Schizophrenia Risk Factors

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Pages: 4

Causes/Risk factors:
There are a variety of elements that have been known to be a cause or a factor of causing schizophrenia. They include:
• Stress:
This element explores how one deals with and bounces back from these issues. If a person is resilient and stress-free, they are able to easily recover from mental trauma.
• Personal outlook on life:
This element explores whether a person’s view of life is pessimistic (negative) or optimistic (positive) and how they are able to change this negativity into positivity. It is known that pessimists are more likely to suffer mental illness and that optimists suffering illnesses such as schizophrenia are more likely to recover.
• Social interactions:
This elements explores how a person interacts and
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Not being able to interact with other people and being excluded lowers self-esteem, and often evokes a negative outlook, making the person more likely to suffer from mental illnesses like schizophrenia.
• Genetics:
The existence of a certain abundance of genes within a person’s configuration has been found to be an extremely influential factor in causing schizophrenia.
• External influences:
A person is influenced by friends, family, media and society itself. If one feels that they cannot conform to societal expectations, especially the influence of body image, it gives the person a different idea on society and causes unwanted stress, the fact that they are “not good enough”, causing doubt, negativity and isolation.
• Exploitation of drugs:
The exploitation of illicit substances, such as marijuana and cannabis, change the person’s behaviour and are known to illustrate signs of schizophrenia.
• A person’s development:
This explores the brain’s growth through the first twenty-five years of life, and the proportion of the presence of chemicals that assist in nerve cells linking with each other, known as neurotransmitters, especially at the time of
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Symptoms:
The person must suffer at least two of the following symptoms within a 30-day period, including: hallucinations, lethargy, delusions, chaotic behaviour, or incoherent speech.

2. Abnormality in a social and working context:
There must be evidence that there has been a decline in performance at school or at work, and also of disinterest, withdrawal or fear of common social interaction.

3. Amount of time suffered:
The person must evoke signs and symptoms of the mental illness consistently for at least a time of six months before it may be even considered to diagnose the person with the mental illness of schizophrenia.

However, there are some elements or factors that may contribute to a person not being diagnosed of schizophrenia:

• A person suffers from a general health condition
• A person suffers from a temperament syndrome
• A person suffers from drug or substance