Is schizophrenia caused by socioeconomic status, genetics or chemical imbalance? Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder, where the patient may suffer from psychoses where their thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality. Schizophrenia will cause severe changes in the way the person thinks, feels, and acts. This disease has yet to find a cure, but first, what is the cause of schizophrenia? Someone suffering from schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imaginary. A person with schizophrenia may be unresponsive, withdrawn, and have a problem expressing emotion in social situations. The cause of schizophrenia remains unclear, but there are some theories …show more content…
Scientists believe that people with schizophrenia have an imbalance of the two brain chemicals, also known as neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin. These neurotransmitters allow nerve cells in the brain to send signals and messages to each other, which cannot happen with excess amounts of the chemicals. The imbalance of these chemicals affects the way a person’s brain reacts to stimuli. This explains why a person with schizophrenia may be overwhelmed by sensory information that unaffected persons can handle. Research also shows that problems with the development of connections and pathways in the brain while in the womb may later lead to schizophrenia. An imbalance of the two neurotransmitters is thought to cause the symptoms of schizophrenia (MHA 3). The “dopamine hypothesis” has been the main theory regarding the cause of the symptoms of schizophrenia. It is known that only an excess amount of dopamine in the brain results in the symptoms. The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia generally states that the symptoms of schizophrenia, primarily the hallucinations, delusions, and psychosis is the result of too much dopamine active in the brain. As a result of this, the brain produces an over-stimulation of the cells and the symptoms. (DNALC