Catatonic Schizophrenia Case Study

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder in which an individual perceives reality abnormally. The disorder is characterized mainly by hallucinations, delusions and extreme disordered thoughts and behaviour. An individual withdraws from reality and social relationships and has a sense of mental fragmentation. The purpose of this essay is to describe and discuss the biomedical dimensions in the aetiology – manner of causation - of Schizophrenia. This will be provided by briefly outlining an understanding of the disorder, describing and discussing the brain structures implicated in the disorder and how these lead to symptoms, as well as discussing the neurochemistry, of the brain, as a possible causative factor in Schizophrenia and finally,

Paranoid Schizophrenia is diagnosed when an individual shows symptoms dominated by paranoia – thought processes influenced by fear and anxiety – and paranoid delusions. Catatonic Schizophrenia is when an individual shows symptoms of psychomotor abnormalities, they either have manic episodes, show no movement, or hold abnormal postures for long periods of time. When an individual’s symptoms are dominated with disorganized, illogical speech and flat behaviour, hebephrenic or disorganized Schizophrenia is diagnosed (Carr, 2003). Undifferentiated Schizophrenia is diagnosed when an individual’s symptoms do not corroborate with the previous three types (Carr, 2003). It is fairly difficult to diagnose Schizophrenia as the symptoms can also be associated with other disorders, such as mood disorders and personality disorders (Carr,

With regards to neurochemistry both drug categories target the neurotransmitter Dopamine, specifically the dopamine receptor D2 by blocking the receptor and decreasing the concentration levels of dopamine within the brain (Andreasen et al, 2011). Typical antipsychotics use this receptor blockage as their only method of symptom suppression, which improves positive symptoms. However, this method of symptom suppression has the adverse effect of blocking all D2 receptors within the body, which leads to symptoms such as tremors and muscle spasms, as well as worsening of the negative symptoms associated with the disorder. Atypical antipsychotics have made improvements in this aspect of treatment by not only blocking the D2 dopamine receptors but a subtype of serotonin receptors as well. This treatment approach improves both the positive and negative symptoms (Andreasen et al,