Schizophrenia: when your reality is nothing but a fantasy

Camelia Bhattacharyya, Amity University Kolkata

“Of course, it’s happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?” that’s what Dumbledore said to Harry right? But at the end of the day, it is considered fiction, the entire Harry Potter. What if such a fictional world is the reality for someone? That’s exactly what happens in the case of Schizophrenic patients. Sometimes these unreal processes going on in the mind might lead to suicidal thoughts and attempts thus leading to a greater need for treatment for such people. Almost 1% of the population suffers from schizophrenia thus needing real public attention and understanding. Let’s learn exactly how.

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a condition where a person might show improper cognitive responses due to hallucinations and thoughts of unrealistic, imaginary things and situations that they believe to be true. They might be scared of those who don’t impose any threat to their existence. These types of people are strongly advised to avoid substance abuse since they are already hallucinating, and more hallucinating substance might weaken their nervous system further.  

Symptoms of Schizophrenia:

Some of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia are as follows:

1. Delusions: These are certain fixed false beliefs that conflict with reality. Even in the absence of evidence about such beliefs, a schizophrenic patient cannot stop believing in them.
2. Hallucinations: A condition where the person perceives that he/she has seen, touched, heard, tasted, or smelt something, which actually has no existence in reality.

3. Impaired speech: Impaired speech might be the result of disorganized thinking. A schizophrenic patient might give irrelevant/unrelated answers to any questions asked to him/her.
4. Inappropriate motor response: A schizophrenic patient might exhibit childlike behavior or show anger/agitation without any valid reason. The person might also resist following any instructions or advice, even if it is for his/her good.
5. Distasteful social behavior: Schizophrenic patients might suffer from a lack of emotions and thus they tend to show offensive behavior towards people. They have a tendency to withdraw themselves from public associations or social gatherings and fail to experience happiness or satisfaction in what they do.  

Types of Schizophrenia: 

Previously 5 types of schizophrenia were reported: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, residual, and undifferentiated types of schizophrenia. But then recent studies have shown these to be the symptoms of the disease and not different types. Yet, the search for types is an age-old process thus finally categorizing the disorder into 4 main types: 

1. Paranoid schizophrenia: A person’s nerves acting against him and making him feel and experience scary and mysterious situations which are not happening. 
2. Catatonic schizophrenia: A person stops all emotional, mental, and physical responses and goes completely expressionless. He/she does even not feel an appetite. 
3. Undifferentiated schizophrenia: A person might fail to understand the need for personal hygiene and might be confused about everything. 
4. Schizoaffective disorder: A person might show all symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia and then might be depressed, frustrated, hypomanic, and so on. 

Biochemical reasons behind Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is studied to be caused due to an imbalance in the levels of inflammatory cytokines, interleukins, corticotropin-releasing factor (CRP), and also due to oxidative stress. Thus, the markers of these as well as oxidative stress markers might at times work as markers for schizophrenia. An inappropriate amount of CRP also suggests an improper response from the pituitary gland and thus other related hormones further interfering with other endocrine activities of the body. In addition to this, there is also an inter-relationship between catechol-O-methyl transferase gene single-nucleotide polymorphisms (COMT-SNPs) and schizophrenia. 

Conclusion and future perspectives:

Several studies and trials have been conducted to establish a proper treatment of schizophrenia. Starting from computational neuroscience and mathematical illustrations to drugs and medicines to psychiatric treatments there are quite a number of treatments in hand to treat the disorder today. The dynamics of the brain is under constant study by different departments of neuroscience across the globe. Though there are treatments, the diagnosis of this disease is often late due to ignorance. A schizophrenic would never accept that he/she is suffering because everything is real for them; so, it is the responsibility of the near and dear ones to report immediately, if they notice any change in the behavior of a person. This gives an opportunity for early diagnosis and hence better chances of cure from the disorder. Let’s all live in the reality and not in fiction because reality is far better than grotesque fiction leading to negative and deadly outcomes. 

Also read: PARP inhibitors: One class of drugs for Multiple Forms of Cancer

Reference: 

1. Stępnicki, P., Kondej, M., & Kaczor, A. A. (2018). Current Concepts and Treatments of Schizophrenia. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 23(8), 2087. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23082087
2. Upthegrove, R., & Khandaker, G. M. (2020). Cytokines, Oxidative Stress and Cellular Markers of Inflammation in Schizophrenia. Current topics in behavioral neurosciences, 44, 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/7854_2018_88
3. Gozukara Bag H. G. (2018). Association between COMT gene rs165599 SNP and schizophrenia: A meta-analysis of case-control studies. Molecular genetics & genomic medicine, 6(5), 845–854. https://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.468
4. Okimura, T., Katahira, K., Kunisato, Y., & Yamashita, Y. (2019). Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo, 71(7), 771–783. https://doi.org/10.11477/mf.1416201349

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