approximately 33% being for schizophrenia.