Schizophrenia :: Health, Mental Disorder

Schizophrenia is a degenerative mental disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. The term schizophrenia comes from the Greek roots schizen â€Å"to split† and phren â€Å"mind† so it is referred to as a as a â€Å"split-mind disease.† Eugen Bleuler diagnosed the first case of schizophrenia in 1908, but Auguste Morel had characterized the disease over 40 years earlier in 1860 (Wikipedia 109). Characteristics of schizophrenia include positive and negative symptoms that manifest in very different ways. The positive symptoms include psychotic behavior such as auditory hallucinations and delusions as well as disorganized characteristics such as paranoid affect and a disordered thought process. On the other hand, negative symptoms signify a loss of normal activity and can include social withdrawal, flat affect, and psychomotor retardation (103 lecture). Having schizophrenia can result in average decrease in life expectancy of 12-15 years (due to its associati on with secondary side affects (wiki 2). Studies now show that schizophrenia has a global lifetime prevalence of around 1-2%, and accounts for up to half of all psychiatric inpatients (103 lecture). The debilitating effects of Schizophrenia usually results in a poor quality of life for the millions of people who suffer from the disease, so it is of the utmost importance to investigate its causes and potential treatments. Many brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex, basil ganglia, and the cerebellum have been implicated as potential sources of schizophrenia’s affects (103 lecture). It has been hypothesized that the medications used to treat Schizophrenia work to restore the neural conductivity and activity to the region of affect by restoring proper neurotransmitter function. Current treatment of Schizophrenia utilizes atypical antipsychotics, such as Aripiprazole (Abilify), Clozaril (Clozapine), and Risperdal (Resperidone) (Schizophrenia.com). These medications have contributed significantly to the study of Schizophrenia and are now the primary basis by which researchers study the neurological effects of the disease. Many major neurotransmitter systems such as Serotonin (5-HT), Dopamine (DA), and Glutamate (NMDA) have now been implicated in Schizophrenia and it is possible that complex interactions between these systems lead to the neurological effects of the disease. This paper will prim arily focus on the Serotonin neurotransmitter system, with respect to the 5-HT2A receptors in the brain. The 5-HT2a Receptor While the cause of schizophrenia is largely unknown there is evidence that it is a result of abnormal brain pharmacology. The role of the 5-HT receptors in schizophrenia has come to light in the past few decades when it was found that the new generation of antipsychotics (referred to as atypical antipsychotics) act as potent 5-HT2a receptor antagonists relative to the antagonistic effect on dopamine receptors (Herbert Y.